Portrait Music Project Invitation: I-Thou

Hello! You are probably here because I gave you my business card or a link to this page. If I did, it was because I’d really like you to be a part of an art project I’m developing with musicians and composers from all over the world. (If you’re not a musician, don’t worry because I also want to include those more broadly involved in the world of music – even if that means you just love listening to it!)

If you came here via some other route, and you work in the music world, please read on!

I am developing a large artwork, made up of hundreds of portraits of musicians, performers, and composers, from a wide range of genres and traditions.

The portraits will form a large, organic transcript for an imagined piece of music. I will be working with a composer later in the project to mix the visual sequences with new music/sound work; the imagined piece of music will become real. The intent is for the work to be shown and performed. (If you are a composer and are interested in talking more about this, and possibly being involved, let me know.)

Each portrait is of someone listening to a piece of music that they love. The portrait sitter chooses the music, and the moods. The portraits capture something of the complex emotions that we feel when listening to music. I am especially interested in our experiences of the sublime – connecting to something that is both part of, and beyond us.

The idea began when I attended a performance of Bach’s Italian Concerto, and other pieces, played by James McVinnie. He had asked the organiser, London’s Peckham Levels, to set things up “in the round”.  It was a late summer evening and the sun was setting through Golden Hour, pouring glorious light into the partially open-air venue. Not only did I get to enjoy Jamie’s playing, and the pieces themselves, but we all got to see each other experiencing the music, bathed in utterly sublime light.

Jamie, an internationally renowned concert organist and pianist, became the first sitter for this project (see images below) and I hope you will join him and others in representing the best of those involved in the music world.

So, what do you get from taking part?

You will be taking part in an artwork which I hope speaks to a shared ground of being, something, for lack of a better word, spiritual. It feels increasingly urgent to me that more people feel some sense of something beyond themselves, and of the feelings and experiences of other people. I hope you feel the same and want to help me do something about it. The work evokes empathy, a critical experience in feeling connected to others, and I hope it will also provoke something like awe.

The work will cite the pieces of music being listened to by each sitter, a way of connecting music with the experiences in the photographs and of widening audiences’ awareness of music pieces, artists/performers, and composers/song writers. There will be a playlist of these, separate from the piece itself.

Each participant in these free shoots gets at least 10-20 high quality jpg headshot images, free for their personal and professional use (see the Photo Licence agreement below for the details). I will take some images primarily as useful headshots, and others as more “arty” images for the project. Please take a look at my Portraits page to get an idea of my work.

Participants include leading singers, soloists, conductors, composers, and publishers, as well as those who are not well known in the music world. The project is a deep celebration of music across genres, traditions, and locations.

I am especially interested now in finding older people, and people who are not White British/White European. I am still welcoming everyone but have had quite a lot of young white men and women involved so far and the project needs to be diverse and representative.

OK, but what’s involved? 

If you live or spend any time in the UK, we can arrange to meet at some point at my studio. I’m based in Notting Hill, London, about a 3 minute walk from the tube. The sessions ideally take around 2 hours but if you have a crazy schedule, or are time-pressed for any other reason, we can do something much faster.

So are you interested?! Of course you are!

Please click the email link and we can discuss things further. (And do feel free to let others know about the project; I’d be delighted to talk to them.)

I’m interested!: lucien@lucienstanfield.com

Many thanks and best wishes,

Lucien

P.S. For me to use the photos taken, and for you to use them too, we both need to sign release forms. I wish we didn’t need to do this but such is the way of the world. Please see the link below and please complete and sign your bit and bring to our session.

Talent Release Form (and your License to use the photos)

Here’s Renata’s post about her shoot for the project, a screenshot of the Barbican’s use of an image taken from my session with Tom Randle (this kind of use of images is permitted in the Release agreement), and some images from past shoots (Instagram has more).