There is a new movement afoot. It is poised to take over the organ world and change everything about how we currently “look at” some things. I’m talking about promotional photography for organists.
Look through The American Organist magazine from various years to see what I’m talking about. In the old days, virtually no one took out promo ads for themselves. Promo photos appeared in management rosters, nearly for the sole purpose of a host being able to recognize a performer when picking him/her up at the airport! They were all the same: headshots facing or profile, dark clothes, light background. (As time went on and the subjects aged, some of those photos didn’t get updated, a constant source of discussion among those of us who were looking at them every month.)
Fast-forward to today, where organists are shown hanging off of consoles, standing near famous sculptures, holding organ pipes in precarious positions, holding hands in the worst possible technical positions, and sitting spread-eagle on the bench facing the camera. One of my more successful photos has been of me leaning cross-armed against a Casavant console.
This new movement currently co-exists with the old one. There are still the traditionalists, who pose in coat and tie for headshots and in tux for staged action shots. In all these, the background is the usual gray for the headshot or the usual console for the action shot. The clothes are the usual simple, so as not to cause visual problems when printed on local newsprint.
When I first started posing for promo photos, I kept a certain necktie in my closet, which I did not choose to wear in public anymore, but which would be perfect for the next photo session. In those days, however, the most successful photo I had was one a bit off the beaten path. I was in my suit and simple tie, but I was staring directly at the camera, daring it to challenge me. That kind of pose sent a completely different message, and I liked it! I looked confident, even if I wasn’t.
I am no photography expert, and I hear constantly from experts whose opinions on all this are in diametric opposition to each other, thus leaving me in the middle and having to make all the decisions (which is the plan in the first place, I suppose). But I am learning to lean toward those photos that look like ME, rather than that fit a textbook composition formula.
Advice: always have someone who knows you well help choose photos. They know what you look like, and they can see You in certain photos and not in others. The one of me leaning against the Casavant has been criticized as conveying a sense of having something to hide in those crossed arms. But I concur with the other experts, who said, “That looks like YOU. That’s what people will be getting when you come play.” I’ll take that. And with digital photography, hopefully anything really transgressive can be tweaked.
So I have gone to the other side, and I’ll probably be dragging some others with me over the years. I will take the photos that look like ME and not like the photographer’s composition ideals. However, I don’t think I will ever go so far as to be photographed having tea in an organ chamber or throwing my head back and my arms out at a console, as if a loose wire had found its way to the bench.