In the past year I’ve been getting more involved in shooting live music, and one of the people that I’ve been able to meet through it is Anna Webber, a highly accomplished live music and studio photographer for the music industry. She began studying 35mm B&W photography, printing and processing, at age 18 under British photographer of rock music Jill Furmanovsky in Florence, Italy 2005. Furmanovsky was responsible for images of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon tour, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, The Pretenders, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Blondie, The Clash, and many more.
The following summer, she met and aligned herself with Baron Wolman (wikipedia him), the first lead photographer for Rolling Stone Magazine. She spent summer of 2006 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as his intern and assistant. During this stint, she flew with him to gallery openings, helping to document Mr. Wolman’s activities through both photographs and the written word. In his studio, she helped catalog and touch-up Mr. Wolman’s priceless collection of rock shots from the late 60s through the present.
I was able to catch up with Anna this past week and get some insight on her views on the industries of photography and music, and how they intersect. Have a read:
SFDblog: Who do you shoot for and where are your images primarily used?
Anna: I am a freelance photographer and music writer for LA Weekly, and gettyimages. The LA Weekly material is exclusive to run through LA Weekly, but will also appear on my blog at www.annawebber.com/blog. GettyImages is a clearing house that syndicates images out, which can then be purchased by publications worldwide for use online, in-print, or for television. My photos have also been featured in Angeleno Magazine, Rolling Stone, Forth Magazine NY, THEM magazine, LA’s Campus Circle publication, and others. Primarily, I shoot independently, shooting album cover art and commercial collateral.
What’s your favorite photo you’ve taken this year?
Yeesh… I will go with King Washington‘s main shot - the four piece band on a broken white bench, processed in HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging), really super saturated and vibrant…