Home
|
The Boys' Choir of Tallahassee |
|
BEHIND THE SHOT Photographer Eli Reed is known for his strong empathy and ability to convey complex subjects with powerful simplicity. This shot was taken in Trinidad in 2004. It shows three members of the Boys Choir of Tallahassee. The choir was touring in Trinidad, and the boys were performing for President Maxwell Richards. They were a big hit. By the end of the tour, they were being swarmed by girls as though they were rock stars. 
The Boys Choir of Tallahassee is a bit like the Boys Choir of Harlem, except that joining the Harlem choir takes 2 years whereas in Tallahassee, if you want in, you’re in. These boys have tough lives, they need help. The director, Earle Lee, is an amazing man: he’s like a father to them. I once asked him, Suppose a kid can’t sing? Do you just bury him in the back and tell him to sing quietly? He said to me, If a boy can’t sing, then I haven’t taught him how to listen.I like this shot because it’s almost abstract, and it says, just put your head back and sing. I was shooting in both black and white and color on this trip. But the black-and-white film got lost on the plane. As I was shooting, I got more and more into shooting in color, so it was as though someone was giving me a message: Don’t use black and white! And you know, I haven’t missed that film at all. I used the Olympus E-1 with the 50-200mm Zuiko lens. I was in a regular audience seat and I just balanced the camera on my knee and locked myself in place. I think the exposure was 1/25th of a second. This is an amazing lens, it’s fast and it’s also skinny and light. The resolution and color are wonderful. It’s so compact that you can even put it in your pocket if you’re wearing a bush jacket. This shot is part of a work-in-progress. As well as doing a book on the choir (it’s going to be called No Excuses, which is the choir’s motto) I’m directing a documentary on the boys, which is being produced by Daniel Ostroff. I met Daniel on the set of the 2003 movie The Missing, where I was taking still photographs. He’d seen a documentary I directed called Getting Out, and he invited me to do one about the choir. He and I have the same focus: we don’t want to do a piece of work unless it’s going to be meaningful. As we work on this project, I keep on being more and more amazed with these boys. They really deliver a show, with music that ranges from gospel hymns to Mozart to a Jackson Five pop song. They come from a rough place, so to be appreciated for what they do is wonderful. And they’re all gentlemen. They respond to the seriousness and discipline Earle Lee offers them. If we had 100,000 Earle Lees, the world would be a better place. |
