All images by . Used with permission.

“I started my professional life as a sound engineer, and travel on tour with different French artists.” says photographer . “I had free time during shows and begin to take my camera with me on tour and take pictures of all the team and artists during shows.” For Mr. Maestracci, he started to photograph and do things differently. He started to realize that photography and music and both linked via composition, editing, mixing and levels. This brought Mr. Maestracci to work on composing differently too.

If you think about it all, that’s very poetic and makes a whole lot of sense. There’s a bit of inspiration or just messing around. Then you look at and record what you’ve got. At another time, you adjust parts of the audio in the same way that you’d adjust parameters in Photoshop. Eventually, you come out with a finished product of some sort. Of course, the commodification of all this is much different now–as is the whole creation process. Anyone can take a great photo, but not everyone knows how to play power chords. Though to be fair, the music world had itself turned upside down with Hip Hop’s using recorded tracks and punk rockers not knowing what they were doing with their instruments in a garage and playing for their friends.

“That’s certainly why I take a lot of black and white pictures, for me black and white is a bit like a mono record,”Mr. Maestracci explains. “it’s simple, and your eyes focus on contrast. We can tell a story different than in color.”

Of course, Mr. Maestracci finds inspiration in music. To shoot these images, he used his Sony a7 II with an old Asahi Takumar 85mm lens. He also used one continuous light with an umbrella. Mr. Maestracci very much enjoys using vintage and modern gear together because he believes that it gives him a unique look.