Posted: January 16, 2008

ACCURATE SENSE: TOD SEELIE
Live-Music Photography

Buried in the Thrasher website is a notice to those who want to contribute photos to the mag, skate flicks or otherwise. Along with basic suggestions and image specs, it also says: “Dedicated, talented photographers will get noticed over time.” Although sincere and meant as encouragement, some might suspect this sentiment is also a way of saying “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Well, Tod’s live music photos radiate so much frenetic energy that they did get noticed, and Thrasher did call him. —Adam Creagan

How did you start shooting?
I started shooting live music as a natural progression from being a big music fan first, then got into photography later. When you’re first starting to shoot, you typically are just trying to capture what interests you. It did take me a long time before I had sufficient equipment to actually get a decent photo of a band, so a lot of my early band photos are just blurs of figures on a stage. I do recall a photo of Arab On Radar at an apartment show that was pretty interesting and made me think that this might be something to continue with. Film and developing were expensive back then, so every shot cost me and therefore had to count. It was a very slow way to learn.



Do you know a lot of the bands you shoot with?
I had friends, mostly from college, who went on to start really great bands: Japanther, Matt & Kim, CSS, Parts & Labor, The Death Set, Team Robespierre. I got my first chance to tour with a band back in 2000 with Japanther. It was pretty amazing to me, I loved to travel, loved to go to and shoot shows, and was a huge Japanther fan. The pinnacle of touring for me was probably this last summer when I was able to jump on the Fuck Yeah Fest tour. It was a bunch of bands, comedians, and tour support people all crammed into a grease-powered school bus tearing around the eastern half of the US, with Matt & Kim, Monotonix, The Death Set, Team Robespierre, and Crystal Antlers. We’d show up to a venue, the bands would play an insane show, we’d figure out where to sleep, and then have to go hunting for waste grease dumpsters to find fuel to get to the next city. Pumping out waste grease can be a pretty smelly venture, but it’s free fuel. The tour was chaotic most of the time, but a lot of the bands were already friends. And I will say that I think it was a great hard-working bunch of people and pretty much an all-star tour.



Do you have an approach to your photos?
What I like about band photography is the challenge of trying to create images that convey an accurate sense of the event. If there are people screaming and bodies falling and things flying I want you to be able to feel that all in one photo. It’s a pursuit that never gets easy, or old. I also really enjoy being able to promote bands that I appreciate with my photography. Some things I dislike are how most people think that photographers should be fine with giving their work away for free, or for a photo credit, almost like it’s flattering for them to want the photos in the first place. A large part of people’s perceptions of events they were not at come from photography. It preserves moments and illustrates things that we can’t see first hand. I consider that important and valuable.



Do you have a favorite band to shoot with?
One of my favorite bands to shoot is Monotonix from Israel. They are a really erratic band, creating sweating sticky chaos. They always set up on the floor, the singer runs around and climbs on things, throws full garbage cans and even crowd members on top of the drummer while he’s playing, lights things on fire, sticks the mic in his ass, and then they’ll crowd surf the whole drum kit and drummer up in the air on top of the crowd. The other interesting thing is that in all the risky hijinks, the band is pretty good at making sure they don’t hurt anyone. However rowdy drunk audience members can be another issue. I sustained a small concussion and head wound one of the last times I saw them, when some crowd members started throwing a floor tom at people.



You’ve probably seen a lot of strange stuff over the years.
I’ve seen some crazy things at shows over the years, but probably nothing more than anyone else who has been to their fair share of punk shows. Growing up in Cleveland I remember seeing bands like Nine Shocks Terror who would shoot bottle rockets into the audience, or one guy who could puke on cue. People jumping off of balconies, lots of cut bleeding heads from thrown bottles. And one time at a Municipal Waste show there was a guy in the pit swinging a giant broken florescent light bulb around. There was one show in my friend’s warehouse loft in Brooklyn—with no windows and a metal ceiling—where by the end of a crazy set everyone’s sweat had condensed on the ceiling and was raining back down on the crowd.



Do you have any advice to others who want to pursue photography?
Um, don’t expect to make any decent money in band photography. Do it for the love of it, and hope you can find another way to make ends meet. I will mention one thing that I get asked a lot, which is how am I able to tour with bands and focus on photography without having a day job. The answer is to keep your expenses down. Re-examine what you really need. Don’t buy new things, be resourceful, eat cheap, dumpster dive, don’t spend money at bars, don’t own a car;ride a bike instead, and when you travel either give up or sublet your room. That last one is probably my biggest one. If you don’t need a lot of money to get by you don’t need to spend a lot of time trying to earn it. Your time is all you have, and having the freedom to spend it how you please is worth a lot more in my book.

For more photos and info, check out TodSeelie.com