ATX proudly presents Saturday October 19, 2024
9am Pacific time via zoom
Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz - Photographer, Archivist and
Drummer for Weird Al Yankovich
Jon Schwartz was a hopeful young drummer in the early ‘70s when he bought his first nice 35mm camera – a used Minolta SRT-101 – from one of the guys in his first band, and Jon quickly caught the photography bug. He bought black-and-white film in large spools and loaded his own rolls, and even set up a darkroom at home. Shooting, developing, and printing was economical, and Jon relentlessly documented everything and everyone around him. Color film was an occasional treat, and when he left his parents’ house (and darkroom) he settled into the convenience of color exclusively.
Soon after meeting Weird Al in 1980, the photo opportunities became more frequent and more interesting, and Jon almost always had the camera with him. “Although I had been shooting color, I felt that Al’s first video, “Ricky”, was a photo-op that demanded the texture and vibe that black and white possessed. There were a few more such occasions that I captured in black and white, the last being the “Living With A Hernia” video in 1986. And for no apparent reason, I never shot black and white again.”
With the advent of digital photography, Jon’s film cameras slowly took a back seat and he shot his last roll of film in 2006.
“I had taken about 20,000 color shots of Al and the band, and probably a thousand of them have appeared online and in various publications. But those early black-and-white shots existed only as contact sheets, out of sight and out of mind for over 30 years. Aside from a few “Ricky” and “I Love Rocky Road” on-set shots, the rest had remained unseen by anyone, including Al himself.”
The idea for a book started in 2017 when Jon asked Al if he minded looking into possibly publishing those unseen photos, to which Al replied “Go for it!” “Black & White & Weird All Over” was published in 2020, and sales were brisk. Jon then embarked on digitizing his entire archive of color negatives, many of which were printed in a follow-up, all-color book, “Lights, Camera, Accordion!” in 2022.
Jon still shoots a copious amount of photos, primarily on his phone these days, and continues to enjoy his perennial relationship as Weird Al’s drummer for more than 40 years.
Upcoming Programs
December 14, 2024 Ben Willmore - Photoshop/Lightroom
Learn to make your images come alive and be
transformed into something you can truly be proud
of.Photoshop Hall of Famer, Ben Willmore, has
taught over 100,000 Photoshop users on six conti-
nents.http://digitalmastery.com/
transformed into something you can truly be proud
of.Photoshop Hall of Famer, Ben Willmore, has
taught over 100,000 Photoshop users on six conti-
nents.http://digitalmastery.com/