Pamela Kleemann-Passi
Photographer & Visual Artist

Who Said Vinyl Is Dead?

001_Jimmy-Cliff_The-Metro-Melbourne-Australia-1993
008_MBilia-Bel_Palace_Melbourne-Australia-1993
010_Chantal_MBilia-Bel-Tour_Palace_Melbourne-Australia-1993
009_Abru_MBilia-Bel-Tour_Palace_Melbourne-Australia-1993
011_Majek-Fashek_Metro_Melbourne-Australia-1993
016_Salif-Keita_Palace-Melbourne-Australia-1993
021_Lucinda-Williams_Prince-of-Wales_Melbourne-Australia-1993
029_Malik_BuBaca_Osibi-African-Festival_Canberra-Australia-1993
002_Manu-Dibango_SOBs_New-York-1994
022_Amina-Claudine-Myers_The-Knitting-Factory_New-York-1994
019_Woodstock-25th-Anniversary_New-York-State-1994
025_Ken-Okulolo_Kotoja_South-Street-Seaport_New-York-1994
026_Soji-Odukogbe_Kotoja_South-Street-Seaport_New-York-1994
031_Marianne-Faithful_Rizolis-Book-Store_New-York-1994
003_Sierra-Maestra_Juan-Carlos-Marcos_BullringNGV_Melbourne-Australia-1995-1
004_Sierra-Maestra_BullringNGV_Melbourne-Autralia-1995
014_Fabio-Chivhanda_Port-Fairy-Folk-Festival_Australia-1995
020_Shane-Howard_Port-Fairy-Folk-Festival_Australia-1995
023_Leningrad-Cowboys_Central-Club-Hotel_Melbourne-Australia-1995
028_Stephen-Cummings_Melbourne-Town-Hall-Australia1995
017_Dave-marama_Musiki-Manjaro_Prince-Patrick-Hotel_Melbourne-Australia-1996
012_Doc-Cheatham-Chuck-Folds_Sweet-Basil_New-York
013_Jackie-Williams-Earl-May_Sweet-Basil_New-York-1996
024_Flora-Purim_SOBs_New-York-1996
018_Yolanda-Duka_SOBs_New-York-1996
015_Tito-Puente_SOBs_New-York-1996
032_Milt-Jackson_New-York-1996
034_King-Sunny-Ade_Tramps_New-York-1996
033_Ralph-Irrizary_SOBs_New-York-1996
027_Angus-R-Grant_Shooglenifty_Port-Fairy-Folk-Festival_Australia-1997
040_Gary-Kelly_Nostros_NGV_Melbourne-Australia-1997
039_George-Stathos_Nostros_NGV_Melbourne-Australia-1997

Among my photographic styles, I’ve spent many years documenting musicians and performers in Australia and abroad. Eventually I settled on the best way to present them: printing directly onto recycled vinyl, the very source of the music. An exhibition in Melbourne mid-1996, and shown in New York in 1997, Who Said Vinyl Is Dead? was the outcome. The record as a surface to print on is very exciting because the grooves become part of the image. The photographic emulsion can be painted, poured or smeared on to give a grittier surface – there’s a rawness that somehow embodies more honestly the essence and atmosphere of photographing a live performance.

Who Said Vinyl is Dead? Catalogue Essay

Who said vinyl is dead? Melbourne artist/photographer Pam Kleemann, after more than a decade of photographing local and international musicians and artists has discovered a unique medium on which to imprint that otherwise intangible image of the essence of live music performance: recycled vinyl discs.

By using a lengthy process of painting liquid light emulsion directly onto the vinyl the photographic image comes alive as an effigy capturing the very moment of creative expression. Not the clean, slick images we are used to seeing in commercial pop music or even the polished finishes of jazz portraits but raw, gritty textured layers where the picture speaks for what you hear and feel – the unexpected, the exhilarating, the magic which moves the soul or makes you dance.

These stunning images include portraits of the legendary MANU DIBANGO, the first musician to bring African jazz to Europe in the 1960s, his intense concentration snapped at SOB’s in New York in 1994…or Nigerian reggae eccentric MAJEK FASHEK, in a sublime moment of ecstasy at the Metro in Melbourne in 1993… Zairean chanteuse M’BILIA BEL… Cuban son sensations SIERRA MAESTRA… JIMMY CLIFF, LUCINDA WILLIAMS as well as Australian performers including STEPHEN CUMMINGS, RUBY HUNTER, SHANE HOWARD and more… all photographed as explosions of emotion immortalised on the groove.

This is a unique opportunity to see photographic art which not only documents music culture as a personal medium but also dissolves the boundaries between western rock culture and what we refer to as ‘world music’ by glimpsing the universal shades of black and white which make music so irresistible to everyone.

Vikki Riley © 1996

Liquid Light emulsion on 12” vinyl LPs and 7” singles

Exhibited:
2000 – Centre for Creative Photography, Adelaide South Australia

1997 – 17 Creations Gallery, New York City USA
1996 – Blue Moon Records, Melbourne Australia

All works copyright The Artist 1996/1997