Recently we had the pleasure to photograph our friend and fellow photographer Max Anisimov. With his many talents, including photography and recording music, he is also an amazing Classical Guitar Musician. He hired Audrey kelleR phoTography to have his portrait taken to celebrate his recent accomplishment of earning his Doctorate in Classic guitar performance (dissertation on the violin genius Paganini as a guitarist) from Northwestern University. --- Additional and very interesting info on his dissertation following the photos.
Max knows how special portraits are for us to document these great milestones in our lives. Lucky for me I had a private concert, since I asked Max to play a bit while in the studio. The intention was to capture these great images of him actually performing but I also got the pleasure to hear some beautiful live music while working. I wanted to create for Max not only a traditional straight on portrait of looking into the camera, but to really capture his essence as a musician within my visual art.
It is the studios mission to portray our clients in the most beautiful light (literally and figuratively), while capturing their spirit and personality within the images.
Max was extremely pleased with the photos he received from the studio and that comes as quite a compliment coming from a fellow photographer. Thanks Max!
When asking Max about his degree his response was the following:My doctorate is in Classical Guitar Performance (2009) from Northwestern University. I also hold a Master of Music in Guitar Performance (Northwestern, 2002), and a Bachelor's in Violin and Guitar Performance (Carroll University, 1999). I don't know how much more info you need, but to summarize - my doctoral dissertation was titled "Paganini: An Examination of his Activity as a Guitarist through Works, Dedications and Other Surviving Evidence". A hundred and seventy years after his death, Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) remains the single most famous violinists of all time. The Caprices for violin solo, which were published during his lifetime, were immediately declared unplayable by all leading violinists of his era. (Today, although very difficult, they are considered standard repertoire). Paganini is also often associated with the devil - his style of playing was so novel and impressive that people often thought he must have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the skills he possessed. In fact, this myth was so present during the time of his death that the Catholic church refused to bury him for almost forty years. That said, not many professional musicians nowadays realize that Paganini was also a great guitarists and that most of his compositional output was either for guitar solo, or for chamber ensembles that included it. Judging from the dedications of his guitar works, he often used that instrument (with great effect apparently) to woo the ladies. Identities of some of his lovers remain immersed in mystery, but others included personas like one of Napoleon's sisters, Elisa Baciocchi, at whose court he was employed for several years. Paganini willed his famous Guarneri violin (which he nicknamed 'Il Cannone' for its loud sound) to the city of Genoa, where it is kept to this day. Only the best of the best are allowed to play it, and only on special occasions. Although it is pointless to assign a monetary value to an instrument made by one of the greatest violin makers of all time and played by the most legendary violinist, but a similar Guarneri violin is currently being sold by the Bien & Fushi violin shop here in Chicago for $18,000,000 (which I have the honor to have photographed during a book interview with Mr. Fushi). One of Paganini's guitars was given as a present to Hector Berlioz, who then left it to Musée de la Musique in France, where it currently remains.
Here are a couple of Paganini pieces that may be easy to recognize for an average listener:
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