Dave J Hogan/Getty ImagesMichael Stipe is feeling bookish these days.
The former R.E.M. frontman tells The Creative Independent he’s working on “a series of books,” the first of which is a volume of photos. Stipe explains, “This one focuses on my timeline, on the work I’ve done all along, all through the band and back to my early 20s.”
He adds, “It’s all photo-based, but some of it’s just documentation of things I’m obsessed with and that I focus on to make new pieces from.”
Stipe has always been visually oriented. He recalls, “I took pictures before I made music…my father had loaned me his Nikon and I would shoot black and white photos.”
He continues, “I took a course in photography when I was 13 or 14 years old and that just became something I always did. I had these really amazing experiences and relationships, and I’d find myself in these very odd places. I just happened to have taken pictures the whole time.”
Still, Stipe is the first to admit the importance of music in his life and how it has consumed him.
He says, “Music was always like a beautiful fog around me. I’m very susceptible to music. Anyone who has been…out in public with me, will tell you how distracting music can be for me. It blocks out all other input.”
He notes, “In a way, the band blocked out all this input for me for a long time. It made it very hard for me to be able to focus on other things, like reading books.”
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