Music Makers (25 images)

MUSIC MAKERS is an environmental portrait project on the men and women who make, repair, adjust and tune instruments. These artisans are members of a dying breed of craftsmanship whose work is invaluable to our culture. They spend countless hours creating and repairing instruments for individual musicians, and by extension chamber groups, symphonies, festivals, conservatories, and beyond. Their work is a specialized trade that requires years of training, practice and apprenticeship. Luthiers,...
more »

MUSIC MAKERS is an environmental portrait project on the men and women who make, repair, adjust and tune instruments. These artisans are members of a dying breed of craftsmanship whose work is invaluable to our culture. They spend countless hours creating and repairing instruments for individual musicians, and by extension chamber groups, symphonies, festivals, conservatories, and beyond. Their work is a specialized trade that requires years of training, practice and apprenticeship. Luthiers, piano "bellymen", brass and woodwind technicians and bow-makers use wood, horse hair, metal, brass, varnish, glue, paint, and rope, employing construction techniques to make a balanced instrument that is both functional and beautiful. They carve wood, string, fashion mouth pieces, varnish, drill holes, sand, and tune with the utmost perfection and sensitivity to sound and form. Instruments are manipulated and touched by their hands rather than machines on an assembly line. Work benches are full of hand-made tools and custom-made machines to make large-scale parts and tiny adjustments. This world, which seems to belong to a vanished era before the age of mass production, is scarcely visible to us, yet it is indispensable to the creation of music. Music makers are not so much seen as heard: although admired and trusted by musicians, they work in studios and in the wings of a concert hall. These portraits are a new body of work depicting the silent stars of music making, and in this documentation, preserving a most precious part of this skilled and passionate art.
« less