Official Soundwave Festival photographer, Kane Hibberd aka Kanye Lens, has compiled a book of over 600 images he has taken at the metal/ hardcore festival since 2008.
The book, Kanye Lens Vs Soundwave Volume 1 represents a labour of love for Kane who became involved with Soundwave after the festival hit the national circuit. “I’ve been touring since Soundwave since it started as a national tour,” Kane says. “So it went national back in 2008 and it had been running since four years before that but it was only started in Perth, then they did a Perth-Sydney-Brisbane. When they took on the role as a national festival I got asked to come on the road to shoot it.
“Right from the get-go it was something I hoped that the festival would last and come into its own so I could do a book, because I’ve got that Big Day Out book that was put out about ten years ago now, and ever since I saw that I was like, I would love to document one festival or one band or one period in time. So luckily the festival’s progressed, it’s moving up in the world and here we are.”
Kanye Lens Vs Soundwave Volume 1 is not the usual run of live music photography: Kane’s philosophy was to capture the essence and spirit of the festival in its entirety. “In a sense, the book’s based on a holistic view of Soundwave,” he explains. “So it’s meant to give you a good feeling of what Soundwave’s about even if you’ve never been before. You can see why people are passionate about it; obviously there are images of the artists doing their thing and images of fans and the crew who put it all together and then there is some backstage stuff.”
Throughout April, Kane is presenting an exhibition at Lust For Life Tattoo to promote the book and show off some of his finer shots to the public. “It’s a chance to showcase some of the imagery from the book in print - it’s just another extension of the book. One of the reason I did the book is you just don’t get to see music photography in print enough nowadays. It’s the chance to see some images blown up to a reasonable size, just to see the detail and quality in the shots too.”
