You probably know Pauline Di Silvestro’s photography already, even if you didn’t know her name. Her promotional picture of the Zipheads being abducted by graffiti UFOs has been plastered all over the rockin corner of the internet, she’s shot the instantly recognisable pictures of the Spacewasters and the Moonshine Stalkers that we always associate with the band and her pictures have earned her a place on the shortlist for the British Photography Awards several times. Who else would be better to ask about the art of taking an amazing rock n roll photograph?

“You really want to capture the personality of the band without them being on stage,” she says, explaining her famous Zipheads shot. “It’s very cliche to do like a promo shot of a band standing in front of a brick wall with the guitars. It’s okay, but everyone’s done that, and you really need to know your subject. I’ve known the Zipheads for almost fifteen years now, so when they needed promo pics I thought, ‘okay we all love [Stanley] Kubrick’. Let’s go and hang out where ‘A Clockwork Orange’ was shot and we’ll find something cool. I went to scout the location two weeks before and just walked around trying to find some cool backgrounds. That was really difficult because most of the locations are gone: they were knocked down and they put expensive flats over them. You know the scene [in ‘A Clockwork Orange’] where they walk along the lake and they fight and Alex pushes his mates into the lake? I really wanted to get a shot of them walking like that. Then we found this street art with the UFO and I just thought it would be funny if we pretended to be abducted by aliens. So instead of a tribute to ‘A Clockwork Orange’, we have a tribute to ‘2001 : A Space Odyssey’.

I had them jump twice.  They did a practice jump and they did a photo jump and then they were done. But I’ve known them for so long that it was really easy, I knew exactly what they’re going to do. Will is always amazing on set. He’s always so extra.”

Photography came as a natural progression to Di Silvestro, who started her rock n roll life in a different role in her native Belgium. “In my early twenties I started working as a booker and promoter for a local band, and that led me to start making friends with whatever support band we had, and led me to start booking tour in Benelux for German and UK bands. I just needed pictures of the show so I bought a camera and did it myself  – I don’t believe in asking a man to do things for me so I just do it myself instead. I did that for a few years and I just really liked the photography and kept going: it’s a lot of fun! And I can still go on tour, without the faff of being a tour manager.”

Let’s take Di Silvestro’s photo of Howlin’ Pelle from the Hives as an example of an amazing Rock n Roll photo. How did she get the shot?

“The first thing I do is research the venue to see how big the space and stage are. I look at live videos of the band before shooting if I can, just because I want to know what they’re going to do and I want to be in the right place at the right time. That’s photography (live music photography specifically): being at the right place at the right time. A lot of it is down to luck, as long as you’re already there. 

 I’m just very honest with my photography: I capture what I see and what I think is cool, I like movement a lot. I like when pictures are really dynamic: when someone’s moving and doing a little dance move. For the picture of the Hives at the Fleece… I had been to the Fleece [before] and it has a capacity of four hundred people. That night, it was rammed within a few minutes. I was in the front, negotiating a little bit of space with the fans.  The Fleece has those two big pillars on the side of the stage. I knew I had to be in the middle. They were going to use the pillars, especially Pelle because he loves to move on stage and it’s a very small stage for The Hives. And of course, within a minute he was hanging off one of the pillars.”

She took a similar approach when in the photo pit for California punk legends Rancid when the last played the UK too. “I’d never done an arena before, and I had also never shot Rancid before. I spent a solid two weeks watching every live video of Rancid I could find, from the old days until now, and studied all the set lists I could find. We’re limited to three songs [to shoot live], so I had to know which songs it would be. I wanted to know exactly when they would jump: [Tim Armstrong] does it on ‘Roots Radical’ at two something minutes. And I got it! But I had to watch so many terrible quality videos of Rancid’s ‘Roots Radical’!

How can a regular fan follow her advice and take the best possible photo of their favourite band? “The lighting is always going to be awful, so unless you have a nice kit… I hate to say ‘expensive kit means better pictures’ because you can take a nice picture with a bad kit but obviously you’d have to edit. Don’t be afraid to stand in the front and use the good light. It’s all down to light and position. You could study what the band is going to do and at least you know what to expect: right place at the right time, I guess, it really is down to that! Pay attention to your surroundings, obviously. Don’t stand just in front of the mic stand because the mic stand is gonna look ugly, and it’s gonna hide the face or you’ve got the arms of the security crew [in the way]. Just be mindful of the distractions around them and just try and frame your subject.”

Di Silvestro also has advice for musicians who want to be the best possible subject for a live photo. “There’s a lot of musicians that like to make eye contact, make a face, pull their tongue out or do whatever. You can do that if that’s what the band does, but if you’re the only one who does that, it will look like you’re trying too hard. I would say look at pictures and videos of the musicians that you like and bring that energy into your set. Don’t leave your bottles of water out on the front of the stage because we have to edit that out! Don’t ignore us, but if you notice a photographer…if you’re gonna do a cool jump shot then do it in front of the photographer, if you feel the need to jump. Dan Criscuolo who plays guitar in MFC Chicken likes to give me a nod or a wave before jumping, I find it so funny. His dad Zig is a photographer so he must have learned that from him! Move around with your instrument – unless you’re the drummer – and don’t hide behind the microphone. Dick Dynamite from the Zipheads does it a lot…It drives me nuts. I have told him so many times! Drummers are harder to catch, but if you can stand up or take a lot of space behind your kit so we can see you. If the stage is high, lean your upper body down towards the photographer.  It looks really cool when you do that. Keep your chin up and your shoulders back. Just have good posture! Good posture means you don’t have a double chin and you look more confident.”

In fact, the art of looking confident on camera is what inspired Di Silvestro to open her Camera Confidence Workshops. “I started doing those because I know how scared I am of being in front of the camera. I do a lot of work in Burlesque and Cabaret, and I work with a lot of new performers that don’t know how to pose or aren’t confident with posing. There’s [also] a lot of photographers that don’t know how to pose their models. I feel like if you know how to pose yourself then you get good pictures of yourself. Sadly, there’s a lot of photographers that aren’t really good at making their models more comfortable. The trick with photoshoots is you have to bring the stage energy for an hour, whereas your act is only going to be around 5 minutes. It’s exhausting!

We’ve had really good feedback [on the Camera Confidence Workshops]. I had a girl book for her thirty-ninth birthday. She was very shy in the beginning and towards the end she was beaming. I sent her the pictures and she couldn’t believe it was her. I’ve seen her post pictures of her on Instagram since. She’s been doing the poses. She just looks so much more confident. 

The camera confidence workshops are open to anyone. We tailored the workshop to all body shapes and all genders. We don’t discriminate. Swannee will teach you a few tricks: how to make your legs look longer, how to disguise your double chin …then people come to shoot with me and practice poses. We try standing, portraits and sitting in really cute poses.”

If ‘cute poses’ aren’t your thing, Di Silvestro has also got you covered. “Haunted Boudoir is on the 20th of September and the 5th of October. Basically I did Halloween promos at Werewolf Beer [in Camden] on the 3rd of August and built two sets. It sold out within an hour of me announcing it, so I added another day on the 10th of August with the same set. I had a lot of people message, [saying] ‘I’m not a performer, can I join?’ I thought, ‘hang on a minute. We could do that again’. Werewolf beer is really good at Halloween events, and the Haunted Boudoir’s going to be the same set. It’s going to be a spooky photo shoot experience.I’ll have a hair and makeup artist on the day. I will guide them. Jenny or Crystal will do their makeup and hair. Werewolf beer is such a cool venue: it’s got a vintage ghost train and it’s got so many different props. The good thing with starting with live music is I can shoot pretty much anything, and everything is easy, because I learned with the hardest lighting there is. If I can make Iggy Pop look good, I can make anyone look good!”

Kate Allvey

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