Impressed does not even begin to describe what I came away with after my last gig at Revolution Live. I was live and witness to the talents of FKJ and I’m here to tell you about it.
FKJ (French Kiwi Juice) is French musician who is known to utilize multiple instruments, including production, in his live performances. He started making music when he was 13-14 years-old. He eventually learned how to produce music while working as a sound engineer for the cinema, while at the same time being a self-taught musician. The man does it all and he does it live. In other words he is spectacular at his craft.
Yes, I am a fan, no doubt. I love the vibe of his music and listen to him quite often while I’m editing my work. Needless to say I was ecstatic at the opportunity to photograph him doing his thing. It was so good. He had been sold out for months before hand and it was the fullest I have ever seen that venue. Walking around required work though and it’s safe to say that Revolution Live was packed to the brim. Even working my way around between the different views of my night needed planning. He was worth it though.
As for the performance, rather than just sitting on stage and walking between the instruments, he chose to use projections on a screen at certain points throughout. The imagery ranged from displaying his live feed from different angles to using beautiful sceneries to amplify the mood. Visually it was stunning. So much so that rather than wait until those moments when he would lift the screens to shoot, I decided to incorporate them in my flow. I wanted to make sure that I captured the whole vibe after all.
I knew going in that the closer to the stage I was, the more difficult it would be to maneuver the crowd so I took along my 70-300mm along with my regular 24-70mm. I didn’t want to be THAT photographer all up in everyone’s way taking away from the moment for the fans. After all, they paid to see him and not the back of my head nor my lens.
So I did keep the long lens on the majority of the night and stayed back a bit. Let me say that even with that approach. Working between exposing for the screens and him was a little challenging to keep up. Depending on what he was displaying definitely kept me on my toes exposure wise so there is some noise to these images. Though all in all, I am quite happy with how they turned out.
Not many shots in the line of creative angles, most of these are just the vibe I was feeling but I think you’ll see why looking through the images. Here is my top set with a few more to see on Facebook. And side note, you want to give him a listen. Trust me on that and you’re welcome.
