I love the Big Thief portrait I captured last summer. I went to meet them in their green room, and they were getting ready for their set: doing push ups, playing guitar, Half of them weren’t wearing shirts yet, and Max was in a mermaid tail. Instead of getting dressed, everyone went topless for the shot.
One of the things I like about music festivals is walking the grounds and picking out people who are absolutely living in the moment, whether it’s via their fashion sense or just the way they are soaking it all in. That’s what I saw in an attendee named Kevin Roberts leaning against a tree wearing his vintage Pitchfork t-shirt in 2022. Kevin was caught off guard when I approached him for a photo, but when I told him I was with the festival, he obliged and posed by not posing at all. I enjoyed the moment, then moved on to my next assignment, and only thought of the image again when I was doing my end-of-day wrap-up, filling my “atmosphere” folder with fest looks.
Pitchfork ran a gallery of “best looks” early the following week and tagged me in a Twitter post about it. I awoke to quite a few mentions, which was unusual for my very low-profile Twitter account. Lo and behold, the Kevin Roberts portrait was taking off. My initial fears were that he was being goofed on, but to my pleasant surprise, the comments were full of people praising him for being who we all secretly want to be at a festival: just a content, hands-in-the-pocket, music-loving attendee. They dubbed him “Pitchfork Guy.” We often succumb to the stresses of appearance and perception, but the Kevin Roberts method is so much easier.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
