Musical Chairs

Roger — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:19:48 +0000

Last week we were on a two-day shoot at the Cork School of Music with two executives from Wenger Corporation, a US company that provided much of the performance equipment (such as chairs, music stands, podiums, and risers) for the school. We're not talking your average chairs here. These are moulded along Alexander technique guidelines to ensure perfect posture for performers, and they are made to the highest standard.

[Ironically, the shoot was so intense I don't actually remember sitting on one of the chairs at any point]

The shoot was scheduled for a Thursday and a Friday, and the school had hoped to help out with some students willing to act as (paid) models. In the States, Wenger has no trouble finding volunteers and such is their reputation that schools and students generally clamour to be included in the company's catalogue shoots. Over here, Wenger is relatively unknown and we only had one model to begin with.

Fortunately, I'd been able to source five more from outside the school, while the music student we did have helped us get some of her friends in the school to model too - one of whom was able to work the lights in the main auditorium, which was invaluable when I needed lights in various parts of the hall balanced. In the end, we had just under a dozen student models, which we were able to make work for us.

We also got a lucky break when the choir we thought we'd booked for a photograph of one of the risers didn't turn up. It left us with a picture and lighting all set up, but no-one to fill it. Fortune smiled on us, though, when a friend of mine walked into the school with a 30-strong Swedish choir in tow. They were in town participating in a contest and had come to the school to warm up before performing in front of the Lord Mayor of Cork. We got a handful of them on to the riser and I snapped away while they and the rest of the choir, who were behind me, belted out a fantastic performance. It was stunning. One of the Wenger execs was even able to attend the performance at City Hall a few minutes later.

For me, this was a great shoot to work on. Wenger puts a lot of emphasis on its photography, which means they value both photographers and their work. Nice. Also, the Wenger people and the rep from their UK distributor were really easy to get on with. Our models were also a good bunch - patient and accommodating. We even had one poor girl on a tiny podium three feet off the ground with her €6,000 antique cello in one of the school's offices just so we could shoot with a window behind her. Did she complain? Not a squeak.

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Musical Chairs