Year End Reflections-- Births, New Beginnings and Passings
December 16, 2008
It has been another exciting, strange and wonderful year here both in my personal life and in our work at 44 Pictures. We have
moved into a new office (the parlor floor of my new house!), I am excitedly awaiting the birth of my second child and my man Barack Obama became the
44th President of the USA (I knew the number 44 was an auspicious one!).
-Sam Erickson
As these exciting new things happen for me and for the company, sadly I am reminded that life ends as well. Recently we have had two projects here that
brought this truth home in different and unexpected ways. In September I traveled to the Gorge to photograph my old friends in Dave Matthews Band.
It was their first show after the funeral of Leroi Moore, the founding saxophone player in the band and a friend of mine for 15 years. It was a very
moving event for the band obviously and for the fans and I think the shows they played that weekend at the Gorge really reflected both the sadness that
everyone felt and their love for Leroi and the music they made together. It was a pretty amazing experience.
Check out some of the shots here.
The other project that brought home a sad truth was the PSA shoot we did for Live Earth India, the concert event that was scheduled for December 7th
and tragically cancelled by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. It was such a dispiriting experience to shoot these commercials of hope and inspiration
and good work and then have their meaning drowned out by the barbaric acts of a few people hell bent on destruction. Still, the experience of making
these spots was gratifying and I am proud of the work we did. You can see a few of them here.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing all of you, my friends, clients, partners in crime etc, very soon and wish everyone a great holiday season.
44 Pictures Blog
July 10, 2008
44 Pictures returned to Bonnaroo this year for our second consecutive festival. Like last year, we produced the video shooting on all of the stages save the main and second stage. Also like last year, our stages were filled with incredible performers from all realms of the musical spectrum. What a treat to be a part of this crazy spectacle.
As it was our second year, some of the kinks from the first year got worked out and we really hit it out of the park I think. Plus this year there was a television outlet for some of our work as FUSE is broadcasting various special hours of television from Bonnaroo and many of the bands on our stages are featured so turn into FUSE all this month to see some of the amazing music we were so privileged to film.
It is amazing to see a festival of this size from the inside. Given the miles and miles of cable that runs along the ground carrying picture and audio, and the thousands upon thousands of people that it takes to pull it off, it is a wonder that more things don’t go wrong. The festival is staffed by an amazingly talented group of people from Trio Video, to Third Wave productions, to Three on a Tree (Danny Clinch’s company who were producing video for the main and second stages) and we at 44 Pictures were most honored to be among these awesome talents. We look forward to doing it again next year.
CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY FROM 44 Pictures stages at Bonnaroo 2008.