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Guilty As Charged – One Shot Story

By Andrea Monti

This is another photo I took during the concert where I also shot the pictures for my last post, featuring the the accordion and violin duo. The featured musician is Daniele Bonaviri, from Rome, one of the best Italian flamenco player and composer.

As in that last one, also in this case I am guilty of being part of the jungle of smartphones recording the performance intstead of just enjoying it. Taking this one has more been challenging than shooting the photo of the two musicians who played in the first part of the concert. Classical and, like in this case, flamenco guitar players are very hard to photograph as they stand essentially still while seated, thus, the main goal is to capture a moment in which the internal expressiveness surfaces.

Another issue to consider is how cluttered is the stage. When there is the liberty to move around and chose a better vantage point this is often not a serious problem. But when seated in a specific place without the possibility to move and having to care also about the surrounding people, taking a meaningful photo becomes problematic. In this case, I managed to frame the musicians properly, but the square crop of the photo reveals the compromises I had to make to achieve something viable.

At the end of the day — it was already night, actually — I got a few decent shots but, as said, I have missed the music I was there to listen. One should never say never, but I think that I am not going to take this kind of photos anymore if not on assignment.

 

 

 

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About The Author

By Andrea Monti
My name is Andrea Monti. I’m an Italian free-lance journalist, photographer and – in my spare time – an hi-tech lawyer. The works I am more proud of are covering live jazz, pop and rock concerts for an Italian online music magazine and Opera and prose for a 200 years-old theatre. I also do sport photography mainly in athletics and fighting disciplines. You may find out more about me on https://andrea.monti.photography
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Comments

Russ Rosener on Guilty As Charged – One Shot Story

Comment posted: 04/09/2026

It's always great to see your photographs of theater performances, actors and musicians. It can indeed be frustrating to photograph a concert you are at to enjoy. It's like trying to please two masters, and not really doing a good job at either. Nevertheless I believe the expression on the guitar player's face was more than worth the effort. The color of his face and the color of the guitar seem to merge both physically and tonally. He is lost in his music! As a photographer we assume the godlike perspective of observer who is physically distant. So we can never get fully lost in the moment we are trying to capture and preserve. It's a paradox of our chosen profession!
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