Advisory: An image in this article includes a gesture that some viewers may consider obscene.
Eric Antoniou has two passions in life: music and photography. Those dual loves are chronicled in his new book “Rock to Baroque: Four Decades of Music Photography.” The book’s front and back covers give a sense of Antoniou’s range, with David Bowie on the front and Leonard Bernstein on the back. Inside is a who’s who of musical greatness, with shots of the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, and Donna Summer, just to name a few. The book’s official release is set for Thursday, May 1 with a photo exhibit at the Panopticon Gallery at Boston’s Commonwealth Hotel.
GBH’s Henry Santoro welcomed Eric Antoniou to Henry in the Hub. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Henry Santoro: Photographers always have the best seat in the house. You’re always right down front; you’re in the pit in most cases. When you’re covering a concert, how many photographs do you roughly take?
Eric Antoniou: I’m in front of the front seat. In the old days, it would have been one roll, maybe two rolls, so that would have been 36 or 72 pictures. And then in 35 millimeter days I would take 300, 400 photographs. In the film days, we had to think more and shoot less. Now I just snap away.
Santoro: How do you decide which photo is the keeper?
Antoniou: I usually know from when I’m shooting — it’s like, 'this is the photograph.’ When you know, you know. I want to try, as Henri Cartier-Bresson would say, [to] get the decisive moment, and you know when that is.
Santoro: When you’re taking a picture, are you even paying attention to the show?
Antoniou: I am. But sometimes you get so into the visuals that you don’t really. I listen to music and I’m also multitasking too. But I find myself, because I have so many great shows, that I will stop taking pictures and listen and enjoy it.
Santoro: You grew up in Greece, and when you graduated from high school, you came to Boston to specifically study photography. Why Boston?
Antoniou: Because of family. Members of my family came here in the early 1900s.
Santoro: And you never left, which is great for us.
Antoniou: I’ve been in Boston 41 years.
Santoro: Wow. Let’s go back in time, when on September 9th, 1994, you and I and at least 60,000 other people were at the Hatch Shell in Boston. It was the night of the infamous WFNX Green Day show that erupted in a mini-riot. I was on stage with the band. You were in the pit taking pictures. And you captured one of the most rock and roll photographs ever, of Billie Joe [Armstrong] giving the crowd the finger.
Antoniou: Yes, the finger.
Santoro: You must have known as soon as you got that photo that this was going to be a keeper.
Antoniou: Yes. And that’s in the book, along with a couple of other photographs.
