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Fotos ORIGINALES De A-ha A La Venta....
Hola,
Acabo de recibir esto; resumiendo para los que no hablan ingles, es una entrevista al fotografo oficial de nuestros chicos durante la primera etapa, y al final dice que pone a la venta copias en alta calidad de las fotos que hizo de ellos para los discos y para la promocion... asi que al fin podemos conseguir esa portada de "Stay on these roads" como cuadro para nuestro salon!!!
El precio... nada, igualito que el ultimo CD de Mags: 100€
Hello,
From next month, photographer Just Loomis will be starting to sell his prints of a-ha direct from the original negatives.
Those of you who subscribe to Headlines And Deadlines magazine will have already seen the interview I did with him last month.
These photographs cover the years 1984-1993 and feature some of the most iconic images of the band from that period, including several shots that became album or single covers. Now that Karen and Geraldine have had their exclusive I am now happy to reprint this interview for the benefit of the mailing list.
JUST LOOMIS INTERVIEW
********************
The name should be familiar to most a-ha fans.
As the bands' main photographer during the phase 1984-1993, Just was responsible for the many iconic images of a-ha which have graced album and single covers and various magazine articles.
He is responsible for five a-ha album covers, namely "Hunting High And Low", "Stay On These Roads", "East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon", "Headlines And Deadlines" and "Memorial Beach".
We all know about the "Take On Me" video shooting a-ha into the stratosphere but it was the cover shot of "Hunting High And Low" which was just as responsible for introducing a-ha's image to the world.
Just's photographs of a-ha are forceful without being "in your face", full of life while frozen in time, arty yet not unreachable to the masses.
But most importantly, the visuals he supplied always perfectly matched the music contained inside the sleeve.
Over the course of a few late-summer weeks, Just has been kind enough to answer some questions relating to these images. He is also selling various shots of a-ha taken from the original negatives and signed by him. More about that towards the end of the interview.
Chris Hopkins: Just, some background on yourself... Where were you born and when?
Just Loomis: I was born in Reno, Nevada. In 1995...Not really, 1957!
C: How did you get into photography?
J: My grandfather was a roaming portrait photographer in the early 1900's. In 1906, George Eastman sent him to South America to photograph Presidents and to introduce the first X-Ray machine. We always had a darkroom in the house. I started taking pictures of homeless men and the western landscapes when I was seventeen.
C: Was photography your first career choice?
J: Photography was my first career choice although I also wanted to be an English professor, you know, a corduroy jacket with patches at the elbows. But no pipe!
C: Interesting! Did you start off photographing just bands or other things?
J: Starting with the homeless men, I always photographed people. In photography school I started taking pictures of models. I used to love models but I have never really loved fashion. Although I have always loved to look at and photograph people's faces. It is an obsession of mine. I am always looking for the story. Sometimes I creep people out because they will catch me staring.
C: What was the first band assignment you did?
J: I am indebted to the great art director Jeri Heiden from Warner Brothers Records. She and Jeff Ayeroff gave me my first music job in 1983, Chris Isaak. Jeri and I went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for our cover "Hunting High and Low". We still do work together today.
C: When did you first meet a-ha?
J: I first met a-ha in London in 1984? I remember walking onto the set of the "Take on Me" video in this old drafty sound stage. There were all these huge pencil drawings of the guys on these big white walls. The director (Steve Barron) was chasing Morten down a hallway with a steady cam. I remember I did some crazy photos in Covent Garden at night. Those were the ones on the back cover, but the best story was when we did the cover. I had found a location the day before. An old pub. I had asked permission and everything was set. On the day of the shooting of course no one was there to let us all in. I had the whole crew, a bunch of extras and the band in the van waiting!! I told Mags the problem and he and I eyed an open window two floors up. Mags and I climbed up a drainpipe and slid in through the open window. We were in! As we went downstairs a piercing alarm went off and we both froze, scared shitless. In three minutes the London police were there. As they opened the door Mags and I just stood there, arms down palms out. We were caught! Fortunately they let us go and I walked down a few doors and we did the cover in the next available pub.
C: What a great story. And what a great album cover. I've always wondered what techniques were used to get the blurry images and why the dog was there etc...
J: This again is my desire to fill the frame with life and not just three guys hanging out. The dog was the guys' idea. It's some mythic Norwegian wolf hound or something like that. I remember they were very specific about this type of dog. Maybe they used to ride them around as kids. But the movement was all achieved in camera (no computers then). It is a long exposure technique where the subjects remain still and the other people move during the exposure. The streak in the front is a girl moving across the frame. It is a risky technique that many times does not work. I remember someone telling me that later in the Warner Brother's Art Department that they felt they hadn't got the cover. The movement was too abstract. I think it was the band that eventually picked out the cover shot.
C: After the success of "Hunting" when did you next work with a-ha and how many times?
J: I worked with the guys many times. We always had so much fun together. We really became good friends. We worked a lot in London and also near a recording studio in eastern Canada, in Montana on a video shoot, and in Brazil. Brazil was amazing. a-ha was idolized and everywhere we went there were throngs of screaming fans, just like in the movies. Girls would faint and want autographs on their chests. It was great!!!
C: Class! Can you remember the locations of the various a-ha album covers?
J: "Hunting High and Low"-London pub. "Stay on These Roads"- London art studio. "East of the Sun, West of the Moon"-Canadian hillside. "Headlines and Deadlines"-Hotel room, somewhere in Brazil. "Memorial Beach"-On a beach at night, somewhere in Brazil.
C: The "Stay On These Roads" photo session is interesting. What was the idea behind having the middle aged woman and the older woman in the background, the two kids running around in front of a-ha...?
J: This photograph was a continuation of the technique used on HH&L. I always hated these photos of bands with just these guys standing there. I wanted to surround them with a world. I casted all these people to come to the location. I wanted different faces, old, young surrounding them. Maybe it's something about being in the middle of the storm of faces. People coming…going, pushing up against the wall, peering. Years later in Rio I did get all these great images of fans pushing up against the windows of the van, peering in.
C: There's been a rumour/myth for years that the cover for "East Of The Sun" was an "in" joke. The story goes that a-ha called this "The Toilet Album", an album where they ditched everything they hated about their career and started afresh. The joke being that on the cover, Morten looks like he's having a dump and Paul and Magne look like they're taking a piss...is this true?
J: I traveled up to Eastern Canada where they were recording this album. I do remember being in the studio and listening to the cuts and thinking to myself what a different sound they were making. Much bigger and mysterious. The guys never talked to me about this directly but I could sense their desire to move beyond the "Take on Me" days. And rightly so. They wanted to breathe. I know that they did in fact feel uncomfortable with being seen as pretty. I think they in fact hated that. I do remember when we took the cover that the arrangement was consciously made different. We did not want Morten up front this time. We pushed him back and down and he insisted on the headwrap that later I think pissed the record company off. They couldn't understand why we would hide his good looks. We pushed Mags way up front in more of a confrontational pose. I loved how he tilted his head in that shot. Maybe he did need to take a piss but he never told me so!
C: Hahahaha! So the myth will continue! What other big names have you photographed?
J: I have photographed Madonna, Don Henley, George Benson, Frank Zappa, KD Lang, Eric Clapton, Chris Isaak, John Fogerty and a few others.
C: What are you doing these days?
J: Today I shoot portraits and fashion for advertising and magazines. I always do personal projects as well. I have a beautiful series of kids photographs that will be shown next spring.
C: You're now thinking of selling some prints...How did this come about?
J: I have never really thought about selling the photos but then some people started to ask me about them and I thought "Why not?" I am really proud of these photographs and they really tell a story about that particular time. People are asking me if I would like to sell the prints. I am just kind of starting to think about it now. I want to make them affordable so that the fans can buy them. I love these guys, Mags, Morten and Pal. I've got great memories. The last thing I want is to seem like I'm cashing in on their fame. And I will send out a coded message to them if they ever read this: "Long Live Yellowstone!!"
The prints will be available from next month, will be printed on HIGH QUALITY photographic art paper, will be signed by the photographer and will cost $100 each. They will be sent sturdily packed to avoid any kind of transit damage and will arrive in perfect condition, ready to frame.
Those interested should at this stage email me at where you will be added to a list. In a few weeks time you will then be emailed a contact sheet which you can print off, circle the photo (s) that you want and then send it with payment to an address to be supplied at a later date.
Feel free to copy this email around the various forums. If you dont get a reply for a few weeks, dont sweat. It's gonna take a few weeks to get all this running smoothly.
las fotos estan INFARTANTES!!!!, gracias summer, IDOLA!!, si pudiera, me las compro todas...pero ya me desfinancié con la compra del cd de magne...así que me conformo con verlas, realmente son de colección!!!
Uuufff que tentación más pero más grande, yo que soy fanática de coleccionar fotos, tarde o temprano me acabaré haciendo con esta joya de fotos, muchas gracías por colgarlas Summer!!!!, estoy babeando por segundos ajjaajaa
Saludetes,
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