'I try to work with the darkness.'
'I try to work with the darkness.'
Meet the photographer who goes to every concert – but stays for just the first three songs.
Tom Grut gets the same feeling when he’s just shot something special.
“You just know,” he says. “I'll leave a show and be like, ‘Sick. Lighting was epic, band was epic.’
“You know you’ve got it.”
He had one of those moments at Auckland venue Shed 10 recently when the highly touted Atlanta rapper JID was on stage.
The crowd was surging, the first song was over, the lights had gone down and, for a brief moment, JID had stopped moving.
Most of the other photographers in “the pit” – that space between the crowd and the artist – had put their cameras down and were waiting for the next song.
But Grut did not. He finds those moments of quiet, of stillness, the most interesting to document. “JID just stood there,” he says. “He was backlit. I was like, ‘Ahh’.”
It was this moment that Grut snapped one of the best photos he believes he’s taken.
JID stands still with his head bowed, his muscles flexed and his hair twisted in knots. His right hand is at his ear, his facial features obscured by shadows.
It looks like a still from a big budget horror film by Jordan Peele.
It is astonishing…
Grut has built up catalogue of iconic photographs over the past four years, a short but acclaimed career that’s made him among the most sought after live music photographers in the country.
I wanted to meet him because Grut seems to be that rare thing: someone who attends more live shows than me.
Yet, unlike me, he’s often only allowed to stay for the first three songs. That’s how long photographers usually get to shoot an artist’s performance before they’re kicked out of the venue.
Yep, Grut gets just 15 minutes to nail his shots in an extreme environment he has no control over.
The crowd is screaming.
Other photographers are jostling for position.
The lights are going haywire.
There’s often pyro, or fireworks.
And Grut’s shooting a subject who refuses to stay still.
Sometimes, 15 minutes is not enough time.
And yet still he manages to capture incredible images, stills that seem to capture something special and distinct.
Last year, while shooting Lorde’s Western Springs show, management dictated Grut shoot only the first two songs while positioned from way back at the sound desk.
Lorde spent her first song hidden behind a screen, and the second standing at the back of the stage, or sprinting from one side to another.
Out of the 600-odd photos he took, Grut found just a handful he was happy with.
“It was the only time I’ve shot a show and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what I got [or] if I actually got anything.”
But look at these.
He definitely got something.
It’s photos like these that have allowed Grut to build up an impressive portfolio featuring some of the biggest artists to visit Aotearoa.
Instead of checking local news sites for concert reviews (a futile exercise) I’ve taken to seeking out Grut’s photos, which seem to capture the essence of a gig in a few frames.
As Live Nation’s photographer of choice, he’s been given front row access to Lizzo, Tove Lo, The Jonas Brothers, My Chemical Romance and Post Malone, as well as Ice Spice, Skrillex and Lil Uzi Vert from last year’s excellent Listen In festival.
This past weekend, when five rock bands performed in Auckland, Grut was, like me, attempting to attend as many shows as he could, finding time to photograph Queens of the Stone Age, Blink-182 and Mr Bungle.
He often finishes editing his photos at 3am, and is then woken at 6am by his toddler.
Yet, when he says it’s all worth it, you can’t help but agree.
While my Instagram fills up with embarrassing iPhone photos like this one:
His is full of photos like this:
Some of them now hang proudly in the foyer of Spark Arena.
How does Grut do it?
Timing, placement, access, the right equipment and experience helps, as well as a fair amount of gut instinct, says Grut, who’s gearing up to shoot Pink’s first Eden Park show tonight.
But there’s another trick he uses, a secret he’s willing to share about being a photographer and handling the kind of concert chaos he has to deal with on the regular.
It was the same trick he nailed at that JID show.
“I try not to fight the light,” Grut says. “It’s about working with the light, working with [the darkness] and not waiting for it to be bright and perfectly clear for this perfectly illuminated photo.
“Otherwise, you’ll never get it.”
See more of Tom’s incredible photographs over on Instagram.
With cuts looming at TVNZ today and the winding down of Phantograph Punch, it’s been a bleak week in media. I’m trying to stay positive but, after the Newshub gutting, it’s a hard thing to do. This, right here, is my response, a regular newsletter about the things I love that no one can restructure me out of, or fire me from. I appreciate every single one of you who showed up today. Thanks for your support.
Some weekend recommendations…
The excellent podcast Criminal normally deals with scammers and scallywags – or much worse. But the latest episode is a little more relevant to my interests. It’s about Connie Converse, a folk musician who everyone agrees was a musical genius and could have been as big as Bob Dylan had she not mysteriously disappeared in 1974. If you listen closely, I’m sure you can hear Aldous Harding vibes in her stunning shimmery songs. (The full podcast’s here.)
Kim Gordon spent several decades fronting scuzzy grunge-punks Sonic Youth with her husband Thurston Moore. Since their split, and the band’s, she’s had a fascinating evolution: her new album, The Collective, is out today, and it’s full of the kind of grimy doom-rap and Soundcloud trap favoured by rappers. That’s what Gordon does with a string of excellently quotable slogans. It’s an acquired taste but I’m deeply into it: go check out ‘I’m a Man’ and see if you feel the same. (For the record, Gordon is 70 years old; that’s five years older than Madonna.)
Finally, I am obsessed with John Glacier, a mysterious UK artist who delivers songs I can only describe as spoken-word Missy Elliott slam-poetry delivered over James Blake beats. According to this rare interview with The Guardian, she’s disabled and rarely leaves her house. “I have no fucking life,” she told the publication. Her EP, Like a Ribbon, will be on heavy rotation this weekend.
Got a tip, some advice, a piece of gossip, or something to get off your chest? Contact me at iamchrisschulz@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Tom Grut is the absolute best! The passion he has for music is unmatched.