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WELCOME Things to do while you're here... Welcome to Front Rows, Pits and Pavements, the website of photographer Carsten Windhorst (that would be me). Click on any of the four categories below - i.e. Live Photography, Portrait Photography, Video Production Stills, Reportage - to see a selection of my portfolio shots or scroll down to read my blog. To find out more about me, check out my Biography or head to the Tearsheets section of the site to see where my photos have been published. Last but not least, if you want to get in touch, please send an email to carsten.windhorst@gmail.com. Enjoy your stay!
NEWS Where, when, why, what... 18 JanuArY 2012 Gathering pace Well, January is the month of making plans, planning shoots, waiting for the gigs to start, attending showcases and, er, not much else. Apparently, we're already 18 days into the new year and I have not updated my website in almost two weeks. Well, let's rectify that at once. Here is the new official press shot of dance legens Utah Saints who I had the pleasure to work with last year. Probably the nicest bunch of guys I've ever photographed. Their new single is out next month and it's already getting the thumbs up from a lot of industry people - and Radio 1 has also got behind them. Check out the track here.
3 JanuArY 2012 New year - last year's left overs Happy New Year and all that. As things are going to remain fairly quiet on the photo front for another week or so, I thought I'd kick the year off by posting some shots of Emeli Sandé who will receive the Critics' Choice Award at next month's Bri Awards. The photos are unseen as I only got round to processing them at the weekend. Enjoy... View the 'Emeli Sandé' gallery
23 DecembeR 2011 SPIN's 25 Best Live Photos of 2011 In the autumn of 2011 I finally achieved one of my goals - having a double page spread in US music magazine SPIN. Every month, their Soundcheck section showcases the best live music photos from around the world and they decided to print my shot of Bjork in their September issue. As if that wasn't enough theyhave now voted my shot one of the 25 Best Live Photos of 2011. You can see all 25 photos by clicking on the link below. View the 'SPIN's 25 Best Live Photos of 2011' gallery
22 DecembeR 2011 The best of 2011 I have had a pretty fantastic year and photographed some amazing bands and artists over the past 12 months. It's interesting to look back and remember where I was at this time last year. While I certainly feel a sense of pride of the work I've done this year, I'm already thinking of how I can take things to the next level in 2012 - and in a way that is the scary and uncertain part of being a freelance photographer. Hopefully, I can build on my achievements of 2011 and keep producing work that will push me as a photographer. Thanks to everyone who's emailed me this past year to ask questions or to give me feedback - it's all very much appreciated. Anyway, here is my "Best of 2011' gallery. View the 'Best of 2011' gallery
20 DecembeR 2011 K to the B At the end pof October I shot Katy B's show for Q Magazine. I did a quick reportage style shoot with her before the show and then shot her entire live show at the Shpeherds Bush Empire. I have now finally uploaded a selection of shots from the shoot so if you want to see more - just click on the link below. View the 'Katy B' gallery
19 DecembeR 2011 That's a wrap On Monday I shot my last gig of the year - the Stereophonics at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Frontman Kelly Jones is the tallest of fellows so shooting him on a low stage made a nice change as the floor monitors didn't obstruct my view (as they did whenever I shot him before). The lighting was pretty dire unfortunately but I still came away with a pretty decent set of photos. Here is a preview for you.
18 DecembeR 2011 The December Sessions Photo Wall Well, as previosuly announced my photo exhibition as part of the O2's December Sessions launched on Saturday, 3 December. If you can't make it down to see the photo wall yourself, then here is a shot of yours truly (looking hyper excited) and a collage of what's on display. You can also see the full photo wall by clicking on the link below - one medium size version fo the wall, and another super big one for 27" screens. The exhibition runs until 22 December. View the 'Photo wall (medium size screen)' gallery • View the 'Photo wall (large size screen)' gallery • Watch the video
17 DecembeR 2011 Pro Green We are fast approaching the end of the year but there are still a few gigs left on my shoot list that I need to cover before the arrival of 2010. A couple of nights ago I shot Professor Green at the Electric in Brixton. A decent enough shott that was cut short by a security guard who asked us to leave after one song. Well, sometimes you don't really need much more to get the shots you want, of course.
13 DecembeR 2011 Coldplay A quick scroll has revealed that I haven't posted a full gig gallery here in quite a while so I reckon it's time to rectify this. Here are three shots of Coldplay taken at the O2 at the weekend - and there are loads more after the jump. Enjoy! View the 'Coldplay' gallery
10 December 2011 Total knock out It's been a good week and the highlight of the last seven days was my shoot with legendary dance outfit the Utah Saints on Thursday. You never know what to expect when you shoot musicians as they can be a little jaded when it comes to doing photo shoots but that certainly wasn't the case with the Utahs Jez and Tim. They got properly involved in the shoot and were up for trying different things - and I can honestly say this was the most fun I've had on a photo shoot to date. I can't post any of the shots yet but here is a little preview image of the boxing ring and a time lapse video I shot during the third part of the shoot. Tim and Jez were actually doing an awful lot of jumping which isn't captured in the time lapse video as it was set to one-second intervals and even though they jumped pretty high they weren't up in the air for a second...
1 DecembeR 2011 Posed Time for some unseen portraits. First up are JLS photographed at All Star Lanes in East London, Katy B in her dressing room at the Shepherds Bush Empire, and Laidback Luke.
30 November 2011 New in Q Time for some unseen photos from the shoots I did for Q Magazine in October. First off here's the double page spread of Katy B that's in the new issue. I also shot the five Q Awards shows at the Forum for the mag - and here are some unseen photos from these shoots. Enjoy...
26 November 2011 Foster For The People It was my second trip to the Shepherds Bush Empire of the week last night - this time to shoot Foster The People. The lighting wasn't bad - I had been told to expect the worst - so I'm pretty happy with the set. More to follow soon...
24 November 2011 From east to west I had an interesting day yesterday which involved a lot of travelling around London. In the afternoon I shot JLS at All Star Lanes in East London followed by a live shoot with Wild Beasts in West London. The lighting at the Wild Beasts gig was a bit of a joke but I'm pretty pleased with this shot...
21 November 2011 It's Liam Last week I shot Beady Eye at Brixton Academy. I will be posting the full gallery here soon - in the meantime, here is a preview shot of Liam.
18 November 2011 Photo exhibition I seem to be getting overlooked quite a bit when it comes to having my work included in photo exhibitions and there have been two recent examples when I was a little bit disappointed when none of my shots were selected for a public display - then again, that's life, I suppose. You can therefore imagine my excitement when I was contacted by the organisers of The December Sessions at the O2 in London about creating a 30-metre long photo wall for the three week event which starts on 3 December. The whole thing was officially announced yesterday and you can see the article that's in this week's MusicWeeek below. So, if you head down to the O2 in December, make sure you check out the exhibition area - it's free!
16 November 2011 Just a quick one Here's a quick update as it's been a few days. I totally forgot to post a few preview shots from the Rise Against show at Brixton Academy last week so here they are...
11 November 2011 Legend alert It was two firsts for me this week. On Monday I shot the Red Hot Chili Peppers (see earlier post below) and last night I got to photograph the rather legendary Nile Rodgers. I still get excited when I get the chance to shoot musicians who have had such an impact on modern music and Nile Rodgers is most certainly one of those people. Here are a few preview shots...
10 November 2011 Special Is You revisited A few weeks ago I came across the music video I directed for Moon Visionaries' song Special Is You back in January. Usually, whenever I look at work I have previously done I always find things that I wish I had done differently. However, when I watched the video again after a long period of time I was pleased with its overall look, flow and storyline. Of course, you can always improve on things and the only regret I have is that I didn't shoot an additional scene with Marco (that's the dark haired chap) for the end of the video. Having said that, the whole video came together really quickly and we filmed this over a two-day period - in total it probably took no more than 5 hours to complete (and most of that was spent travelling round London to the various locations). I had an idea for the story in my head but instead of storyboarding the video, I shot it in a more spontanious fashion - I don't think I even told the band what the storyline was in order to keep it more natural looking. We had already wrapped filming on the second day and decided to go for a drink at the Mayfair Hotel to end the day in style when I had the idea to shoot a few additional scenes in the downstairs part of the hotel. So, Marco's opening scene was actually the last footage we shot for the video. Greg's Tube scenes were filmed guerilla style as we hadn't applied for permission to shoot on the Underground - and in hindsight I'm surprised no station staff pounced on us when we filmed those scenes. So, check out the video below if you haven't already done so. There's also a little blooper reel below if you're interested.
9 November 2011 Photo Professional It's always fantastic to receive recognition for one's work so when I was approached by Photo Professional Magazine here in the UK about being the photographer to launch their new Great Shot feature I was really pleased. The editor of the magazine had seen my David Guetta photo and asked me to write a little article to go with the photo. The new issue of the magazine is available now (it's the December 2011 issue) so check it out...
8 November 2011 Red Hot I have to admit, I was rather excited to shoot the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Monday as I had never photographed the band before. Unfortunately, the shoot didn't really live up to my expectations - mainly due to the fact that the pit was way too packed and Anthony Kiedis' way of performing which consists of covering most of his face with both his hands. Still, I got some decent shots of Flea which saved the day for me.
6 November 2011 Ladies week It was ladies week for me last week - first Pixie Lott, then Anna Calvi and then the forever brillant Tori Amos who played a song straight after her soundcheck just for the photographers.
1 November 2011 What's new pussycat? Yes, I'm still alive and working - 'working' as in 'taking photos for a living', just in case you were wondering. There are loads of new galleries in the pipeline - but for now all I can share with you are some new Pixie Lott photos from her album launch party last night. There's more to come.
14 OCTOBER 2011 Something for the weekend Time for another gallery. Boys and girls I give you The Kooks shot at Brixton Academy earlier this week. View the 'Kooks' gallery
8 OCTOBER 2011 What you looking at? This is what you get when you spend one minute with Liam Gallagher and his Beady Eye band mates before their show at Somerset House in July.
7 OCTOBER 2011 More Bjork coverage Earlier this summer I was given exclusive access to shoot Bjork as she prepared for her residency at the Manchester International Festival. My photos have literally gone round the world and have been used for major magazine features. Yesterday, I found out one of the photos appeared on the cover of Lighting & Sound magazine (there's also an 8-page feature in the magazine).
6 OCTOBER 2011 Ed Sheeran I have shot Ed Sherran twice in the the past seven days. First at the Big Gig on Saturday and then again on Monday at his solo show at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Here are the shots from Monday's show... View the 'Ed Sheeran' gallery
5 OCTOBER 2011 More Big Gig shots And here is the second gallery from the Big Gig at Wembley Arena. Kids, I give you Olly Murs... View the 'Olly Murs' gallery
4 OCTOBER 2011 Big Gig At the weekend I headed to Wembley Arena to shoot more pop acts than is legally allowed. It was a fun afternoon and I came away with lots of nice shots. I will be posting galleries of the various performers so let's get the ball rolling with Pixie Lott... View the 'Pixie Lott' gallery
30 September 2011 Theme song I thought it was time I posted a new themed gallery so I have gone through my archives and put together a collection of pre and post show portraits. Sometimes you get five minutes with the artist, sometimes you get 30 seconds with them... View the 'Backstage Portraits'
26 September 2011 HARD-FI Friday night was spent at the Forum in north London to shoot HARD-FI. Here is a preview of shots from the show.
20 September 2011 Disaster zone A couple weeks ago I did a shoot with Example, Laidback Luke and the cast of the video for their new single Natural Disaster. Below is the official video ad - you can check out the full video on YouTube.
16 September 2011 Back to V I still haven't managed to upload all my V Festival photos so it's time to get back into the swing of things and finish the job. To bridge the gap between now and my next gallery post, here are a couple of shots of Jessie J taken at V. Stay tuned - there is more to come.
14 September 2011 Snow Patrol Last week I shot Snow Patrol's 'Friends & Family' gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire. It's taken me a while to get the shots online for some reason but the wait is over so if you want to see the gallery you know what to do... View the 'Snow Patrol' gallery
12 September 2011 Beady Eye It's been pretty quiet on the gig front so while I'm working on a few galleries of unseen live shots for you, here is a quick tearsheet update - Beady Eye photographed in London in July. This was a last minute job which resulted in a pretty nice 4-page feature and included a very quick dressing room shoot. I'll post the full gallery here soon...
6 September 2011 It's Guetta time One of my most exciting shoots so far this year took place in Paris at the end of June. It was a short notice assignment but as usual those tend to be the most interesting. David Guetta was supporting the Black Eyed Peas at the Stade de France and I was commissioned to capture the huge scale of the show. The full gallery is now online so click away... View the 'David Guetta' gallery
2 September 2011 Catching up Earlier this week I headed to Brixton Academy to shoot Pulp. The band reformed earlier this year to play a string of festival dates over the summer and this was the penultimate London show on their reunion tour. Having said that, I'm sure they'll keep gigging - most reformed bands seem to have the tendency to keep going once they get back together. View the 'Pulp' gallery
1 September 2011 New month, old photos It's 1st September so there's no better time to post some photos of The Vaccines taken in August... View the 'Vaccines' gallery
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carsten.windhorst@gmail.com
Concert photography - Live photography - Rrock photography - Music photography - Live Music Photography - Rock photos - Llive photos - Music photos - Rock photographer - Live photographer - Concert photographer Carsten Windhorst, London, UK.