KENNY WAYNE, LUCINDA WILLIAMS HELP CLINCH KEEP GRAMMY FOCUS

The Grammy Foundation celebrated the work of legendary photographers Danny Clinch, Robert Knight and Herman Leonard with a gala event in L.A.

Legendary concert photographers Danny Clinch, Robert Knight and Herman Leonard were honored by The Grammy Foundation in a gala event Wednesday Feb 4th in Los Angeles, Ca. celebrating ‘Music in Focus.’ The 11th annual Music Preservation event showcased each photographer and their work, as well as performances from the musicians who have been the photographers’ subjects in the past. Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Sara Bareilles, Tyler Bryant, Daniel Lanois and Lucinda Williams helped the event celebrate the art of music and photography.

Artisan News caught up with Danny Clinch, official Grammy photographer and current Grammy nominee for his documentary on John Mayer “Where the Light Is,” to get his thoughts on being recognized for his amazing career photographing some of the best musicians the world has known.

“I get to photograph a lot of different genre’s in music. I’ve shot the Nas records, I’ve done Bruce Springsteen, I’ve done Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson so I love the fact that I’m not pigeon holed into one sort of style of music. And I think with The Grammy Foundation it’s another opportunity for me to photograph people that sometimes I don’t normally get the chance to photograph you know, Beyonce, Alicia Keys or people like that. U2, which I’ve shot at The Grammys but don’t get a lot of opportunities.”

We also caught up with guitar virtuoso Kenny Wayne Shepherd to get his thoughts on photographer Robert Knight getting honored for a lifetime of work shooting photos of artists like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan to name just a few.

“Well Robert, he shot a lot of my heroes over the years you know. In particular Stevie Ray Vaughn and some Jimi Hendrix stuff. You know just to be able to see those artists. I mean you see that artist through the photographer’s eyes you know and it’s a really powerful thing. Because when they take that photograph, just that right picture sort of speak that’s a shot where these photos will be seen for fifty to a hundred years from now because these are artists that stand the test of time so therefore the photography has to stand the test of time as well.”

Photographer Herman Leonard was also recognized for a lifetime shooting Jazz Musicians at the height of their creativity like Miles Davis, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.