How To Become A Rockstar Photographer Podcast With Matthias Hombauer

Imagine documenting the beginning Rock N Roll in New York including artists such as Iggy Pop, Blondie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, KISS, Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Alice Cooper and many more sounds very exciting to me. And I guess for a lot of you who are listening right now a dream would come true if you could have experienced what Bob experienced in his career.    Bob Gruen became close friends with John Lennon & Yoko Ono and his photos are known as the most iconic and most used photos of our time.

Today’s guest is Rock N Roll Photographer Chester Simpson. Chester learned all the secrets of the photography business from legends such as Ansel Adams and Jim Marshall who took him under their wings, Both told him that he should always help other photographers which is an approach I really relate to.    In this interview, we’ll talk about Chesters experiences and stories from his last 38 years. However, the main focus in this episode is the part of our industry where almost everyone is struggling with: the business side of concert photography. Chester will share his approaches when it comes down to sell your photos, work with bands as well as we’ll go deep into specific pricing for band shoots as well.

Today’s guest is New York-based music photographer Coen Rees.  While recording former episodes of my podcast one name was mentioned many times as an inspiration and therefore I needed to get Coen on the show.  As an African French-born Londoner Coen built a huge archive of music photographs taken in England in the mid-nineties and therefore documented the rise of the “Britpop” era. As one of the few black rock photographers back then she moved to Los Angeles and finally settled down in New York.  In this interview, we’re going to talk about her style and why she loves Black & White, how she started with minimal equipment and worked her way up in the music photography industry and Coen will reveal how she was able to shoot portrait from stars like Shirley Manson, Nice Cave, Wayne Coyne, Michael Stipe without any press accreditation or magazine access.   

Todays guest is New York based photographer and the deputy photo editor at Rolling Stone, Sacha Lecca.  In this interview Sacha will reveal his best tips on how to get your work published in one of the most prestigious music magazines and we will talk about the future of our industry. Find Sachas work, his favorite camera equipment and much more on his show notes page at htbarp.com/sachalecca

Today’s guest is A.F. Cortes, a multidisciplinary artist in the fields of screenwriting, directing, design and photography. In this interview we’re going to talk about the underground music scene in Brooklyn, about Andres job as a filmmaker and how it differs from his photography work and Andres will talk about his newest music documentary REHEARSAL SPACE, that explores the creative process of iconic musicians. Find Andres work, his favorite camera equipment and much more on his show notes page at htbarp.com/andrescortes

Recently Alex left a comment on Instagram saying “Can you get David Fearn aka shit show Dave on the podcast? it would be great to see the other side of concert photography, the guys who shoot shows that rarely have a pit and can shoot the whole show. And how it is to deal with crazy crowds!” Sure. I can Alex! Today’s guest is Los Angeles based music photographer Dave “Shitshow” Fearn, Dave committed to documenting the dark underground punk/rock scene instead of Hollywood celebrities and shooting big stadium shows. In this interview, we’ll talk about his personal journey from being a pro sports photographer who was never touched by his own work, why he is giving it all for the local music community and Dave will explain why he started to publish his own magazine.

Today we’re going to discuss an important topic which every concert photographer should be aware of: ear protection and I am super excited that Ryan Parry, CEO of eargasm joined me for this interview. Recently I wrote an extensive earplugs review which you can find on my homepage and Ryans eargasm earplugs went straight to nr.1. We’re going to talk about why earplugs are so important, the 2 key factors you should look for when buying earplugs and how Ryan came up with this unique name. By the way. Ryan was so kind to give my followers a great offer. Go to htbarp.com/eargasm and use the coupon code HTBARPEAR when checkout to get a -10% discount on your order. 

Today's guest is California based music photographer and entrepreneur Matthew Belter. Matthew joined my HTBARP community right from the beginning and he will talk about how this event transformed this life to become a successful music photographer. He will also share what he learned when building his own family business and why he is working out hard with his kettlebells every day.

Today’s guest is Glasgow based music photographer Alexandros Costa who has a similar story than myself. He studied architecture, but decided to follow his heart instead and is now living his dream life. Alexandros will reveal his hard-working ethic, how he became a finalist at the Heavy Music Awards “Young Photographer Of The Year” and we’ll talk about how important Instagram is to promote his work. With more than 50 000 followers he is absolutely rocking the platform and we’ll talk about his best strategy to build your brand on Instagram. During my short podcast break, I was busy working on my own Instagram video course for concert photographers called “Rock Instagram”. In this course, I am going to show you how to get more like more followers and build an awesome brand on the most important social media channel for photographers. If you want to learn more about Rock Instagram visit: htbarp.com/rockinstagram

Before my short podcast break in April I promised in the words of my Austrian fellow, Arnold Schwarzenegger “I’ll be back”, And here I am. After 50 episodes interviewing the most inspiring music photographers on this planet I am prepared and ready for another 50! As I already mentioned a couple of times before my aim is to interview 100 of the most successful music photographers and then writing a book about my key findings which should help you to learn all the shortcuts and strategies that work when becoming a concert photographer. I am super excited about today's episode because I know that this topic is one of the most misunderstood but at the same time the most important one for every concert photographer. Today, I am going to discuss with my colleague Naomi Dryden-Smith, a. Concert photographer and Copyright lawyer the nuts and bolts of copyright law. I got a lot of questions such as am I able to sell my photos I took of concerts, are foreign contracts of bands legal when I sign them, what should I do w

Today’s guest is Mississippi based music photographer Jennifer Devereaux. We’ll talk about how she manages her concert photography job with three kids and venues more than 2 hours away from her hometown. Jenn will explain how she balances her music and wedding work on social media and what challenges she has as a woman in the photo pit.

Today’s guest is Melbourne based Hip Hop photographer Michelle Grace Hunder. Michelle, a former model picked up her first camera when she was 31 and is now considered one of the most revered Australian Music Photographers. Michelle has been invited as the official tour photographer for international Hip Hop acts and has been the Official Festival Photographer for "Come Together" at Sydney's iconic Big Top at Luna Park for 4 consecutive years. After shooting with literally every major player in the Australian Hip-Hip scene, Michelle has spent the last three years on a personal project called "Her Sound, Her Story" celebrating Women in Australian Music, across all genres, By chance, I recognized that she is using the same portfolio builder for her homepage which is format.com. Format is the nr.1 Portfolio builder and it comes with beautiful designs and is easy to set up. I got in contact with these guys and they offered me a 30 days free trial versions for my followers. So if you want to get your portfolio onli

Today’s guest is music photographer Roger Navarro. We’ll talk about the music photography scene in Barcelona, how he found his own style, and why he loves shooting festivals.

Today’s guest is Sarah a music and portrait photographer born and based in Reading. Her clients include Upset Magazine, Rolling Stone, Kerrang! Magazine, The Guardian, and The Observer to name a few. She also regularly works as an in-house photographer at the renowned O2 Academy Brixton. In this interview, we’ll talk about Sarah's approach when it comes down to shooting portraits of Rockstars.

After Paul Miles in ep 30 and John Raptis in episode 34 we’re back in Australia!  This time my guest is Jaz Meadows, a Melbourne based music photographer. Let me tell you, I love talking to those guys from down under. It seems they are always in a good mood and it’s a lot of fun doing this interviews with them. Jaz is someone who found a unique style for his concert photos. Every time a black and white concert photo with high energy in it catches my eyes, I know this is one of Jaz work. So we’ll talk about how he found his unique black and white style, about the music photography scene in Australia and how he approaches social media to get his work seen.

Let me introduce my guest for today: Mr. Brian Rasic. Born in Yugoslavia, Brian began his career photographing local acts, and touring bands from abroad, in his hometown of Belgrade in the early seventies. He moved to London in 1979 and over the years has trained his lens on artists from every genre of popular music, including rock, pop, jazz, country, and blues. A dedicated fan of The Rolling Stones, Brian has covered their shows since the early 80's, capturing some exceptional moments along the way. In February 2006 he was the Stones' official photographer at their biggest-ever gig, in front of 2 million people on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Brian also worked with his personal heroes such as David Bowie and David Gilmour, who have also entrusted him with being their official photographer. We talked about how the music business changed and of Cours his experiences with the biggest rock stars.

Today’s guest is someone who is living the Rockstar life. Let me introduce you to Mr. David Bergman, the official tour photographer of Bon Jovi. We’ll talk about his crazy schedule when he is on tour with the band, why being persistent and knowing exactly what you want is the key to success and why his upcoming workshop is taking place on a cruise ship.

Today's guest is Kyser Lough, a music photographer and Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. What made this interview so fascinating for me was that Kyser is the first one I know of who wrote 2 research-based papers in the field of concert photography. And as he told me there is almost no literature in the academic field about this topic out there. So he is helping with his findings to make the concert photography community even better. Kyer had a closer look at the body movements of concert photographers in the pit and how behaviors like blocking others can have an effect on the whole group. In addition, he interviewed women about their experiences in the male-dominated photo pits and drew some interesting conclusions which can help us to make the photo pit a safe place for all of us.

Today's guest is the Swedish musician Stefan Bratt. He is the founding members of one of my favorite bands, Atlas Losing Grip and he recently joined the punk rock legends of No Fun At All. In this interview will we talk about how to deal with self-doubts and how to survive the music business as a musician, Stefan will talk about behind the scenes of Atlas Losing grip and why he is living his dream right now.

Today’s guest is New York-based music photographer Joe Papeo. We’ll talk about why Joe left his high paying desk job in order to live his dream as a concert photographer, how he managed to break into the music industry and why he is now shooting for the Impractical Jokers, one of the biggest comedy television shows that tours a live show.