Behind the Lens: Photographer Michael G. Stewart

by Rick Landers.

Maryland-based photographer and illustrator Michael G. Stewart always gets the shot. Whether he's backstage in dim light with a laconic subject or in the middle of a frenzied crowd of fans at a rock show with blinding stage lights, he nails it. Artists he's covered include Les Paul, Neal Schon, Steve Howe, Martin Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Johnson, Sonny Landreth, Dick Dale, Nokie Edwards, Marshall Crenshaw, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Doc Watson, Frank Vignola, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Jimmy Bruno, Deke Dickerson, among a large group of rock, jazz and traditional roots musicians.

Although Stewart didn't begin his artistic career in photography, it must have been a natural inclination to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather who all established themselves as professional image makers in the Washington, D.C. area.

Michael serves as the principal photographer for the National Council for Traditional Arts and has worked with the National Endowment for the Arts. Earlier in his career he was the Chief Photographer for DC's off-beat magazine Quirks. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, Modern Guitars, Guitar Player, Vintage Guitar, the Discovery Channel online, Just Jazz Guitar, Chamber Music, Scoot Quarterly, The Classic Motorcyle, and the Strad.

Most of the time, Stewart can be found traipsing along the beaten paths of America in his quest to capture vintage diners, motorcycles, classic cars, guitars and musicians at work and play. He's covered rock shows, jazz clubs, guitar and music conventions and can occasionally be seen leaning out of hovering helicopters shooting the world below.

His imaginative work as an illustrator can be found in three successful childrens' books written by author and entertainer Barry Louis Polisar. Michael also illustrated a guide to the Scottish steel string harp and has published a coffee table book on the restoration of St. Mathew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Stewart and his teenage son, Spencer, have gathered enough shots of classic diners and roadside America that they will soon publish an account of their travels and those beloved and vanishing features of the American landscape.

I first met Michael back in 1985 at a party where he was courting his future wife who is a classically trained professional violinist. At the time he and a friend were enthusiastically immersed in a plan to start their own rock band and they had already arrived at an appropriate name, Mid-Life Crisis. Twenty years later, we crossed paths again when Modern Guitars magazine was on the prowl for a photographer in the D.C. area. Bob Shade, president of Hallmark Guitars, and I were discussing the magazine and his guitars when he offhandedly mentioned that he knew a great photographer named Michael Stewart.

I've since discovered that Michael's talents have been embraced by the top jazz musicians on the East Coast, as well as have earned him the respect and admiration of musicians rooted in the traditions of old time Appalachian music. I was able to catch up with Michael between a whirlwind of photo gigs to talk about his career, the art of photography and his love of music and all things guitar.

You’re from a third generation family of photographers. Were you steered toward your career?

Michael G. Stewart: Actually I started out for a career in art and illustration. My father was a photographer, but died at a very young age, so the direct connection to photography was out of grasp. I came to photography in my early teens and twenties.

You’re schooled in photography?

MGS: No, I started out pursuing a career in art at the Maryland Institute of Art College Art in Baltimore [Maryland] and I had training as a film maker. Somewhere along the line I took up photography. Most of that was self-taught.

What type of rig do you use?

MGS: I’ve always been a Canon person. Since the early ‘70s I’ve used Canon equipment and have always found that as a film camera and digital camera they’ve been of outstanding quality. They’re very easy to use, very durable and just very good equipment overall.

It was a big change after using film for 25 years, both 35mm and larger format. It was rather scary diving into the deep water of the digital field. A very different type of technology, but having switched to fully digital over the past three years in terms of shooting in the music and entertainment fields I’ve actually found it a much more versatile medium. It’s much faster to work with covering a much wider range of applications, especially in the print field as well as with applications like CD and cover designs for the web.

Most artists seem to favor Macs.

MGS: That seems to be true. I work in a pc environment, however, most of the designers I work with use a Mac. I expect to switch pretty soon. The imaging industry is pretty much Mac-based in the professional world. It’s just easier to go to for technology for any image work.

Do you focus on the entertainment business or do you handle a broader spectrum of assignments?

MGS: During the past 28 years, I’ve made my living as an architectural and aerial photographer. That’s been the focus of the family business that I recently left. Music and roadside America are the things that I truly love. Apart from the aerial portion from my former career, I don’t miss that so much. It would be nice to make entertainment my full-time work. I’m not sure that’s possible. Having come from a lifetime of listening, creating and interacting with the music entertainment business, I really love and enjoy and believe I have a fine feel for it as a photographer making images.

I’ve also been a performer and I’m married to a full-time classical musician. Both have given me contacts and close working relationships in the music world, so I understand and appreciate that world.

Your website reflects an interest in music, motorcycles and roadside America, specifically diners.

MGS: Yes. My son Spencer actually has a website on roadsideonline.com and he’s probably the youngest acknowledged diner expert in the country. I’ve gone to diners for years and years and have felt that it’s a wonderful piece of vanishing America and a vanishing community. Pretty much independently my son Spencer developed that love and has taken that much further. He’s in contact with every major diner expert and artist in America. So we’ve been on many road trips in search of forgotten diners.

You met Stevie Ray Vaughan before he exploded on to the music scene.

MGS: Yeah, I met him at a party after he came back from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The first time I’d seen him was before he’d become a known name. But, it was immediately apparent that this was somebody who was going to be well known in a very short time. He was a tremendous talent and a very nice guy. And even though he worked in a very traditional genre of blues and blues rock, he had that personal touch that set him apart. And although there have been many people coming since, in that same vein, he was just someone special that I don’t think anyone since his passing would be where they are musically had it not been for his taking up the torch and carrying it on.

When we've been covering a performance you always disappear.

MGS: Yeah, well it’s always good to have a sense of where the performers are going to be when they’re on stage so you’re able to access those areas to get those shots and not be obtrusive to the audience. As a photographer you should be unseen! You don't want to be a distraction to the performer or the audience. It’s important to get the angles and the views you want to make the performer look his best, but at the same time, you want to be as unobtrusive as humanely possible. Photographers aren’t the focus and they aren’t the event. I’m there to capture the moment and not be part of that moment. You say I disappear and that’s exactly right. I should be someone that no one knows is there.

You’re particularly well known for your jazz and folk photography.

MGS: For years and years I was strictly a rock guy doing photos for bands and concerts throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, but I grew up listening to jazz. Over the years I’ve made some great contacts within the jazz world. I think that love for that music has helped make me the “go to” guy for that type of photography, at least on the East Coast. I’ve made a lot of personal contacts with wonderful players who are also wonderful people.

For the past ten years, I’ve also been affiliated with the National Council for the Traditonal Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts, who put on the National Folk Festival and the Irish Folk Festival and primarily with the folk and traditional arts that run the spectrum classical blues to folk traditions. By folk traditions we’re not talking about Peter, Paul and Mary. We’re talking about old traditional mountain or roots Appalachian, Zydeco and Celtic music. I’ve been able to establish a strong rapport with musicians in those worlds.

And I’ve met some phenomenal guitar players who are lost to the main stream and don't get the credit they deserve. I get the opportunity to work with those folks and with traditional jazz players, as well as rock and the avant garde world as well.

Who have been some of the most memorable guitarists you’ve shot?

MGS: Well, certainly Les Paul was a “must remember” moment. He is just the greatest guy in the world, very funny, personable, with loads of stories and even at his advanced age is still a great player and an inspiration to any of us who pick a guitar.

I’d have to go back to my younger years and talk about some of my definite favorites from the heyday of the San Francisco sound and psychedelic players. There was Jerry Garcia who everyone knows, but others like Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna who’s always been a favorite guitar player of mine. Lesser known people like Randy Holden of Blue Cheer who has gone on to an interesting career. I also liked John Cippolina from Quicksilver Messenger Service who has been pretty much forgotten. He's definitely a favorite. I’ve always liked Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs, a British blues band.

Recently, I’ve been hanging out with a lot of superb jazz guitarists including Steve Abshire and Paul Wingo who were both in military bands. Steve was with the Navy's jazz ensemble, the Commodores, and Paul was with the Army Blues Band. These guys are phenomenal players, just killer guitarists.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet some fabulous folks. One of my favorites was Pop Staples who had phenomenal sound and touch. He was also one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet.

What about fellow Marylander Danny Gatton?

MGS: Danny Gatton was a tragic loss to all of us. I started seeing him in the early ‘70s when he played every week at the Italian Gardens restaurant in Maryland. He kept that up for years. I’m still in touch with members from some of his bands. Danny was the most unassuming guy and he could play anything. Literally play anything. His records don’t do him justice. I’d see him in little bars just wailing away. He could play jazz, hillbilly music, straight away blues and no one could touch him.

The tragedy was that he wasn’t playing one commercial genre, so he really wasn’t given the attention that he deserved. I suppose the hardest thing was that he got so close to recognition, but it was never truly granted to him except from a very narrow group of guitarists. Danny Gatton was a colossal talent who’s sorely missed.

Did you know him?

MGS: No, I didn’t know him personally. I wish I had and think we would have had a lot to talk about beyond guitars, especially hot rods. No, I was just another guy in the crowd.

Jazz and folk music seem to have lost their audiences during the past fifty years.

MGS: For what I do, the core definition of folk may be different. My focus has been on traditional roots music. For both jazz and traditional folk artists you’re talking about people who are outside the commercial mainstream. Jazz, at one time, was a huge influence on commercial culture during the ‘30s and ‘40s, but certainly since the dawn of the ‘70s has been a musical form that has not been fully appreciated.

Jazz and traditional artists share the burden of not being able to make a living at it. These are individuals who spend their lives studying and playing who are largely left unappreciated and unrewarded when it comes to sales.

For better or worse the new commercial music outlets available to them are limited to downloads to iPod or MP3 players. Most of these guys are self-produced, not making any money and any recognition they do get tends to be from a very small community. I know a number of hugely talented jazz performers who are big names in the jazz field, but when it comes to supporting that talent, they’re pretty much left out in the cold.

You’ve been designing music cover art for some time now.

MGS: Yeah, I’ve been doing this for over twenty years as far as album cover design. Most of the work I get is from word of mouth. I’m either asked to do something from artists that I know or from artists who know artists that I know. A lot of this comes from shooting live performances. I get a great deal of satisfaction from live gigs and especially being allied with fabulous musicians.

The creative process depends largely on the individual artist. Some have very specific ideas and some come in with absolutely no idea. In the rock and pop world it is a little easier because there’s usually a manager or promoter involved where we work in concert, no pun intended, to make sure the artist is easily recognized in the marketplace.

Many of the jazz and traditional folk artists, those on small labels, don’t realize that packaging is crucial. Sometimes they’ll arrive and just say “Here take this picture and put it on the cover.” I try to steer away from that and try to complement the music by trying to make the cover say what they’re trying to say with their music.

Some do need to be educated and I try to make that part of working with any artist. I like to make the packaging as wonderful as the music inside. It shouldn’t be skimped upon and I try to work with some really good graphic designers and art directors to ensure that the published package looks professional and reflects the music. It should all be married together. You don’t want a CD or album cover that’s not in keeping with the quality and standards of the music.

CDs give a much smaller point of sales space to grab buyers.

MGS: In the past you had a large canvas for the art work. You’re right the packaging isn’t what it used to be. You now work with a five inch square rather than a twelve inch square. I use to buy records based solely on covers! Really! I could look at a King Crimson or a BeBop Deluxe album or a Stanley Mouse studios cover and I’d buy the album strictly based on the cover. You don’t see that much in the era of CDs, but that’s one of things that was exciting for me starting out. You had a large canvas that everyone could see and it could be associated with the music.

With people now downloading their music, do you think CD packaging will go the way of the dinosaur?

MGS: I hope not! I think that you will see some of that happening. But, I think there will always be a place for art to complement the music. For any kind of music marketing you see it tied to some type of visual whether it’s a CD cover or a video or a video cover. It will migrate and turn into different things. Of course, I think with the huge number of opportunities for music distribution on-line that it will change from an in-hand CD, perhaps to images on a website that can be downloaded and disseminated. I think and I hope that there will always be opportunities for imaging even though that’s liable to change in the next five years.

How does a professional photographer nail a cover on a music magazine?

MGS: It’s very difficult. I’ve got several and it’s largely by connections at this point. There are a lot of amateurs out there, but knowing when and how to get that great shot is very important. The thinking on intellectual property rights has also changed over the past thirty years.

When I started out anyone could carry a camera into a concert and take pictures. Today, many artists try to keep control of their images. Still people sneak in with point and shooters or camera phones. Still, I don’t think anything can compete with a pro image. Most magazines need a certain level of resolution.

The tough thing for a professional photographer today is the technology leaps ahead making it easier for amateurs to get decent shots. In the long run I think that will hurt the industry. When an amateur turns pro, they find that what they’ve been offering for free will come back to hurt them because their images, in practical terms, no longer belong to them.

What’s been the most challenging part of your career?

MGS: Well, working with this one guy from Modern Guitars has been pretty challenging! [Laughs]

A big challenge is shooting live jazz performances in small clubs because of bad light. It’s hard to get a good image in a club with very low lighting and tungsten lighting. Pros rarely use flash and we like to rely on natural light. It just makes getting good shots a lot harder. Most commercial rock and pop venues have fabulous lighting and it’s hard to get a bad shot! But when working in a crowd of 10,000 or more people getting access to the front of the stage is tough. If you’re on the job and have access then it’s a lot more fun.

I remember back in ’72, a relative of mine was an on again, off again roadie with the Allman Brothers. This was the emergent era of Southern Rock when Wet Willie was the opening act for a guitarist named Jeff Beck! I was trying to get up close to the stage and tried to find someone to give me good access when some guy hauls off and punches me square in the face and knocks me on the ground. That was probably the nastiest occasion I experienced.

It’s changed a lot from being a shooter in a crowd to now having to get confirmed access and sometimes a press or photo pass. Smaller jazz and traditional folks gigs aren’t so problematic. But certainly the big name rock acts always require formal access before getting those great shots, as well as typically calling for no flash and limiting the time that you can get shots.

Ever dealt with a performer who didn’t want to be photographed?

MGS: I’ve covered lots of people like that. It really depends on the individual on how to best address those situations. That’s when it is particularly important to be unobtrusive and to get the shots as quick as possible. They obviously want you there because it’s advantagous for their careers. But they have private lives and want to keep at least a part of them under the radar. It can be difficult. Luckily, most artists are very nice and enjoyable to work with. The important thing is to maintain a professional demeanor and remember that the people on stage are professional, you’re a professional and you’re not there to be a pal and hang out, but to create your art in an environment that allows them to create theirs.

Do you approach a live performance much differently than a CD cover?

MGS: The final product drives different demands. If you’re shooting in a journalistic capacity to document a particular situation or performance, then you keep it as straight as possible. In a live setting I think the most important thing is to accurately report or document the performance. When it comes to CD packaging I think the more creative that you can be, the better it is for everyone. If the project dictates straight documentation then that's appropriate, however, if it allows you latitude to be creative then your creativity as a photographer comes into play. Why not be as creative as you can be? There are two very different situations there between journalism and packaging.

Do you know how a shot's going to turn out once you take it?

MGS: As a professional you try to be prepared to create that perfect shot every time. I think that's truly the definition of a professional photographer. But any photographer who's been around will tell you that some of your best shots are completely unscripted, completely a surprise. You don't know what's going to happen, there are surprises and there are contraditictions, a crap shoot. Some are complete serendipity. But on the onehand you should be ready to make that perfect shot. That sets you apart from the guys who are shooting for the fun of it. Whether you shoot ten or one hundered you shoot for the perfect shot.

An area we haven’t covered is guitar photography?

MGS: Yeah, I’ve done a lot of that. There are some superb guitar builders out there that are building some incredible guitars of all types.

Any new CD cover projects in the works?

MGS: Yes, I have a number of guitar CDs coming out soon. Most of them are jazz releases. I have one with the fabulous Philadelphia-based bebop guitarist Jimmy Bruno, as well as one for Gene Bertoncini up in New York who’s coming out with an album with a stringed quartet that should be quite interesting. I’m talking with Frank Vignola about the possibility of some cover work for an album he’s doing with the Gypsy Grass ensemble that, I suspect, will feature some great gypsy, jazz, and possibly bluegrass fusion.

A couple folk things with some blues people Rick Franklin and Michael Baytop who’ll be covering some work of an old blues guy named Frank Stokes. That should have some nice National steel resonator work on it. I’m working on a concept for the Seldom Scene one of the best bluegrass groups around that will feature their fabulous guitarist Dudley Connell. That’ll be a CD to definitely check out! And I’ve been collaborating with a great rockabilly player Deke Dickerson on some things. I am looking forward to getting some more rock guys in there.

We’ve talked a bit about guitarists, but what about the tools of the trade that we all covet so much?

MGS: Yeah, we should touch on the guitars themselves! I do a lot of work with luthiers. We don’t want to forget about the people who build fine guitars. We all can’t wait to get our hands on another guitar. One guitar is never enough is it?

There are so many fabulous builders today and some young guys who are just incredible. The quality of many of these guitars is staggering and prices are really low if you compare them with the cost of high quality violins and the time that goes into building a great guitar. I’ve worked with some of the best including Bob Benedetto, John Buscerino, Roger Sadowsky and Bill Comins. All of them build beautiful archtops. There’s a little known guy from Baltimore named Gary Flowers who’s making a name for himself.

I’ve worked some graphics design and images for Bob Shade over at Hallmark Guitars, a company that resurrected the old designs from the ‘60s that still look cool. A few years back I did some stuff with Paul Reed Smith Guitars and recently I’ve been talking to MicroFrets that has come a gone a couple of times and is getting ready to get back into the business very soon with some of their quirky, bizarre and innovative designs.

I got some photos of guitars built by a young guy named Matt Artinger and ended up buying one of his guitars. His quality is nothing short of phenomenal and he’s a heck of a nice guy. He’s another guy to watch. He was working out of his parents' basement in this tiny space, but was coming out with some exquisite guitars. Now, he’s building rock guitars, archtops and basses.

How did you end up working with guitar aficionado and collector Scott Chinery?

MGS: A few years ago, I did some work with Scott. The Smithsonian was running his Blue Guitar exhibit that initially featured some of his vast and awesome collection that dovetailed with the museum’s exhibition on the evolution of the guitar in America. Afterwards he commissioned a group of about twelve of the best luthiers in the world to build some blue archtops.

During that time I shot the first of concerts featuring some of his blue guitars. He saw them and invited me up to New Jersey to see his collection and to cover the Blue Guitar concerts. That was certainly a terrific experience for me, not only to see some of the rarest and finest guitars on the planet, but to meet first hand some of the top luthiers in the world. What a thrill!

What advice would you like to offer to young photographers who are just beginning their careers?

MGS: Always be as professional as possible as your conduct reflects on all of us. That’s the reason there are so many restrictions. You have to remember that this is a performance and it’s the audience that counts and the artist's comfort level. The worst thing in the world is to have a flash going off all the time. It’s a real pain for the audience and it’s a real pain for the musicians. Nobody wants to be blinded every 30 seconds. It’s a very competitive field, so just be as professional as you can.

Related Link

Photographer - Michael G. Stewart

Other Photographers Featured in the Modern Guitars Behind the Lens Series
W.A. Williams
Gene Martin
Richard E. Aaron
Maryanne Bilham
Robert Knight

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