Aaron Stern: Everyone Must Be Announced - Hardcover

Aaron Stern knows his way around a concert venue. A producer of music festivals and shows for over a decade, Stern found his way to photography a few years ago with an eye to capturing the fleeting moments he was in a unique position to enjoy. Now his concert photography has been collected in one hundred pages of imagery of some of our time's most exciting live acts, including Arcade Fire, Phoenix, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sonic Youth, Grizzly Bear, and Animal Collective. But you won't find the obvious close-ups of Kim Gordon or Thomas Mars here-instead, Stern focuses his lens on the crowds, the venues, the shifting spotlights. The few times the musicians make their way into his frame, they are often seen from a distance, lost in concentration and a dreamy haze. Stern's eye adds a gloss of wonder to the tired genre of rock photography, finding the intimate moments in a room full of screaming fans. (Jonathan Shia The Last Magazine 2012-02-20)

In Aaron Stern's photographs, concert goers upstage the band. He focuses his lens on the audience and captures the stories in the crowd. His images include isolated moments, collective action and even the sculptural quality of the sound system. (Editor Arts Observer 2012-01-22)

In Stern's words, "[It's] sort of a photo essay about the symbiotic relationship between a performer and their crowd."
Though the book was initially Shipley and Halmos's idea, its concept was born at Coachella. A conversation with The Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr. influenced Stern to pay closer attention a performance's audience rather than the antics caught on-stage. (Misty Sidell Elle Magazine 2012-01-18)

The book, Everyone Must Be Announced, condenses the concert going experience into a collection of images that focuses outward on the audiences and venue architecture rather than the bands playing (said bands include Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Sleigh Bells and a host of others). (Matthew Sebra GQ 2012-01-18)

Not merely devoted to the artists on stage, Stern's photography traverses the crowd and architectural landscape of shows, capturing the light that projects the unheard presence of sound as well as the devoted oceans of fans-us-who spend our hard-earned money on the music that matters to us. The book, which retails for $50, features images from shows by bands like the Strokes, Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, Beach House, and more, making for a shimmering addition to the images Aaron has shot for VMagazine.com, of artists like Ariel Pink, Best Coast, and The Kills. (Mr. V VMagazine.com 2012-01-18)