A story of how Die! Die! Die!’s photo shoot at a taxidermist's studio went wrong. By Milana Radojcic.
Listen to the story as it was told at The Watercooler storytelling night or read on.
This is the story of my first band portrait shoot, or what became a crash course in learning how to deal with awkward situations and making the most of them.
At the beginning of my last year of studying photography, I decided to start building my portfolio by shooting a series of conceptual band portraits. I cut my teeth on shooting live gigs the previous year, something which I loved and continued to do, but I felt like I needed to up my game for my final year of study. That, and another kid in my class decided that he too will start shooting live gigs. Thanks buddy.
Die! Die! Die! was a band that I loved watching and shooting live, so I was pretty excited that the singer Andrew said yes to my idea of photographing them at a taxidermist’s studio.
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The day of the shoot rolled up and I roped my good friend Andrew Tidball, head honcho at Cheese On Toast to be our ride. The studio was all the way out in Papakura, about an hours drive and I didn’t have a license. Tidball had his own taxidermy piece, a white ferret named Walter. W e decided to take Walter along with us, and he, along with some muffins and water I got for everyone, rode in the boot, which was reachable from the back seat.
We met the band, only to see that Henry, the bassist at the time, was very sick with the flu. The poor guy was super pale and could barely stand up straight! I reluctantly suggested that we postpone the shoot for when everyone is well, but they wanted to press on. I felt a bit bad, but relieved! We bundled Henry up in the front passenger seat, while I sat in the back with Andrew and Mikey. And off we went.
Halfway there, Mikey reached into the boot for some food, only to turn back around and say “Do you guys know that you have a dead animal in the car?” I thought that’s a pretty odd question considering we’re going to a taxidermist’s studio. As soon as that thought passed through my head, Henry asks from the front, “What’s in Papakura anyway?” I was a bit confused at what was going on and said “ummm... the taxidermist’s studio?”. And that’s when Andrew cracked up laughing and said, “that’s so funny considering we’re all vegetarian!”
I was mortified.
Mikey reached into the boot for some food, only to turn back around and say “Do you guys know that you have a dead animal in the car?”
Here I have a band who are all vegetarian. In fact, I believe Henry was vegan (and possibly turned a shade or two paler in the meantime), and I’m taking them to a taxidermist. I guess at least it wasn’t the butcher.
After stammering through the concept in order to fill in Mikey and Henry, since it became pretty clear that their bandmate failed to do so, I offered to pull the plug on the shoot again. Impressively enough, they decided to go through with it.
We finally reached the taxidermist (let’s call him Bill as I cannot remember his name). Bill lived on a large farm with a herd of deer grazing next to the fence by the shed that served as his studio. He let us in and then went off to do his own thing.
I quickly started setting up a backdrop and trying to figure out what pieces to include as most of them were wall hanging rather than freestanding. The band very politely refused to touch any of them.
While I was rushing around, trying to put it all together quickly so that we can get out of this awkward situation as soon as possible, I could hear gleeful laughter and shouting from the outside. Mikey and Andrew had discovered the deer. Not only that, but they started to run up and down and up and down, up and... The boys were excited, the deer were excited, but Bill certainly wasn’t. He rushed over. “Oi! Stop doing that or they will rush the fence and knock it down! And then I’m gonna knock YOU down!”
Again, I was mortified.
I quickly ushered the boys back inside. Henry was already there, crouching down, and struggling not to pass out I assume. I shot off a couple of rolls of film (10 years ago, remember?) cross my fingers, hope for the best and quickly usher the boys back out and into the car.
The resulting image ended up having to be a comp job. An animal from here, a band member from there. The overall sense of unease worked out better than my original plan, but getting there... well, I definitely learned a few things.
Most of all that band members don’t communicate well with one another. If at all.
This story was originally told at The Watercooler, a monthly storytelling night held at The Basement Theatre. If you have a story to tell email thewatercoolernz@gmail.com or hit them up on Twitter or Facebook.
Illustration: Lucy Zee
This content is brought to you with funding support from New Zealand On Air.
