Mott is a successful photographer who specialises in music industry portraits and concert images. The exhibition is excellent, both for his images and his unreserved comments alongside them.
The talk also contained information about artists that would fill a gossip column, as well as praise for famous and not-so-famous musicians.
One story I liked was about taking Perry Farrell's portrait, the screenshot above comes from Mott's website. The singer from Jane's Addiction and Porno For Pyros is a noted eccentric, as well as being the founder of the US Lollapolooza tour.
Mott recounted that he'd arrived at Farrell's hotel room and was asked by the singer if he trusted him. "Yeah, sure" he replied and was asked to close his eyes. After 10 seconds or so Mott opened his eyes again to find Farrell looking at him and asking "Hey! Where's the trust?"
Mott said he closed his eyes again and felt Farrell's hand on his genitals. When he opened his eyes in surprise Farrell said "Now we trust each other"!
It was great to be able to ask Tony Mott questions and learn from his experience. Afterward I introduced myself and recounted that we'd met at the front of Korn's gig in Canberra in 1997. He seemed to remember the night too.
You can see some of my concert photographs at First Three Songs, No Flash -- which refers to the instructions one usually gets before photographing a concert.
