Metallica out on the 'ego ramp': Ross Halfin's best photograph

Metallica out on the 'ego ramp': Ross Halfin's best photograph

‘Their drummer Lars Ulrich called me up and I kept avoiding him – I thought he looked like an idiot. But I shot them in 1984 and have worked with them ever since’

This was taken at the last show of Metallica’s Black Album tour, in Belgium on 1 July 1993. James Hetfield, the singer and guitarist, had walked to the very edge of what they called their “ego ramp” [the walkway into the audience]. Because they were touring The Black Album, I was shooting a lot in black and white. I noticed him, with the sunset behind him and the arms coming up, and it became one of my most famous Metallica pictures. It shows the connection between Metallica and their audience – it’s as if they are almost dragging him in. The time of day was important: most bands don’t like daylight, they want it dark. This was shot at twilight, which gives you the perfect balance and that sense of moment. Five minutes later, it would have been dark, and the shot would have looked nothing like that.

My aim when shooting a show is to give somebody something they would not normally have seen. And to create an image that is unusual or exciting, so when people who went to the show look at it, they see something that’s special. People who shoot shows tend to panic, but if you do that, you get nothing. Stand back and wait. Think about what you’re doing – I learned that from Fin Costello. I don’t find it hard to get original images from live shows, because I know what I’m doing – I’ve done it for so long. Nowadays, a lot of bands want to control everything and they ban photographers from shows. Yet they’re quite happy, having thrown out the people doing it properly, to let anybody take bad pictures or film it on an iPhone.

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