Danny North

Danny North

Danny North is a photographer that predominantly takes photographs of musicians. The photographs above are from when he photographed The 1975, Kaiser Chiefs, HAIM and Jared Leto.

One thing that I have noticed about North’s work is the fact that he alternates between on location and studio. This shows that he is an adaptive photographer and can be both comfortable in front of a backdrop within a studio but also outside. I am personally a fan of the band “The 1975” and so I follow them on social media. The band shared the photograph above on their Instagram account and explained within the caption that they were at the BRIT awards. This means that Danny can work within any situation and has probably brought a portable lighting kit and studio to this event. I like the fact that Danny has taken the photograph by using the mirror in the room, this way he has used a creative way to make sure that all of the band are within the shot.

The photographs of the Kaiser Chiefs is not my favourite one by Danny North. This is due to the fact that I don’t believe that it reflects the band very well. The set is covered with books and they appear to be in a classroom themed shoot, I fail to see the correlation between this set and the band. It could possibly be related to the name of an album or song, however, I would not know as I do not listen to their music. I feel as though this is a striking photograph and could really work for anything else, other than for this band.

Whilst researching North I found that he also worked with the band HAIM. The photograph that he took for them can be found above and it has quite a candid tone to it. Personally, I think it is one of my favourites. Too many photographers dive straight into the studio without giving location shoots a second thought and so when certain photographers escape the studio and enter the streets or parks, they get photographs that are completely different to the stereotypical studio shoot. I believe that there are so many restrictions within a studio i.e. space, the fact that it is indoors and so no experimentation with fire or other factors can be played with and the fact that a photographer is limited to a certain amount of colourful backdrops. I am unsure as to where this photograph was used but I feel as though it would be suitable for a number of purposes… Merchandise, album cover, social media etc.

Jared Leto is another musician that has been photographed by Danny North. Leto is in the band 30 Seconds To Mars and the symbols tattooed onto Leto’s arms are quite commonly associated with the band as it features on album covers. This simplistic photograph would not really work for anyone other than Leto and only fans of his will understand why he has those symbols tattooed. However, just people some people would not understand why he has those symbols imprinted on him does not mean that it should not be photographed, they still make for a striking image. These tattoos also fit in with the colour scheme of this photograph (black and white) and make the photograph symmetrical.

I decided that it was suitable to research Danny North for this unit as for one of my events I am going to shoot a gig. A full page of North’s live music work can be found here: Danny North Music Photos. (Danny’s website restricts the viewer from copy and pasting and so I have provided a link). I am already inspired by the photographs that Danny takes whilst at gigs as he makes the most of the performers and the way they move around the stage to capture eye catching photographs. One thing that Danny does that I would like to incorporate within my own photographs for this event is focus on the colour of the lighting. It is not uncommon to see people standing in front of a strong coloured light within Danny’s photographs and this is an aspect that I would like to trial out at my own gig.

By looking through some of the work that Danny has produced I am really impressed. I believe that he is one of the strongest music photographers that I have seen as his work ranges from studio to festivals to gigs. His resilience as a photographer and his eye for action within a music gig really makes his work stand out. With his vantage point always changing, he makes sure that he never misses a moment. This is the final lesson that I have learnt from North- never keep in one place during a gig!