Son Lux/Black Taffy

Explanation

For my second post shooting with LomoChrome Purple, I'm heading back to music photography for a show I saw towards the end of May. The headliner was Son Lux and opening for them was Black Taffy. Son Lux's pictures are on the right and Black Taffy's are on the left.

Since Black Taffy opened, let's start with him and his music. Black Taffy is a Dallas based composer who creates an interesting blend of maybe lofi hip hop and slightly more classical or esoteric aspects. Overall, his music is a bit hard to describe but works well as a backing track to most things. While I do listen to quite a bit of music in my spare time, I still find it hard to describe music without other reference points. With music like Black Taffy's the reference points are somewhat far apart and not altogether common in the first place, making any description feel lacking. Generally built over consistent drum beats with a meandering melody that commonly uses static and noise for texture is perhaps the most descriptive I can get without using external genre points.

As an artist that largely works in the digital space, his live shows reflect some of that indescribability. Hunched over a synthesizer, he pulls people in with his calm music. In the background the visuals flitter about, moving from slide to slide. At once a tree losing its petals to simply groovy swirls. It's a bit out as I'm writing this so I can't remember all I saw, but to say it felt random is probably true. And yet, it also feels wrong to say.

In terms of my pictures, I'm showing off two that I think worked out for slightly different reasons. As with many of the pictures on this roll, the colors are more of a lie than usual. The first of these two pictures, with the exit sign is probably the one I like more. As I said in the previous post, I like contrast, both with light and with color. The juxtaposition of the red exit sign and the green light washing over him. The light at his back vs the shadow on his front.

That said, I really like the second picture too. There's still that light and dark contrast. Though the angle creates more shadow on him than in the previous picture. The background creates an interesting scene. It reminds me of a couple other pictures I took on this roll of a welder welding and the sparks flying off. The shadows of the drum set to the center of the picture stands sharply in attention. While the first picture drives with its contrasts, this picture works because of its composition, making heavy use of the negative space to portend the idea that he's a starting act and that this is his last track of the night.

Like Black Taffy, Son Lux's music is quite difficult to describe. A bit less easily described, the best way to explain their music perhaps is experimental. There isn't any particular sound they appear to be going for but the combination of the drummer Ian Chang, guitarist Rafiq Bhatia, and front man Ryan Lott creates unique and powerful music. As they admitted during their set, they were taking a really collaborative and improvisational approach to their live show and it showed. While I haven't been the closest follower of their music, all of it felt fresh and somewhat raw. With solos that felt impromptu and bridges that felt meandering, it really felt like they were trying to explore their own music in a way they hadn't before.

At the time, I wasn't really thinking about that when taking the pictures I took. Thinking back, I should've taken more risks and tried more things. This isn't to say that I don't like the pictures I took, but more that film is a really interesting medium. It's a medium that, as I've described before, at times feels limiting in comparison to digital. But it's also a medium that forces intentionality and retrospection. It's much harder to collect and hoard endless sums of images like what's possible with digital photography. As a result, every picture demands more attention of me. To that end, I feel I should be more receptive to the environment I'm in and attune myself to different images more flexibly than I do now.

Talking about those pictures, let's start with the bottom picture first. This picture of Rafiq Bhatia works pretty well in my opinion. In some ways, it feels very stereotypical of rock band photography. I like that it shows off some of the environment pumped in during their set. The smoke is visible but not too distracting, the picture is pretty well lit and it's clear where much of the light is coming from. I like that there's a level of spatial separation between Rafiq and Ian, with Rafiq clear in the front and transitioning to a more fuzzy but still totally readable look in the background. All in all, it's a solid picture that describes the moment and the sentiment well.

The top picture is a bit more intense. This was the last picture on the roll as well as the last song of the night, happening after their encore. I wasn't even sure if I had another shot on the roll but this is what I ended up with. I kind of wish that the picture was sharper but overall I like the total effect and the strong silhouetting that's happening. I can't quite remember what the exact colors were, I think the lights were actually yellow, which with the LomoChrome Purple get shifted into that strong magenta look. I think I actually prefer this over the real colors though because it better expresses some of the intensity and energy than I think normal colors would. If I think more deeply, I'm not sure how much a sharper image would be beneficial. I think I've gradually moved further from the idea that every image, every picture needs to be sharp and clear. With this slightly fuzzier picture, there's a different reaction, it feels a bit more intimate perhaps or a bit more mysterious which honestly isn't a bad thing. One distracting point I'll point out is the bright red lights? (marks?) in the bottom left. I imagine that those are lights, either for pedals or something else but I honestly couldn't tell you.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable show and I'll be seeing a lot more live music this year than in recent years, partially because of the pandemic and partially because I want to support more musicians. In the last few years, I've grown to appreciate and seek out more and different music and art as a way to expand my own perspectives on things. Both music and art are great ways to see things as others do, either in a purely visual way or in an aural manner. While I've listened to Son Lux on and off since 2013, I haven't really kept up and so much of this music was new to me. Additionally, if Black Taffy hadn't opened, I probably never would've listened to his music. While some may view the arts as frivolous, I view them as a necessity and I want to do more than blindly consume them. As a result I want to make sure that I grow and change how I look at and take pictures in relation to those different worldviews and needs that isn't just a formulaic, I need to do this to get that picture. Instead I want to get to more of a how do I want to express this music and this show and what do I need to do that.