IF FRED DURST CAN ACKNOWLEDGE THE PHOTOGRAPHER, YOU CAN

I’m saddened I’m having to write yet another piece on crediting photographers. Yesterday, Limp Bizkit frontman acknowledged and shared one of our photographers (Bella Proudfoot) images. That was brilliant, yet some upcoming bands can’t even credit a photographer who’s driven and travelled miles out of her way for free to shoot, review and promote a band. I’ll be honest in over ten years of doing this, it makes me sick.

You’d think in the music industry, crediting the person who captured the night would be obvious. Unfortunately it still isn’t. The moment the image is of you, bathed in stage light, mid-guitar solo, looking like you were born to headline, the rules seem to evaporate.

The logic goes: “It’s me, therefore it’s mine. It isn’t.”

That photograph is not a spontaneous gift from the universe. It’s the product of someone else’s labour, the hours in the pit, the fight for a clear shot through a wall of elbows, the skill to work in light levels that would make a bat squint, and the editing marathon that follows long after the amps have cooled.

In any other creative field, taking work without naming its author would be called what it is, unauthorised use. In music photography, it’s too often waved away as harmless. But it’s not harmless it’s the quiet theft of time, skill, and authorship.

Here’s what you don’t see. The photographer arrived hours before doors opened, lugging gear through security checks, negotiating with venue staff, and staking out a spot in a photo pit the size of a coffin. They shot in low light, dodging elbows, beer spray, and security guards who think “three songs, no flash” isn’t a personal challenge. It really is. They worked around strobes that could blind a pilot and smoke machines that make autofocus cry.

Then they went home or more likely, to a hotel room at 2 a.m. and started the real work. Sorting hundreds of frames. Adjusting exposure so the singer’s face isn’t lost in red wash. Cropping out the guy in the front row who spent the entire set filming on his phone. Balancing colour so the stage looks electric but your skin doesn’t look radioactive. Exporting, uploading, sending galleries before the band’s PR deadline.

More often than not, this work is unpaid. As a voluntary magazine, we do it to support the industry. We fight to get our photographers paid, but that’s a minefield of its own. The irony is that the only consistent exposure they receive comes from us promoting them and from the very shots you use. Even that vanishes the moment you post the image without their name. The reality is that nine times out of ten, especially when trying to get known in the industry, photographers are shooting gigs for free, even when the bigger bands sometimes do pay. So, it’s a real kick in the teeth when people don’t credit.

This isn’t about politeness. It’s about the chain of authorship. Without the photographer, your triumphant stage moment is just a memory in a dark room. With them, it’s a record, one that can be shared, archived, and remembered.

When you strip the credit, you’re not just forgetting a name. You’re ignoring the hours in the pit, the skill in the edit, and the craft that made you look like you were born to be there.

So here’s the rule, if you use the photograph, you name the photographer. Prominently. Every time. Because not doing so isn’t clever, or harmless, it’s just rude.

Header Image: Bella Proudfoot