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| "Blue Hour"; Beady at Melt! Festival 2011 Image by Geert Schäfer |
What began in 2010, when Clemens Mitscher and Martin Liebscher created the non-profit project stage-photography.com, has extended beyond the university boundaries to become a recognized project. Seventeen students are part of stage-photography.com, the project from the photography teaching department at HfG. Seventeen young artists who are realizing their passion for photography and music at numerous gigs through expressive images. A work which has provided inspiration beyond the confines of the university and this year has achieved its high point to date, thanks to the cooperation with Melt! and numerous supporters from the photo industry. At the internationally acclaimed music festival in July 2011, which has been honoured with the title "Artist's Favourite European Festival" award, the students had the opportunity to document numerous musical stage performances using photography and film.
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| PULP at Melt! Festival 2011 Image by Malte Sänger |
Since 1999, the festival of electronic music has been taking place at Ferropolis - the "City of Steel". The bands appear between gigantic, historical excavators and imposing relics from open-cast lignite mining - not only an impressive backdrop for the live acts but also for the young photographers from HfG. "It is simply extraordinary to be allowed to take photographs in such an atmosphere," remarked Clemens Mitscher. Yet the students' main aim was not merely directed towards recording a perfect stage show in fantastic surroundings but also towards capturing the musicians as people behind the artists. A lofty photographic ambition indeed, and one made even more demanding by the difficult lighting conditions.
Kitted out with Hasselblad H4D equipment, the young artists took every available opportunity during the three-day festival to live up to this aspiration and managed to shoot photos of almost 100 acts. Of the many exciting and varied images, the best went immediately to the mStore Schulbus for editing, printing and display in the up-to-the-minute "Growing Gallery" in the Melt! press office. Thanks to the support from Hasselblad, Melt!, the Apple premium reseller mStore, Adobe, SanDisk, Wacom, Epson, Fujifilm and Delight Rental Studios, the young artists were offered a professional platform giving them the opportunity to create photographs that fully retained their authenticity. The project has now reached a perfect conclusion with completion of the Fujifilm photo book containing a compilation of the best pictures.
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| HfG Crew Image by Sebastian Bach |
Geert Schäfer, director of photography for the Melt! Festival, who provided intensive supervision for the project and the students, was also keen to seize the opportunity of working with a Hasselblad camera. In close cooperation with Hasselblad, Schäfer mounted the H4D-40 Stainless Steel at a height of 14m above the stage so that he was able to achieve his dream photo. "I wanted to take a photo of the twilight hour from a unique perspective. To implement this, I used the 28mm H lens, which is simply perfectly suited for this task," explained Gert Schäfer. "The camera was controlled via iPad with Hasselblad's Phocus Mobile, which was the ideal solution for me to put my idea into practice," the Director of photography went on to explain.
Frank Riecke, Marketing Manager of Hasselblad Germany, presents a thoroughly positive summary: "Never before has the Melt! Festival been so elaborately documented in only 3 days: authentic photographs, an exhibition, a book and a film. Almost 30 photography enthusiasts all united by one common aim: getting the best out of this unique opportunity."
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| Fujifilm Photo Book brilliant |
You will find the impressive pictures of the Melt! Festival and information on stage.photography.com at: http://www.stage-photography.com/
To purchase the Fujifilm photo book brillant at a price of 35 Euro (plus shipping) send an email to: bibliothek@hfg-offenbach.de
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