Pitchfork Paris

2015

By Ellie Pritts

November 3^rd, 2015

working in the city of light

The last week or so has been a crazy succession of “firsts” for me. First solo trip to Europe, check. First time shooting Pitchfork Paris, check. First festival with a totally new camera kit, check! And so on. Shooting Pitchfork Paris has been a career goal for quite awhile now, so the pressure was on. I’m not gonna lie, I was a bundle of nerves in the days leading up to this. There were so many new things to account for, I knew I’d get tripped up at some point and all I could do was hope it wouldn’t be too bad whenever it happened. Luckily for me, Pitchfork Paris ended up being one of the coolest, most laid-back festivals I’ve ever had the privilege of shooting.

La grande halle

Pitchfork Paris takes place in a huge building in the middle of a really cool cultural park. One of the interesting things I learned about this venue, called the Grande Halle de la Villette, was that it actually used to be a slaughterhouse. Apparently it was one the largest in it’s day, which is pretty crazy to think about once you’re inside. What a perfect venue for a Halloween-weekend music festival.

Write your story here. (Optional)

vampire schedule

Shooting festivals is tough work in my own time zone and I had no idea how it would work out with the +6 hour time difference in Paris. But luckily for me it actually worked out perfectly! I worked from about 5 p.m to 4 a.m each day of the festival. That’s what my schedule is like for any big fest I shoot, but since I was in a different time zone I found I was actually crazy energetic even at 3 a.m in Paris. It was a challenge to fall asleep before 5 a.m.

The downside of all that late-night energy was that I basically was never awake in the day and did not do too much exploring. I did manage to make a trip to the Eiffel Tower and stumbled across the Moulin Rouge, though.

thom Freakin' Yorke

There were a lot of amazing artists playing Pitchfork Paris, but by far the one I was most excited about was Thom Yorke. I’d never seen him in person before, never seen Radiohead live. Nonetheless, Thom Yorke is a huge idol for me (and many, many others).

His set was expectedly awesome and would have been even if it was just him on a bare stage, but he also had some of the coolest visuals and LED displays I’d seen. They really augmented the experience and of course, the photos.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Fest faves

I already talked about how amazing Thom Yorke was. But I also want to mention a few other acts I was super impressed with.

HEALTH were really great live. They had amazing energy, great intensity and flawless delivery. It made their set all the more impressive to me as a just casual fan of the band. I definitely would see them again if I had the chance!

The best lights and stage setup definitely go to Ratatat. I honestly hadn’t heard much about them in the past few years and didn’t know what to expect from them live. They ended up being really lively and engaging and had hands down the coolest lights (including this hologram screen thing that I couldn’t stop staring at).

Write your story here. (Optional)

Paris v. chicago

A lot of people have asked how the festival in Chicago compares to Paris. As a spectator, both festivals are amazing but I think overall I liked working Pitchfork Paris more. The biggest difference for me was how the artist/staff spaces were set up. In Chicago, there’s one big outdoor VIP area and a private field house building accessible only by artists and select staff members. Lots of different people have access to the VIP area, and I’d say it’s predominantly not Pitchfork employees I find there. When working in Chicago I’m pretty much a lone wolf. Occasionally I’ll run into familiar Pitchfork staff members while running from stage to stage but we usually don’t have much time to talk.

In Paris the setup is very different. The staff and (almost) all the artist are set up in one area. It’s not a VIP section. The artist/crew section consists of a labyrinthine hallway with rooms for each artist and at the end of the hall, the Pitchfork Crew room. Having everyone is this one area ended up being really awesome. I got to meet and really get to know a lot of Pitchfork staff members I’d never normally have the chance to converse with in Chicago. There definitely was more of a sense of community. The staff room was a chill spot for all of us to mingle and relax in. And, instead of artists being barricaded away in a field house, they were all in the same space as us, often popping into the staff room to steal a beer or say hello.

shooting with the sony a7

After enduring most of the summer without a camera of my own, I finally bought the Sony a7 shortly before Burning Man. I had been renting a Metabones adaptor and using my trusty Canon lenses until this festival, when packing light and saving money was a priority. So for Pitchfork Paris I decided to experiment with Sony’s own line of lenses. I shot with a Sony 35 mm 2.8 and their 70-200 mm 4.0 lens. I’m glad I gave Sony lenses a shot, but after using them I still firmly believe that Canon lenses are superior. Auto focus never worked quite right, which was surprising once I was using native lenses. But the a7 made up for it with its manual focus assist function, which is hands down one of the best features of this camera. That’s not to say it’s a unique one, but coupled with the a7’s other perks, it’s a fantastic addition.

Thank You

It’s a true honor and privilege to be a photographer for Pitchfork. My colleagues are some of the most talented photographers around. This year at Pitchfork Paris I worked alongside the talented Alban Gendrot, Matt Lief-Anderson and Tom Spray. Check out the gallery on Pitchfork to see some of their work from this year!