I guess I started blogging as I had all these photos that I’d taken, and being a big fan of the combination of photos + words just wanted to make us of them and write little stories to go with them. As I’m doing it on my own little bit of cyberspace, read by like about 10 people or whatever, I’ve never really thought that I might be denied access becuase of what I’ve written on my blog. I’m guessing if I wrote live reviews for street press I might have to be more politcial in terms of how/what I wrote.

But access isn’t everything. I love photographing music. I’ve never reallly been about only photographing the big, high profile acts and am more than happy photographing local bands. A lot of photographers seem to only be interested in the big stuff at the big venues and are largely oblivious to the local scene, which i think is a bit bad. Having said that, I often think that maybe because I am happy photographing smaller stuff at smaller venues that I miss out on the big stuff when the gigs gets allocated to all the photographers. But that’s a story for another time…

Having read this post and especially your Vines post I was struck by your uninhibited way with criticism. I think it’s great, it just stands out in light of all the recent chatter about the (lack or otherwise of) independence of the Australian music press and especially the street press, since you’re one of those people who must rely on being invited back and given “access”.

Anyway, enjoying the photo’s and words.

Cheers
Ben

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