Ok so I photographed this CRAZY show at the Electronic Music Festival in
Detroit last night, Girl Talk. I decided to shoot the group before, The Cool Kids, from in front of the stage instead of on or the side of the stage like the night before. I was there early enough to get in front and there were barricades about 3-4 feet out from the stage tonight. So a couple of us were shooting in there and it would be fine as long as the crowd wasn’t to crazy surging forward. It went well. Then you could feel the energy building before Girl Talk took the stage. Doug Coombe, a local music photog, warned me things got real crazy at a
Chicago show. Anyway Girl Talk came out to check sound and all of a sudden a bunch of fans started to surge forward and jumped on stage. The weird thing was security let them for the most part. So I knew I would get squeezed against the stage or worse, crushed, if I didn’t move. I chickened out and got up on stage to try to shoot from there. Doug braved the crowed and stayed longer and it probably paid off because I’m sure he got some nice images when Girl Talk took the stage. I just don’t get paid enough to risk being crushed. So things were crazy and maybe borderline dangerous but the little security there was let things go on for the most part. A couple girls looked like they were being crushed in the front but things ended ok. (see photo below, girls in the middle) I was real concerned this one short girl would get crushed and this would turn into a news story. There was this guy behind her, I don’t know if they knew each other or not, but he was tall and put his arms around her to hold onto the stage and pushed back basically saving her from being crushed. I doubt she remembered I told her if things got real bad she could go under the stage to escape. This guy wins my Hero For The Night award! I never felt in danger up on the stage, just though we photogs would get kicked out. It was real hard to shoot and I hoped I capture the chaos. I tied to get closer to the artist and when I finally did I got pulled away by a security guard without getting a good shot off, oh well. I know this post seems rambling but I was up until 4:00 AM and am still real tired. But as you can see its being a photographer for a living is not just, “snap” take a picture.
4 Comments:
So yeah, I was also up on the stage, and that show was motherfucking crazy for sure. Anyway, I was wondering if you had more pictures. If you could send me an e-mail at marianna.b.johnson@gmail.com I would appreciate it.
Hello! I was at this girl talk show at DEMF, practially front row...my friend tried to get on the stage only to have security guards push him off...we were in front of the gate and the stage till security told us we had to leave...do you have any more pictures of the crowd or of this show? I really want to see if I'm in any of them thanks!!
Hello There! I was at this girl talk show at DEMF, I was standing between teh stage and the front fence...my friend tried to get up on the stage but security basically punched him off, and then they kicked us out of where we were standing. Do you by any chance have any more pictures from this show? or of the crowd? I want to see if I'm in any of them! Thanks!
I am actually the tall guy in the front you were talking about. I had no idea who that girl was, I was actually standing on a bar that was a part of the stage and when things started getting really rowdy I noticed that she was getting pushed in the stage. I kind of doubt she even noticed. I think thats really cool you saw that, I was pretty dead after this show from battling all those people for position. I'm honored to be the Bryan Mitchell hero of the night. That picture also does a great job of capturing how faded I was at that show.
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