Anyone who follows local music on a major social media platform has no doubt seen Andy Doyle-Linden’s striking close-up photos of Salt Spring Island musicians.
With a hot-off-the-press first edition of Salt Spring Groove magazine and exhibition in the ArtSpring lobby space from Dec. 3 to 20, people can now enjoy Doyle-Linden’s photographs in a physical format.
Doyle-Linden photographed football games in Calgary for 10 years, which he started doing because his son played the game. As a form of action photography, taking pictures of live musical performances is similar, he said.
He began putting island musicians through his lens in May of this year, with no expectations of what he might do with those photos, except share them on Facebook.
Doyle-Linden said he takes 600 to 700 shots each night at places like the Tree House Cafe, Moby’s Pub or the Legion. He goes through them immediately after getting home, selecting the best 15 or 20 for potential sharing.
“Sometimes I’m up until 2 a.m.,” he said.
Doyle-Linden aims to get the photos out as soon as possible while the event is fresh.
“People don’t want to wait,” he said.
He credits island musician and artist Sherry Leigh Williams with inspiring him to view his photography passion as having more of a documentary purpose, having mentioned how this was a “golden period” in music on Salt Spring that should be recorded visually.
“She’s been very supportive and encouraging and directed me to see this person or that person,” he said.
The Salt Spring Groove magazine includes photos of some 63 island musicians, along with anecdotes or song lyrics from them. It will be available to purchase at Salt Spring Books, Black Sheep Books and Artcraft Winter beginning Dec. 7, and at ArtSpring from Dec. 4 to 6, including for a musical event in the gallery space on Friday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. That’s when Salt Spring jazz-pop musician Kate Trajan and band will play songs from her new Ancient Fires album. Performers include Iain Duncan on sax, Ryan Tandy on bass, Hans Verhoeven on drums and Margaret Trajan on vocals. The Iain Duncan Quartet will play an opening set.
Doyle-Linden observes that Salt Spring may not be seen as a place to visit primarily for its live music, but that it could be. The quality of local musical acts is excellent, he said, and he has enjoyed some incredible performances along with others in the crowd this year.
He is grateful for help with Salt Spring Groove provided by Craig McKerron (design and layout), Susanna Braund (editor) and Shawn Tolleson (writer), and for a Salt Spring Arts grant to help with the exhibition at ArtSpring, which consists of 50 photographs.