Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra and Dr. Nelle Karajlić’s butt

This story is full of inexperience, but also a lot of good intentions.

In my first year at IPF, I had a class called Digital Lab. Our teacher, Paula Preto, said we had to photograph theatre or something else (I honestly don’t remember what, and it doesn’t really add anything to this story anyway). She also mentioned that concerts were only allowed for second-year students.

I had just found out that Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra were coming to Porto. Who doesn’t remember the film Black Cat, White Cat and that soundtrack? One of my all-time favourite films. I had to try to photograph it. So I asked the teacher if there was any problem with me trying to get a photo pass. She said that if I managed to get one, fine — but that they don’t give passes to just anyone, and that requests for IPF students were usually handled by the school.

As soon as I got home, I called my friend Rosário. I knew her sister worked at the Coliseu.

Rosário, please ask your sister which production company is bringing Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra, so I can send them an email.

And that’s how I found out it was IN MUSIC WE TRUST, and I sent this email:

Good afternoon,

First of all, I apologise for the “intrusion” of sending you an email with a request.

I am a student of the Professional Photography Course at IPF – Porto, and I would like to ask if there is any possibility of being authorised to photograph the Emir Kusturica concert, or part of it, taking place on the 25th at the Coliseu do Porto.

This work is for a class called Digital Lab, in which we are required to photograph a concert. Since I really enjoy the work of the No Smoking Orchestra, this would be a way of combining the useful with the enjoyable.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. Hoping for a positive reply, I remain,

Kind regards,

Carlota Leitão

Reply:

Exceptionally, I will accept your request, as you are an IPF student. The accreditation only allows you to stay for the first three songs of the concert.

To collect your pass, you must enter through the artists’ entrance and ask for someone from the promoter. The pass must be collected no later than 45 minutes before the start of the show, scheduled for 9:30 pm.

Please leave your direct contact. On the day, you must bring your IPF student ID.

Please read the Press Regulations attached and take into account the intended use of the photographs.

The concert was on the same day as class, so everyone ended up knowing that my “stubbornness” had paid off and that I’d managed to get the accreditation.

This attitude of not accepting “no” or “it’s not possible” later led me to take on the biggest photographic challenge I had at IPF — both technically and emotionally… but I’ll tell you that story in another post. For now, back to this one, because we’re still missing the butt part.

I went to photograph the concert and everything was new to me. Everything was happening really fast and I had zero experience (I quickly understood why this was usually only for second-year students).

Even though I was completely out of my depth, I was loving every second of it: the constantly changing lights, the vocalist — my God… he never stopped — and being there in the pit, right in front of the stage, watching a band I loved. It was insane.

After the first three songs ended, I decided to go up to the galleries to take a few more photos. That’s when Dr. Nelle Karajlić turns to the audience and, very quickly, pulls his trousers down and back up, showing his butt. I immediately thought:

WOW. First concert ever and I already get a shot like this!!!!!

I checked the photos straight away and, to my surprise, I caught him just as he was about to pull his trousers down… and then already finishing pulling them back up. He managed to be faster than my continuous shooting.

I got home completely euphoric. Downloaded the photos and, when I started selecting them… everything was CRAP. Blown out, out of focus — everything bad you can imagine.

In the next class, I said to Paula Preto:

Look, I loved the concert and the experience — wow, what an adrenaline rush. But the photos? Nothing. Total crap. So I’m going to do the theatre play instead.

Funny enough, I ended up photographing a play by my friend Rosário (the same one whose sister worked at the Coliseu) and I gave her the photos to help promote her show.

And that’s it — my first ever experience photographing concerts