Metal is good for the soul … photographs of a musical concert performed by AlcoholicA with Close2Hell as a first act this past Saturday evening.
Close to Hell © Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
AlcoholicA © Patrick Alonso
These photographs, portraits, were all taken during HeavyMtl, Montreal’s heavy metal festival. Rather than the start of another long project or series, they are just a one timer, a small one day series produced mainly for my own amusement.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
I preferred Black & White images in this case to keep attention on the whole of the subjects rather than on the blood and gore art of the t-shirts, which are a requirement for membership in this community of lovers of hard, brutal, heavy music.
If you’re at all curious about the music, here’s a selection based on the bands represented on the above mentioned t-shirts (all links to myspace) … Winds of Plague (what’s not to love about metal band names), Suicide Silence, Dimmu Borgir and my-all-time-favorite-if-I-was-a-religious-man-James-would-be-my-god, Metallica.
A few portraits of Rachel.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
Rachel is a musician and composer whom I discovered this winter. You can listen to some of her work here. She is currently putting together an album that should come out late summer early fall, looking forward to that. Until then, get some of her music via bandcamp.
The last picture above is one I had envisioned from the very beginning. Other than the fact that it is a rather wide-angle portrait, which fits into some of what I’ve been exploring lately, I think a more direct influence was the cover of Neil Young’s new album Le Noise, another bit of music you should most definitely check it out if you don’t know it.
Looking forward to summer here in Montreal. It feels like the city is bursting at the seems with culture (music, literature, photography etc.) …
Back in August Maisonneuve Magazine asked me to shoot a few portraits for an article in their fall issue.
As part of the article, which mentions various artists who took matters in their own hands when it came to the diffusion of their respective arts, I had the chance to meet Sebastian and Alex Cowan, two brothers who founded and managed the now closed Lab Synthèse. They have since went on to start the record label Arbutus. It was inspiring to meet and chat with the people involved in this article, they have a great frame of mind, if you want to be creative and achieve anything, don’t wait around for someone or something to come along, take chances and create your own opportunities.
The first two shots are some of my favorites with the third being the one that was selected to run in the issue.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
If you like literature, arts and opinions and well written magazines (getting to be rare these days), you should definitely do yourself a favor and pickup a copy of the magazine.
Direct link to the article on Maisonneuve’s website.
