Music People

behind the promo photo with Chris Bavaria

I continue on in my quest to hear from the creative people who help get music up and out and wherever it needs to go. Album art illustrator, music video director, music festival booker, record store owner, these are just a few of the people making music Work.

A moment for the promo photo photographers! Making a band look the way they want to look at a particular moment in time within photos that will travel through infinite digital (and even print!) space from their cozy home in the sacred EPK seems like a tall order, and I'm always curious how photographers pull it off.

The promo photo that is the subject of today's blog post came to my attention via Miranda Reinert, who co-runs Two Flat Press (which just released the print music zine Portable Model, which kicks ass, if you buy it and read it you might notice an ad in there for I Enjoy Music). She posted it with the caption "all timer press photo" and I have to agree.

It's a pic of the melodic hardcore band Praise, who just surprise-released three songs in an EP called Coming Up For Air, and commemorated the new music with a fresh promo photo in which guitarist Austin Stemper appears to be flying down a large concrete structure at the speed of light. I had some follow-up questions after seeing this photo, so I asked Richmond, VA-based photographer (and Praise bassist!) Chris Bavaria, who snapped it, a couple of questions about it.

[Molly] Had you photographed Praise before? Were there any moods / vibes you were trying to capture in particular?

[Chris] Yes actually. I think I've shot every Praise "promo" photo we've ever done except the ones Farrah Skeiky did for AIAD [All In A Dream]. I think mood wise we just wanted to try to get something that was fun and not the band up against a wall sort of thing.

What's your general approach to photography when doing promo shots? Any particular tricks of the trade?

Really depends on the band, but yeah similar to what I just said with trying to get creative and fun with it. I think different perspectives and things that might stick out from the usual promo type shots. My favorite shot ever is the one of Void by Rebecca Hammel, where the one guy is missing and just his shoes are sitting there. Little things like that make them memorable.

Did you take this particular photo and immediately say "damn we got the shot" or did it only come about after?

We were trying a bunch of different things in that particular park and nothing seemed to be working. They all looked boring and then it was Austin's idea to climb up there and start sliding down. I just used a slow shutter speed to blur him out, and as soon as I did that, we knew we had something. It took a few takes to get him in the exact spot, and there was a mom and her kid there trying to play, so we tried to get out of their way as quickly as possible. They definitely thought we were nuts.

What is that thing Austin is sliding down??

It's part of the Geometry Park that is basically a concrete playground within Paradise Park in Richmond. If you google it you can see some other photos that may make it make more sense!