An ongoing photo series of up and coming R&B singers from the UK. Breaking Notes rent my studio to shoot videos promoting the singers. I shoot musician portraits whilst they perform. They get publicity photos for their socials. I get an introduction into the music scene, which as a middle-aged white bloke who prefers House & Techno I would have struggled to get into. I also get a varied and interesting stream of people to photograph and practice my gig photography skills on.
Musician Portraits – Breaking Notes Sessions Part 1
It started off as a way to hone my event photography and take some singer portraits whilst earning some money from a studio rental. After a couple of shoots, it became obvious that I could create a photo series of singers and musicians whilst they perform.
After almost 30 sessions, I’ve built up an intimate collection of portraits and improved my musician portrait photography. I’m hoping at least one of them makes it big. From the performances I’ve seen, there is a lot of talent out there.
Breaking Notes Background
I met the Breaking Notes team just after lockdown finished. Michael and Kwaku were looking for an affordable studio for a new music venture. They wanted to create intimate club session style music videos for a YouTube channel they were launching.
Frustrated by the lack of promotional opportunities for up and coming R&B talent here in the UK, they wanted to build a platform to showcase the abundance of talent that was out there and not receiving any publicity.
Over in the US, major platforms such as Vevo were promoting emerging talent for urban music, but here in the UK the R&B scene is limited and lacked platforms to promote up and coming R&B singers. A gap in the market… Taking a big leap of faith, they decided to create Breaking Notes to shine a spotlight on the many talented artists out there.
Musician photography Set
It took a couple of sessions to finalise the look and feel of the set for the Breaking Notes performances. Between us, we managed to create the set with a few props and stuff I had lying around the studio. We created a simple room set using an old black fabric backdrop and the black side of my poly boards.
Add an illuminated sign, a nice mic stand, white tube lights and a smoke machine and you’ve got a set that looks like club stage. ( when you frame it tightly 🙂 ) Ideal for musician portrait photography. When people they arrive, they are constantly surprised at what we’ve created in the arch space when compared to the videos they’ve watched.
As of Sept 2020 when this was written they’ve released 6 tracks, a couple of which you can see above. The plan is to release one a week for the foreseeable future.
Follow Breaking Notes socials
If you like what you see here, check out my photography packages for creatives and artists.
