Director Scott Hicks Presents ‘Icons: Behind the Velvet Rope’
For a very strictly limited season ICONS: BEHIND THE VELVET ROPE, photographs by internationally acclaimed film director Scott Hicks, is showing at ILA. In this new multi-sensory photography exhibition, Hicks takes us through a black and white journey of concerts from the 70s and 80s. Capturing some remarkable memories of iconic artists such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Michael Hutchence, Bob Marley The B52s and Devo just to name a few, all shot on celluloid where there was no room for error. No continuous press of digital shots. Just shoot and hope for the best.
For those too young to understand the pain of photography back then, celluloid was a limited roll of film unlike digital where you have GB (gigabyte) and GB of room. Hicks had to be precise. Each moment had to be calculated with the right timing, the right manual settings, the right aperture and be ready to capture that cheeky smile of Rod Stewart or the snarky look of Gary Numan or the raw emotion of The Motels Marth Davis singing Total Control.
Hicks narrates a seventeen-minute-long film portrayed on a wall to wall LED screen bringing visual life to each photo and giving us context to each shot with accompanying stories. During one show, Gary Numan warned the crowd not to take photos or he would leave the stage. Hicks knew that the only opportunity to take photos was during the encore and if Numan left it was at the end of his performance and by then it wouldn’t matter. He got the shot.
For some people the photos will take them back in time to when they saw some of these shows at Memorial Drive or Adelaide Oval. For Hicks as he tells us he “elbowed his way to the front of the stage” to capture moments in time. The photos are for sale and one man who was at the Bowie concert in Adelaide was able to buy a moment in his time.
Scott Hicks time as a photographer took him on a path to film, shooting film clips for INXS and eventually directing films such as Academy Award nominated Shine. The exhibition is fascinating as each shot represents the time and place of a bygone era. Where smoking and drinking on stage was standard and concert performances were on simple stages, no flashing lights or fire theatrics and the main act was the star of the show.
Review By Anastasia Lambis
