Photographer James Mollison came up with a pretty fascinating photographic concept here. He set up a photo booth outside concerts from 62 different artists, and snapped shots of the bands’ fans. Turning them into a coffee table book called The Disciples
Here are some samples.
George Michael
Oasis
Marylin Manson
Morrisey
Via The Atlantic.
Comments
Seems like just an attempt to find some fans that look sufficiently like the artists… I really like the Cure, but heck, I don’t dress like Robert Smith.
I thought maybe an attempt to demonstrate that people will dress like the artist as part of an attempt to belong to a “tribe”… I suspect the comment is more on what people will do when they congregate with others from that tribe, in the presence of the tribe’s messianic figure. I see no reason to dress like the bands I like, because I see no reason to belong to their particular sub-sub-culture, it doesn’t mean I don’t like the bands, but it does mean I’m not a “disciple” of that band, or its associated culture – some artists (like the Insane Clown Posse) make the bar a little higher by essentially instructing their fans to dress and act in a particular way. I think that’s interesting from a sociological perspective, and I think these photographs capture something interesting about the way we try to belong, and the way we create associations with people of influence. What would be interesting would be doing a percentage breakdown of the number of people at each gig who dressed like the singer – that’d be a measure of the artist’s stickiness. Or something.