Glastonbury is soon upon us...
After first attending Glastonbury Festival in 1992, photographer Liam Bailey has been at every edition since. He's compiled his shots of the event for the first time in a book. Liam Bailey came to both photography and music festivals later in life.
After stints in odd jobs, the British photographer found his passion while attempting to teach football to American school children. Uninterested in learning soccer (as they called it), the Chicago school noticed his chemistry degree and handed him the keys to a camera development studio. There, Bailey learned the tools of his future trade.
After moving back to the UK, it was a chance gig with a charity that handed him his first press ticket in 1992, aged 27. The festival had already grown to be a legendary part of the British music scene since its founding in 1970, but Bailey went in somewhat unaware. “I walked out and went down the hill and Manic Street Preachers were playing ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’.
I thought it was coming from a speaker,” Bailey tells Euronews Culture. “I’d never heard live music before.” The moment had a profound effect on Bailey.
“It stuck with me from then. It was immediate,” he says. “It’s been like that ever since.
I’ve always treated it like a job. Like it’s my responsibility to capture this festival for myself and now for others.” Bailey hasn’t missed an edition of the festival since then.
He’s always there. He travels alone and takes pictures.
