LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Montreux Jazz Festival likes to surprise and this year’s poster will startle more than one concert-lover. American photographer Greg Gorman has created the first MJF poster to feature a photographic image since 1967, the first year of the festival.
This year’s poster, says Gorman, focuses on the contemplative experience of listening to music.
The Montreux Jazz Festival takes place 29 June to 14 July 2012.
“The model’s pose should suggest movement, as he is turning his head as if he had heard something and wants to hold onto it – a fleeting moment. It is perhaps a voice, a noise or sound. The sand dune in the background also plays an important role. The sheer height and depth of the dune evokes a sense of emptiness and in its simplicity presents a stage for contemplation, a central experience when listening to music. The open background also provides literal space for the viewer’s own interpretation. The subject is placed in a non cluttered open environment.
“The visual arts, from an illustrative point of view, are less confrontational than photography. I believe that the decision to allow me to present a nude was a very courageous one, because nudity in photography is real and very direct. To offer a photographer carte blanche once again after so many years clearly illustrates the readiness of the festival to try out new things, to take risks and to surprise people.”
Gorman stepped into photography through his love of music. He borrowed a camera to shoot Jimi Hendrix at a 1968 concert and when he saw the image come up in a darkroom he was hooked, he says. In his 40-year career Gorman has photographed scores of musicians, including: Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Frank Zappa, Grace Jones, Elton John, George Clinton, Boy George, Tom Waits, Billy Idol, Leon Russell, Nina Hagen, Fleetwood Mac, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Vanilla Ice, P. Diddy, RuPaul, Divine, Bette Midler, John Lee Hooker, David Bowie and Quincy Jones, Joan Jett, John Mayer, Melissa Etheridge, Debbie Harry, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Joe Cocker.
He draws a clean parallel between the discomfort yet esthetic appreciation nudes can provoke and the way music can work on us. “Nudity can be fascinating, but may also make some viewers uncomfortable, even nervous. I think music can have the same effect and I think that is one of the interesting things about this project. I love the total unexpected element of the male nude. Music can surprise, unsettle and sometimes even confuse people. A male nude even more so than a female nude, because it is still often thought of as taboo. Hopefully on a certain positive level, this image will have the same effect, but be able to break through that stigma. It is in many ways classical in nature, strong in shape and form and yet delicate and fragile in scale and balance. All of this can be referenced to the extraordinary art of listening to music.”
A Montreux poster is not just all in a day’s work
For those who think photography is a matter of snapping a shot, and for those who are dying to know who the model is, Gorman offers a few words:
“I teach photography workshops at my home in Mendocino, California, four times a year. And that was where I first worked with the model, Jordan David Miles, a 21-year old skateboarder and graffiti artist from Southern California. The initial idea arose from a similar shooting I had done with him, the previous year. During the subsequent shooting for the festival poster, however, l became involved in a long discussion with Jordan, who did not share my vision, and we had to cancel everything the first time out in the dunes because we just weren’t on the same page. I very much value critical feedback and I took Jordan’s concerns very much to heart. I knew we had to be in sync if the concept was going to work. At the second shooting, the light was not working in our favor. It was very overcast and I could not get the contrast, which is a key element in my photography. Finally our third attempt went very well. From all of the previous work, we knew what we needed to accomplish-the exact location, the angle, the right time of day for the light to be perfect (in essence, all of the aspects that needed to go into the photograph including the model’s body language). We got the picture in the can in less than half an hour. All the previous work helped to add to a better result in the end.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Musician Elton John won’t be appearing at the Arena in Geneva Thursday evening: the singer has the flu. The concert, where he was to appear with Ray Cooper, is postponed to 26 May, Opus One announced Thursday afternoon. An earlier concert, in December, was postponed until today due to sickness.
Tickets for December or 3 February are valid for May, says the organizer, but if ticket-holders are unable to attend they have until 3 March to be reimbursed.
RSR public radio and Couleur 3 provide podcasts and downloads of several of the concerts
Crosby Stills & Nash were among the big hits at Paleo (photo: © 2010 Paléo / Boris Soula)
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – And the bands played on! The Paleo Festival closed Sunday, yet again, on a happy note for its organizers, a sold-out event, no major crises, and generally happy concert-goers. The only damp notes were problems with parking lot closures when heavy rains fell at the end of last week, just as the five-day event reached its peak, but given the encouragement the green festival gives to using trains and buses to reach it, this might have a positive result, prompting more people to reconsider driving in 2011.
Many of the concerts are available online from RSR and Couleur 3, depending on rights negotiations with the performing artists.
Big hits for 2010 were old favourites, starting with Crosby Stills & Nash, Johnny Clegg and Iggy Pop, but the Tribune de Geneve argues that hip-hop was the real star this year, performing in every corner of the festival.
The mix of music pulled in 230,000 fans, according to Paleo.
Paleo in 2011: mark your calendars now, 19-24 July.
It’s summer in Geneva, Switzerland, and with the annual office drain and fewer press releases the serious news takes up less space, and the lighter news around the world is keeping us all a little happier:
- One of the most cheering bits of news to come out of Gaza in years occured 30 July when children in Gaza appear to have broken a Guinness world record for the number of kites flown at the same time: the old record was 713 and the new one, still being calculated, may be as high as 4,000, thanks to an event organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Al Jazeera
- British women turned a cold shoulder on an attempt to beat the world record for the most women wearing bikinis in the same place, when only 42 of the 1,924 needed showed up; sunshine prevailed but a forecast for cloudy, cool weather in Southend-on-Sea, Essex was blamed. UK Telegraph
- Almost half of post-secondary students in a recent survey in Canada said they pass along their old tech toys – iPods, for example – to their less tech-savvy parents. The Globe and Mail, Canada
- At a music festival in North Germany featuring Anthrax and Napalm Death, organizers asked concert-goers not to kiss and share bottles of beer to reduce the spread of A/H1N1 swine flu. Reuters
- Scottish pride is on the line with new claims by a researcher that haggis, considered a national dish north of the English border, was actually an English dish 132 years before it was mentioned in Scotland (haggis, for the uninitiated, is made with oatmeal, liver, heart and lungs – and Wikipedia updated its entry on this today, based on the news). The Scotsman
- A “career shoplifter”, age 86, was arrested for the 61st time in Chicago, in a career that began with her first arrest in 1956. Chicago Sun-Times
Title: Fete de la Musique
Location: Lake Geneva region, France, Switzerland
Link out: Click here
Description: Thousands of musicians, hundreds of concerts and stages, all in celebration of the summer solstice.
City streets are flooded by music and revelers. Music is not limited to the streets, but can be heard in cathedrals, churches, concert halls, and in clubs!
Each city offers their own programmes and local newspapers publish inserts to help concert goers find their way around. Music is not the only thing you will find on the streets.
If you have never been to one of these “fetes” prepare for a long evening.
Start Date: 19 Jun 2009
End Date: 21 Jun 2009
Title: Free open air concerts
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: The city of Geneva offers over 20 concerts during the month of May. Includes classical, brass-band and popular music.
Start Date: 14 May 2009
End Date: 29 May 2009
