David Byrne in the House
How I ended up assisting on a photo session with Talking Heads’ frontman
Back in March of this year, my friend Ahmed Klink - a photographer I met on Nostr in the Bitcoin community, though I think he was initially acquainted with me through my photography publication, NOICE Magazine — reached out asking if I wanted to be his production assistant for a shoot with David Byrne for his new album, “Who is the Sky?”.
I wasn't too familiar with David before Ahmed asked, but I knew him from the Talking Heads, so obviously I said yes. Then came the logistics of actually making it happen - scheduling everything around and figuring out if I could pull off the trip from South Carolina all the way up to Manhattan.
The Journey North
The drive involved coordinating between Airbnbs and making strategic stops along the way. I stayed at my dad's house for a few days in Charlotte, which I tend to do whenever I travel north. It's always a good stop to see my dad since I don't get to see him very often. From there, I scheduled a couple Airbnbs in Jersey City, where I was able to see my friend Raf - always nice to catch up with him and drop off some rolls of film (watch our interview together here). The next day I got another Airbnb in a different city, then drove the following morning to a parking garage in Manhattan that was a block or two from Ahmed's studio.
Sunday Afternoon Studios
The studio is called Sunday Afternoon Studios, and of course I was the first one there - I'm always early to things. I find it better to be early than late, and it's never a problem for me because I usually just end up walking around, taking pictures, and being able to relax without worrying about rushing to get somewhere.
When I told my dad about how this shoot was going to happen, he said, "Make sure to get a picture of him on his bike" - apparently David rides his bike around the city quite often. I kept that in mind, and when David came in, sure enough, he came up the elevator with his bike. I thought of my dad and took a quick picture and sent it to him. He appreciated that, so that was cool.
The Shoot
The shoot took a few hours, starting at 10 AM and wrapping up around 4:30 PM with cleanup. It was a gread day - I had a lot of fun and was able to learn more on lighting methods and setting up things I'd never worked with before in a professional environment. But I was also doing some documentary work with my Leica M262, so that's what these photos were taken with.
David's outfit, by the way, was extremely heavy - must've been at least 50 pounds or something like that. When I had to put it back in the box to ship it back to wherever it came from, I really noticed how heavy this thing actually was. It was made out of plastic tubing and zip ties and bungee cords and stuff. Actually really cool design work.
I had a great time. Big thanks to Ahmed and crew for this opportunity to help out, meet David, and take some pictures. Really great experience. I feel very grateful for everything.
Thanks for reading.
I mainly shoot with a Leica M262, and edit in Lightroom + Dehancer
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David Byrne was in the house?!!!
Uau! But he didn’t burn it, did he? 😁
So cool, Colin! What a fantastic shoot to be a part of!