On the road with School of Seven Bells

Post Author: Impose Automaton

Photographer Justin Hollar went on tour with Brooklyn, NY's School of Seven Bells (usually abbreviated as SVIIB) in 2011 for two months. Justin, Alejandra Deheza and Benjamin Curtis of SVIIB traveled about 9,000 miles in the U.S. together and Hollar has released a book of images taken during their journey. We asked Hollar just one question when we came across his photographs of the band on tour.

What was your inspiration for this project?
I came up with the idea for the project mostly because music has always been a huge passion of mine. Some of my favorite photographs are the early shots Alfred Werthheimer did of Elvis, David Kramer's Dylan photos, and the old Beatles and Rolling Stones shots from their recording sessions and tours.

I feel like with all the manager and publicist involvement these days we've really lost that access of music making. The lives they lead to create the music we love. Those quiet moments in between shows. All that stuff. Now with Twitter and Instagram that access is coming back but it's all fluff. It's all so uninspiring and disposable. So I just wanted to try to bring back some of the substance in music photography for myself. I'd like to continue doing these with different bands, different genres, different countries, different amounts of notoriety. So this is hopefully just the beginning for me.

For more images that Justin took while on tour with School of Seven Bells, please visit his website. The book of SVIIB tour photographs can be purchased here.

Documenting what it is like to be on tour with School of Seven Bells.