The DJ press shot. It’s a phenomenon that comes in various forms, but apparently, some forms tend to reoccur, as we have noticed going through myriad DJs profiles and press kit archives. So we saw it as an opportunity to round up some of the trends that were most apparent to us.
A decade ago the ‘official press shot’ was still a bit amateurish. But they all had that element of experimentation. Now with the radically growing professionalization of the DJ his or her media presence and -personality, most of the pictures are done in a studio by photographers who know what they’re doing. Not to mention nothing else but high definition. But due to this, many of them caught a tendency to look quite alike. Even thought the pool of original ideas of presenting oneself is starting to rise, the market is still full of identically-looking takes. Same style, same manner, same color-schema (i.e. black & white).
It would be totally legit to ask, why is that important? Of course, on one hand, the quality of music is the key, right? But originality and authenticity goes together as a general trait of an artist, that is evident throughout one’s presentation, and especially now in the age of the multi-media, madly tweeting and posting superstar DJ.
And well, to encourage creativity and experimentation and question the status quo both in music and in the way DJs are presented is important. Even including the seemingly less important category of the DJ photo. That’s why we used this opportunity to categorise some of the trends that are going on at the moment.
#1 Posing at the wall
This conversation of ‘going around the corner doing a few shots’ must have reoccurred between the photographer and the artist dozens of times. Seem that the challenge became just to find the most interesting wall.
Adam Curtain
Jay Vegas
Hector
Atapy
Hannah Wants
#2 The Blurry DJ
Ambivalent
CoMA
Cera Alba
Alexandar Kyosev
#3 The Shadows
While Joris Voorn sort of made it his signature photo, looks like it became quite liked to put a little shadow there and here…
Joris Voorn
Mark Houles
Robert Dietz
Dany Rodriguez
#4 The ‘Stare’
The big guys, seems like all they have to do is stare. A little hypnotising stare to get lure future fans.
Musumeci
Dixon
Of Norway
Ryan Elliot
Solomun
#5 The B&W, Shoulder to Shoulder Duo
Adriatique
Cascadia
Tough Love
Cosmic Cowboys
So we got closer and closer, and hey, these guys totally rocked the boat:
Monkey Safari
And well, there are many many more, as also the unanimous Black and White all over. But just as the guys in the last pic did, you can always break the rules, but furthermore, the rules can be broken with an original idea.
