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Went out for another rush-hour trek for some “underground musicians.” I was successful! I found three of them. One at Hynes Convention Center, one at Park Street, and one at South Station. I was riding on the train and I heard some violin music. Naturally I got off the T to investigate this music.

The station was pretty empty, except for a few commuters. I thought it was kind of fitting that there was someone playing violin. I have always found music from the violin to be tragic. I’m not sure why the station was tragic to me, but maybe it was because of the few commuters in the station, most looked pretty depressed. Tragic. Then of course there’s me, being all sketchy in the station with my cameras. I waited till a break in the music, went over to the guy and placed 2 dollars in his case. I asked him if I could shoot some photographs of him and he said sure.

I then hopped on the next train and went to Park Street. There is always someone playing music there. It’s nice for me and this project. I didn’t hear anything immediately when I got off the train and was sort of discouraged but I did some investigating and there was a guy on the lower station deck. He was one of the best subway musicians I have ever heard. He was playing such happy music and he seemed to be in a whole different world than these grumpy commuters. One song I remember the best was “Blackbird.” He had people singing along. His music was making every one of these commuters days just a little bit better. It was great.

Lastly, I made my way to the busiest place around, South Station. There was a guitarist sitting in a corner when I got there. I wasn’t sure if he was done playing or not, so I stuck around for a bit. Eventually he started to play again and I was pleased. I asked the guy if I could shoot some photographs of him. He was pretty hesitant but agreed. As soon as I picked up my camera he shouted “NO VIDEO NO VIDEO!” I’m not sure why he thought I’d be shooting video, so I reassured him it was just still photos and he said “Okay.”

So far I’ve photographed seven of these guys. I’m aiming for around 12 or 15 for the final product.

I did some more work on this project today. I decided to make the trek out into the MBTA system during evening rush-hour. It’s so damn difficult to go around with lots of camera gear during this time. I had been working on a different project earlier with my friend Mark Tang, and we were riding on the green line together. He was switching trains at the Arlington stop so I decided to get off and see if there were any musicians doing there thing there.

Luckily there was a very interesting guy on the bridge between tracks. I stood there and listened for a while. He was a man in a electric wheelchair, he had one leg, and with that one leg he was playing a tambourine in a similar way you’d hit a bass-drum pedal. He had a guitar in his hands, and he was singing. On the floor next to him was a harmonica. After about two songs, I approached him and asked him if I could take some photographs of him while he played. He was a really nice guy and chatted with me for awhile before he started to play again.

After I finished photographing him, I dropped a few dollars into his guitar case, and thanked him for his time. He reached out with his hand, and I shook it. He said to me, “this kind of thing isn’t what I really want to be doing. It’s just a necessity to pay the bills at the moment.” I felt bad about what he said, and was thankful about my own economic situation. I wish I had gotten his name, but I’ve seen him on multiple occasions, and if I run into him again I will surely get it.

Below is one of the photographs I took of him. I’ll be using two in the final project, but I decided to only show one in this post.

After I finished with him, I moved back down the staircase to the trains. I was going to head to Park Street to find some other musicians. On my way down I was followed by 4 transit cops. I was told to stop and they wanted to speak with me. “Great” I thought to myself. They said it was illegal to take photographs on MBTA property and I would have to leave if I kept doing it. I find it very disappointing when “law enforcement” officers don’t know their own laws. How does that work. Luckily I carry around a printout, from the MBTA Transit Police website that states all of the rules and regulations of photography and the MBTA. I handed it to one of the officers and asked him to read it. They seemed dumbfounded, called in something on the radio, and told me to have a nice day….weird.

As soon as I made it to South Station I heard the faint noise of pinch harmonics. Not a sound I’ve heard from any subway musician before. I got off the green line platform, and made my way down to the “real” subway. The red line. There was a tall kid in the middle of the platform just going at it with his pinch harmonics. I watched him for about 10 minutes. He obviously saw me watching him, and was probably creeped out because 5 or 6 trains had gone by and I hadn’t gotten on any of them.

I waited until he finished a song and approached him. He said his name was Cody, he’s a freshman at Berklee School of Music. This obviously explained why he was so good at what he was doing. I asked him if he knew a few of my friends who go to, or went to his school and he actually knew one of them. Anyways I asked him if I could shoot some photographs of him, and he was all for that. I’m surprised at how everyone has been cool with photographs so far. Below is a photograph of him.

So far I’ve photographed four of these guys and I’m looking forward to finding more of them. I really enjoy being out in the public with all of the people. I normally wouldn’t approach these people, and like everyone else, I have my assumptions about each person, and I have been wrong each time. I could never go into a subway and play music in front of all of the people. Anyways…I’m done with this post. =)

I have been super busy and haven’t been able to post anything here in the past 10 days or so.  I am working on a new project on the MBTA. I’m photographing/interviewing subway musicians. The whole idea of the project as of now is to take portraits of them while they do their thing.

I’m trying to do it in such a way that it’s not too posed or fake. I don’t want the musician to change the way they are acting just because I am shooting their photo. So far I’ve done two separate musicians. This is an ongoing project so I don’t anticipate me finishing it anytime soon.

Right now I’ve named the project “Underground Musicians.” I’m trying to decide how to approach the project in its entirety. I have taken the photographs so far without any of the crowd in the shots. I can’t decide if I like it that way or not. It makes the musicians seem like they’re in their own personal space, but at the same time, the photographs are being shot in the most public of any areas.

Maybe it would be better for me to show the musician’s interaction with the crowd/public? I’m really struggling with that decision. This project is also making me think in ways I don’t usually think. I’m so used to photographing famous musicians in a concert or studio setting. These “underground musicians” are generally unknown. Also, one doesn’t have a choice whether or not one wants to listen to the music or not. This is different for me as well because the musicians I generally photograph are being paid to perform and the people watching are there to see them. Anyways, here is a photograph of one of the musicians I have photographed so far. He was surprisingly talented, and this was shot at South Station in Boston.

Hey everyone,

Back in Boston for a while now. Not really traveling anywhere for a month or two. I’ll be showing a lot of photographs from large format film in the coming weeks etc. Also, I have a lot of musicians/bands coming up that I’m photographing which should be exciting to see!

stay tuned

Also! Check out my friend’s music blog! http://www.thetranzmission.com/

Well I’m shooting again tonight at the House of Blues. This time for a major publication. Just got my tickets via FedEx and Columbia/Sony Records packaged them so nicely for me! Thanks guys!

Well I always seem to get myself into strange places/situations. Pretty much every day. Anyways, whenever I go to visit my parents, I take a commuter train. The conductor of the train is best friends with my boss which is always good. I’ve had many cool opportunities such as checking out inside the locomotive, taking photos and stuff like that. Tonight I was in a train car that was completely empty, and I used that to my advantage and took some photos.

Well I shot Pretty Lights and Gramatik last night/this morning, and man was that an interesting experience. I had never shot that genre of music really. The people who were at the concert were an interesting mix of people too. There were some “ravers” as well as some older people. Gramatik set the mood with a nice set, and then Pretty Lights came out to turn the club into a dance party. They played for probably an hour and a half and then finished. I thought the show was over and I started to gather my stuff. They came back out and said that since it’s their last stop on their tour that they’re going to continue the show for another hour. It was great. Anyways, here are some photos from the show

Pretty Lights

Gramatik

There’s a whole bunch more of photos at the following link of each band.

http://scotteisenphotography.smugmug.com/Music

Well last night I shot 3 bands at the House of Blues Boston. First up was Crime in Stereo who rocked out real hard for the packed house. Second was Glass Jaw. They were the most unprofessional band I have ever had to watch. I shot about 3 photos of them and stopped. They put all of their instruments in a circle, and played with their backs to the crowd. They used 2 stage lights and it was just plain stupid. I am not featuring any photographs on them on here. Anyways, First are a bunch of photos of Brand New.

And now some photos of “Crime in Stereo”

The rest of the images can be seen at this link … Just click on the band you want to see

http://scotteisenphotography.smugmug.com/Music