Behind The Lens.. Colin Lane

Can you share your journey into music photography and what drew you into it?

I’ve been a music fanatic since I was in high school. Then I went to University of Texas in Austin in the mid to late 80’s. When I first flew down there I saw a big sign in the airport that said something like “Welcome to Austin, the live music capital of the world”. I was in heaven and the next six years that I lived there I saw SO many shows and concerts, but I wasn’t taking any pictures yet. I was studying film and one of the student films I worked on was a documentary about a country band called The Wagoneers, who were the first country band that Herb Alpert signed to A&M Records. That was a great experience and made me realize I liked working with musicians.

After school I moved to NYC and, having decided I’d rather be a photographer than a filmmaker, started assisting all sorts of photographers. I ended up working for an amazing fashion photographer named Enrique Badulescu for three years. We traveled around the world, shooting gorgeous models, partying, and having a great time. A lot of the time we were on a beach somewhere. So of course I was hooked and started out wanting to be a fashion photographer. In the late 90’s I broke out on my own and got an agent in London. I was doing small fashion shoots but started to realize that maybe I wasn’t cut out for that world. 

That’s when I started to get some assignments shooting musicians. I think the very first band I shot was The Donnas, for Nylon magazine. Then I shot Rufus Wainwright for i-D magazine and A-Trak for Interview. Eventually, in January of 2001, I got the assignment that changed everything for me. The Face magazine, the UK bible of pop culture and fashion, asked me to shoot a then unknown band called The Strokes. I was sent their three song EP The Modern Age and instantly knew they were going to be big. I didn’t know how big and I didn’t know about the bidding war that was going on between rival record labels to sign them. They were basically the biggest unsigned band in the world. 

They came over to my apartment and I gave them some beers and we did some pictures at my apartment but then we went on an adventure and snuck up on the roofs of a couple of skyscrapers in midtown. Those pictures turned out amazing and I’m convinced that is why they chose me to shoot the press photos for their first album, Is This It, a month or two later. On the day of the shoot I brought my portfolio with me (this was before I had a website) just so they could see what my photography was like. They were leaving the very next day for their first tour of UK and Australia and RCA was very nervous that they hadn’t chosen a cover yet. They knew that once they were on tour they might not get any “work” done. So at the end of the day I broke out my portfolio and Julian started to flip through it on the RV we had rented for the day. The Ass Shot, as I call it, was in my portfolio. I had shot it a little while before I met the band. Julian saw it and was like, “that would be a cool cover. Would you mind if we used it?”. I was blown away and told him of course! Everybody was happy…me, the band and most of all the art directors Tracy Boychuk and Brett Kilroe. We could all rest easy. 

However, as the story goes, when the band reached Australia, Julian was flipping through a coffee table book and came across the picture of atoms colliding, and he liked it even more than the Ass Shot! He called RCA to tell them he’d found another cover….but LUCKILY for me it was already at the printing presses! They’d already printed thousands with my cover so RCA told him he could have it for North America but my cover would be the one the rest of the world got. If he had found that picture a few days earlier I wouldn’t have gotten the cover. Many people think it was too risqué for America and that’s why it was changed but that had nothing to do with it. It was just timing. After Is This It came out and The Strokes got huge I started to get a lot more music work and the rest is history.

What is one of the most memorable shoots you've photographed and what made it special?

When The Strokes took me on tour with them in 2002, it was really my introduction to the rock and roll lifestyle. They were headlining three big festivals in the UK…two Carling Festivals, one in Reading, one in Leeds, and then Gig On The Green in Glasgow. Playing in front of 80,000 fans each night, they were the biggest shows they’d played up to that point. It was very exciting. I was hanging out backstage, shooting onstage, sleeping on the bus, etc. Other bands in the lineup were The White Stripes, Pulp, Moldy Peaches, Guided By Voices and many others. The Strokes were on top of the world and I was right there to document it all. 

Shooting John Cale was also a big deal for me. He’s one of my musical heroes. I’d started going to see him perform in the mid-80’s in Austin. He usually played solo and he’s a very intense guy….not many smiles and he’d usually end up pounding on the piano and screaming. I was so nervous the night before but he turned out to be a really nice guy with a dry sense of humor. I brought my new English Bulldog puppy, Louie, with me to the shoot and John took a shine to him and asked to do some pictures with him! Louie even got a shout out on the album liner notes. A few days later John invited me to breakfast at his hotel to go over the contact sheets, which had never happened to me before. Thank god he liked them!

What advice would you give to music photographers starting out on their careers? Don’t just go to shows and shoot live shots. Anybody can do that. Find a good local band and ask them if you can do some band portraits (for free of course). Work on establishing a relationship with bands. It’s portraits that will get you work with record labels and magazines. 

Who or what inspires you?

I get inspiration from a lot of people/things/places. New York City always inspires me. Walking the streets every day you see so much. I love scouting locations for a shoot and finding new places I can take a band. Movies inspire me a lot, especially classic movies from the 60’s and 70’s. Seeing Apocalypse Now when I was 11 or 12 made me want to do something visual. Photographers that inspire me include…Godlis, Chris Stein, Jim Marshall, Bob Gruen, Andy Warhol, Helen Levitt, William Klein, Gary Winogrand, Elliott Erwit, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Bruce Davidson, Sacha Lecca, Helmut Newton, Robert Frank, Mario Sorrenti, Enrique Badulescu, Araki, Daido Moriyama, Sebastio Selgado, Larry Burrows, Gordon Parks and many more.

Which is your favorite photo on Behind The Gallery? 

Of mine?…I love the shot of Kings of Leon all jumping in the attic. It was sweltering hot up there so I only asked them to jump two or three times, but we got it. We were all sweating so much!

You can see Colins Collection here and the famous 'Ass' shot that become one of the most iconic album covers in modern music here.