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From live snaps to intimate portraits, the May
14 awards, described as the first to celebrate the art of music
photography, will honour both emerging and established
photographers.
All taken last year, the shortlisted pictures include shots of
singers Billie Eilish and Arlo Parks, musician David Mrakpor as
well as revellers at live events.
“Music Photography Awards started as a nugget of idea from one
of our team because we see even from our archives that we have
at Abbey Road how important photography is in telling the story
of what's going on in a studio or behind the music," Abbey Road
Studios Managing Director Isabel Garvey told Reuters.
"And as we went digging, we realised it was a category that
really wasn't celebrated. So we decided... with our connections
with musicians, with creatives, with the whole industry, that
actually we were in quite a unique position to mount an award
ceremony like this and give these photographers the platform to
celebrate all of their work.”
The awards feature open and invited categories, with the latter
including portrait photography, editorial photography and
artist-at-work.
New York-based photographer Eric Johnson, who has snapped
pictures of Biggie Smalls, Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill, will
receive the icon award for his "contribution to the art of music
photography".
The open categories are made up of live music photography,
studio photography, undiscovered photographer of the year, and
championing scenes and zeitgeist, described as the "image that
defines music in 2021".
"We obviously know there are a lot of talented music
photographers out there, but we weren't quite prepared for the
onslaught of applications," Garvey said. "I think we had over
3,000 applicants amongst the open categories."
The judging panel includes veteran photographers such as Jill
Furmanovsky.
"I was impressed there was so much material from a year when we
were in COVID so they couldn't have been nearly as many
situations to shoot music photography as in previous years," she
said.
"And yet people were doing it: small gigs or gigs with masks on
or people recording in their rooms or their houses and so on. It
was quite moving really at times to see that and also historic
actually, because it was a moment in time."
(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Alex
Richardson)
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