Music to My Eyes XVI
Promotional photographs of bands and musicians have long been a dark spot on the face of pop music. Outside of reproduction in alt.weeklies as part of the show listings, they're practically useless and more often than not make the bands and musicians look bad -- rather than good, as they're intended to do. Similar to the stilted mug shots of executives PR agents send business media, they're almost always sent straight to the recycling bin. So why even make them?

Because we can. The Anchormen had a lot of fun during our last promo photo shoot. We drank Yoohoo at tables near the Alewife T station. Played with Chinese children. Jumped around in a sculpture garden. And ran laps at Tufts University. We also had a lot of fun shooting a music video which didn't turn out so well because the, well, the lens was smudged. That still doesn't mean they're useful.

In the Portland Mercury, one of the scrappier alt.weeklies, Julianne Shepherd offers some tips and tricks to making a band promo photo. She also deconstructs some good and not-so-good examples, offering snarky comments and catty slams along with her advice.

Lesson.

Thanks to Blanketfort.