Sound pictures with Charles Brooks

The Power of Music Thinking

Today we touch base on the intersection between music and photography, and that in many different ways.

My guest today is Charles Brooks, an exceptionable photographer and musician, that for the last 20 years has been New Zealand’s most successful orchestral cellist. Charles held principal positions in Australia, China, Chile and Brazil, with concerts worldwide.

He also gives us insights in the organisation and culture of professional symphony orchestras and shares personal stories about the life of an orchestra musician that played with Lang Lang and for celebrities like Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

While his music career took him around the globe at an early age, photography was always there. Charles refined his photographic craft of making musician portraits, astrophotography and landscapes until National Geographic took notice in 2011.

In the pandemic, he prototyped and developed a spectacular new way of photographing the inside of a variety of musical instruments, literally opening up a new space and visual world that give insights in the craft of the most formidable luthiers and instrument makers.

And these got picked up worldwide by magazines like The Telegraph, classic fm, Domus, France Musique, Daily Mail, and just recently Die Zeit in Germany.

Please find a selection of the photographs on the episode page of the music thinking website:
https://musicthinking.com/sound-pictures-with-charles-brooks-photography

Now, sit back, relax and be prepared for a long episode on all things creative.

You will also have a chance to navigate through the different chapters, give it a try and let us know how this works.

Show notes

• Connect with Charles via LinkedIn:
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-brooks-a9773a30/
• Charles Brooks Photography:
  https://www.charlesbrooks.info/
• The software Charles is using for focal compression / focus stacking:
  https://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconsoft-products/helicon-focus/
• Lloyd Webber Theme and Variations:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1lpCszsOMU
• Disturbed's version of The Sound of Silence:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7RVw3I8eg
• Highlights from Thais, the last opera Charles performed with the Sao Paulo Symphony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QlGfCzPZN0
• First realisation of a Zaha Hadid Architecture: Fire Station
  https://www.vitra.com/en-ca/about-vitra/campus/architecture/architecture-fire-station

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