Meet Hal Masonberg: Live music Photographer & Filmmaker

Hi Hal, what do you think about risk?
Risk-taking in artistic expression is at the core of what I am most drawn to capture and engage in. As a music photographer, I specialize in improvisational music-making. Primarily jazz and jambands. Taking any creative endeavor to new and unexplored spaces is, for me, one of the most spiritual and rewarding experiences. There’s a place musicians go – artists of all kinds, actually, but in the case of my photography work, it’s mostly musicians – when they let go of ego and allow themselves to enter into unknown and unexplored spaces that reflect that particular moment in time, that setting, the particular musicians they are playing with in that moment, when the music becomes a deep conversation and, eventually, it’s no longer musicians playing music, but music playing the musicians. When the music plays the band, as they say. To be in the presence of those moments, to be taken on that journey, for me, is everything. Then to be able to capture those moments in another art form. To create a work that is inspired by another work. I get to a place where I and my camera are “dancing” with the musicians. I’m completely in the moment. I don’t know what will happen next or what I will see in the flash of a second through my lens, what I will be drawn to, moved by, inspired by. It’s a completely new and adventurous journey every single time. I approach my filmmaking the same way. I’m not interested in creating something for a specific audience. I’m only interested in trying to express externally what I am experiencing internally. And to explore that realm more deeply. The subconscious is a powerful thing and there’s a real vulnerability in letting it express itself without censorship. Yet there isn’t a moment in creative risk-taking that I don’t learn more about myself. That was certainly the case in making my film JAZZ NIGHTS: A CONFIDENTIAL JOURNEY. I trusted my instincts, like the musicians I was filming. And people connect with that film in myriad ways. It’s amazing to see what it becomes once I’m done with it and someone else absorbs it as part of their own journey, their own story. The parts of my life that I am most proud of and most thankful for have evolved directly from emotional and personal risks.

For me, going all out and taking artistic risks requires embracing two fundamental things: Firstly: We are all completely unique. No other human being in the history of mankind has our exact set of experiences. Our particular upbringing, joys, traumas, relationships, etc. We all see the world and experience the universe through a somewhat unique lens. And – not to be morbid – but when we die that view of the universe dies with us. Unless we find a way to express it externally, to share it. And that requires that we explore it ourselves, push past the known into the unknown. Is that important? I don’t know. It feels important to me. For me, art equals empathy. And I think empathy is something the human race needs more and more of. Secondly: No matter how unique you are, it’s important to remember that you are NEVER going to create something that alienates the rest of the human race. Period. It can’t be done. Trust that what you express – if it’s honest – is going to connect with others. All others? No. But you are speaking for those who are wired like you, who “get” you, who see their own humanity and experiences in your work and discover more about themselves through their personal engagement with that work. At the same time, you are offering others a different perspective and insight on this vast experience of what it means to be human. You’re adding – in your own small way and for anyone who’s interested – to the overarching document of the internal human experience.