Being behind the lens certainly keeps photographers from getting the attention they deserve, so when they step out from behind that shadow, it’s a rare sight to see. Charge your battery and grab your zoom lens; this week it’s time to discover a photographer who’s been right underneath our noses this whole time.
Emerson College graduate Deborah Feingold began photographing musicians in the 1970s in New York City. In the four decades following her move, she’s been busy capturing intimate profiles of Chet Baker, B.B. King, Madonna, REM, Bono, and Pharrell. She shot the cover of Barack Obama’s Audacity of Hope. She’s taken portraits of Bill Gates and Johnny Depp. To put it simply, she’s a photographic magician.
Feingold’s portraits are immediately recognizable in the face of her subjects. Their relaxed posture and soothing intimacy is a result of her trademark personality, something that can’t be taught the way a method or routine can. And the fact she figured it out on her own, makes her photographic feats all the more impressive.
Feingold will be stopping by Porter Square for a signing of her new book, Music (available 9.30), which includes some of her most famous work from Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek and The New York Times. Come to get a preview of the prints; stay to hear her private stories about the shoots. Because sometimes we need a little gossip with our art.
DEBORAH FEINGOLD: MUSIC. PORTER SQUARE BOOKS, 25 WHITE ST., CAMBRIDGE. THU 9.25. 7PM/ALL AGES/FREE. PORTERSQUAREBOOKS.COM
