Sonic Youth
During my years as a music photographer, the two bands I shot the most were the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth, possibly because both of them were mind-melting performers. Just before the release of their Daydream Nation album, Sonic Youth played a series of shows in New York and New Jersey to work up their new songs for the longer tours ahead. Using telephoto lenses has always seemed like cheating to me, but when SY played the tiny Maxwell's bar in Hoboken, I was able to make extreme close-ups of the band at work. The group has since used several of my photographs as album and CD art, but never this one, though it’s always been one of my favourites. I think it makes Kim Gordon seem like a scientist as much as a rock star, and that’s a great combination.