Hardcore/punk music scene photojournalist Steven J. Messina shares war stories and tips on getting the ideal live photo.
The Hardcore Shutterbug himself, Steven J. Messina.
In today’s concert scene, it is as common to see a cellphone camera in the crowd as it is a band t-shirt. As you stand in a sea of glowing screens, it seems difficult to remember a time when the only cameras permitted in the venue belonged to the members of the press in the photo pit and a few smooth talkers in the crowd.
One of those smooth talkers — and sometime credentialed member of the press/photo service — is Steven J. Messina, who has been documenting live music performances for the past 30 years, specializing in the NYC/Long Island hardcore/punk scene. He well remembers the days when the risk of bringing your camera to a concert meant you could be kicked to the curb or, even worse, have your beloved camera confiscated.
Neither option was very appealing, so why chance it?
“I shoot bands because I love them and I love shooting,” he says. “The pictures were my souvenirs. Back then you only knew what a band looked like based on the photos they approved or that were in Rolling Stone or Circus magazines, and I wanted my own picture of the band — one that no one else had”
Messina, influenced by his mother’s constant picture-taking habit, started young, which may have worked in his favor, as you wouldn’t think a kid would sneak a camera into a concert, but when you are one of the few 12-year-olds at an Iron Maiden/Fastway show, you’d might just stand out.
The Foo Fighters Dave Grohl sits on his Rock Throne after breaking his leg earlier in the tour.
“I had a little Canon Sure Shot Supreme at the time, and my older brother and I were at the Nassau Coliseum,” he recalls. “The pictures were mostly terrible from where we were, but we managed to sneak down front and I got maybe two photos that I thought were pretty good. From then on I started sneaking it in here and there, and then it just became part of me.”
Messina considers himself lucky to have started in the days of dedicated cameras and film, because it taught him skills he continues to use today — even while using the latest technology. “The beautiful thing about film and growing up in the film world is that it gave you a discipline, because you would have two rolls of 36 pictures and that was it. You had to make it count.
“There was that feeling that just when your film starts winding that something blows up or the guy makes a great jump and you missed it. But sometimes you caught it. Part of catching the right moments is knowing the music, because, if you know the music, you anticipate the dramatic moments and you are not shooting blindly.
“It is less difficult with digital because you can just keep shooting, but who wants to sift through 700 shots with say 12 of them being almost exactly the same with the exception of half an eyelid closed or a blurry finger on the fretboard? Not me: mentally, I try to treat it like I only have 100 pictures on me — three rolls per show.”
NYC Punk
Henry Rollins gets in your face.
Messina’s choice in genre may have lent a hand to his success rate in sneaking pics — the punk scene is not exactly big on rules. The scene also lent itself for better photos, as the artists were closer to the crowd. “The punk and hardcore shows didn’t have that thing where the band it up high and you are down low. It is all about interaction with the fans. They pretty much didn’t care if you brought a camera. Plus, if I had credentials, either the bands didn’t care how long you were in the pit or their songs were so quick that security didn’t even catch on that the song was over.”
Of course, not everyone was happy to see Messina’s camera in the crowd: “I was at a Danzig show at the Roseland Ballroom sometime in the early ’90s. Roseland was hard to get a camera into, so I put it down my pants and made it in. Normally, I would blast a bunch of pics and then put the camera away, but this night I had a really good spot — right near the stage. I took one pic. Took my time. I took a second picture, and Glen Danzig and I made eye contact. And he is not happy.
Juliette Lewis liked this image on Messina’s Instagram account so much that she asked to use it on a t-shirt and single cover.
“I put my camera away and suddenly I feel these two hands on my waist. This enormous bouncer picks me off the ground, so my feet are dangling like a ragdoll, and he walks me around the side of the stage. Without putting me down, he kicks open the door and throws me out. The door closes and I am looking up at the city from the back of Roseland.”
To make matters worse, Messina had driven four friends to the show who had no idea what happened to him. He was tossed as the second song was playing, and had a long wait ahead before he could make the trek home.
“I walk around the building, and I ended up talking to the four security guards up front for the night,” he says. “I became so friendly with these guys that for years afterwards they would see me and say, ‘I hope you brought your camera tonight.’ They stopped frisking me. Suddenly Roseland was open to me.”
Of course, the hardcore/punk shows offer hazards as well, such as the time Messina was shooting Bad Brains with a large telephoto lens at the old Limelight when he saw something blurry closing in through his viewfinder. He lowered the camera just in time to take a boot to the face. His reaction shows the true photojournalistic warrior he is: “Had I not pulled the camera down, it would have taken out both the camera and my face. I remember being relieved because my face would heal, but the camera wouldn’t.”
Messina’s generosity with sharing his photos made hardcore legends Agnostic Front fans of his. Here, Agnostic Front’s Vinnie Stigma performs wearing Messina’s band t-shirt.
Artist Relations
The affable Messina also uses his images to forge relationships with the bands he admires — both the local scene, which he is a part of with his band Serial Poets, and world-renown. He would take pictures of them and then, when he saw them again, hand them an envelope with 4×6 or 5×7 prints in it. Because of this gracious gesture, he counts godfathers of New York hardcore Agnostic Front and Mike Peters of The Alarm as personal friends.
The digital/social media era makes it even easier to share photos with their subjects (he can be found throughout social media under the name “Hardcore Shutterbug”). In fact, the band may even grab it for their own social sites and other uses, which is fine with Messina so long as he gets the credit. As an example, he recounts how recently artist Juliette Lewis became enamored with one of his images, and, after asking, she posted it on her own Instagram account. She then took it even further by using it as the cover to the single for her song “Anyway You Want” and even making it into a t-shirt — all with permission from the Hardcore Shutterbug.
These days, Messina mainly relies on his Canon 30D or Panasonic Lumix to capture the moment — although he will reach for his iPhone 6S in a pinch or to grab some video footage. Never one to be a camera snob, he maintains, “It is not about what I use to get the picture, it is about the picture itself. The composition of the shot — does the lead singer have a mic stand in front of his face?” And, done right, the picture is forever tied to the music. “Sometimes I get credentials to shoot bands I don’t care for, and I can get some good pictures, but it is never the same as shooting a band you love, because when you love the music, you feel something when you shoot.”
Steven J. Messina can be found on Instagram and flickr (where he has over 100,000 pictures) as Hardcore Shutterbug. He is currently working on a photobook of his years covering the punk/hardcore scene.
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QUICK TIPS FROM THE HARDCORE SHUTTERBUG
Steven J. Messina Reveals How to Get Great Live Shots from Any Camera — Even Cellphones
CAPTURING ON A CAMERAPHONE: “If you are shooting a band and the lighting is not so good (which is most venues), when all else fails, shoot video. Then, when you go through the video, move the frames manually to find the perfect shot on pause, and then take the screen shot.”
EDITING: “The best photo software for a smartphone by far is SnapSeed. They are constantly finding new things to do with it. It is so good that I go back to pictures I took 25 years ago and edit them — I will take a photo that was just OK, and make it jump. You would be amazed at how good this app is.”
GETTING YOUR PICTURES NOTICED: “Good things for photographers are Instagram and flickr. My flickr site has done more for me than any agency I have ever worked for. I have hundreds of thousands of pictures on there and it preserves them and now, with the iPhone app, I have access to my pictures at the touch of a button. It has also gotten me noticed.”