Very early on doing APS, I was only with a plus one, and now sometimes I come in with an extra documentary photographer and a camera man! But whether I do video or not, I mostly get 10 to 15 minutes if I’m lucky. In better circumstances, or if I have a bond with the artists, or they like me, I can hang for a few hours, but even then timing is crucial. You can’t act paparazzi all the time, you need to know what to capture and what not. I’m not TMZ: I don’t care about gossip, I don’t care about click content, and I don’t care about sensationalism. Artists need to trust me first and foremost, so it’s an exercise and it takes extreme focus.
I’m very strict on my team when it comes to APS. You only have one moment sometimes, and if you or the team are not focused, and become too impressed by the circumstances, crucial moments can be lost. And when I say crucial moments, I mean those little honest moments, the real ones. It’s a challenge to produce quality content in spaces where the time frame is limited and the location is badly lit, or very noisy, or extremely small. We try to work around it the best we can. It’s a very guerrilla way of working, and not everyone is up for the task, because the focus on the variables needs to be very high. The goal is always to eliminate as many existing problems on the spot as you encounter while staying visually strong. Every moment with an artist is a privilege I worked years towards to.