Interview with Benjamin Longman
photo credit Sheena Zilinski @sheenazilinski
In a sentence how do you self-identify as a human/creator?
My bio says 'Musician/photographer/musician photographer', and I think that sums it up pretty well. I'm a musician first, photographer close second, but really I try not to separate the two. It's all storytelling.
What is coming up for you artistically and where and when can we see it?
For music, you can catch me as part of Music Mile’s ‘Friday Night Broadcasts’ on Feb 12th as part of Chinook Blast. It’ll be streaming on the Music Mile YYC Facebook page at 8pm, and I’m having a lot of fun prepping something a bit different. Tune in!”
“For photography, I’ve been working with Wyatt C Louis capturing the recording process for his upcoming record, I’m really happy with the results so far, it’s great to be back in the studio. Don’t know when you’ll see it yet though!
What do you love about photographing during record creation?
I actually do have an answer for what I love about working on records! Photographing shows and sessions, particularly in the grainy black & white that I generally lean towards anyway, is really my favourite kind of photography. Musicians, and artists as a whole, are sentimental and nostalgic people by nature, I think. We grow up admiring players from a bygone era, where so few photographs are available that show their 'process' compared to today, which gives this mythical and 'larger than life' quality to these artists which can often feel unattainable now. I try to emulate this style of photography, capture the people I work with in the depths of their process, and show them how much closer they are to their heroes than they might think.
I'd love to know if there’s anything else creative you’re excited to be working on or simply enjoying right now?
I'm trying to use some of this time to curate a collection of my favourite 'behind the scenes' photographs of the various tours, shows, and records I've been a part of. It might become a zine eventually, it might just be for me!
You can find more about Ben Longman HERE! and @ben.alogue