We recently spoke to Cole Schwartz, who shared three of his favorite behind the scene shots he’s taken throughout his career and how they came to be.
Post Malone & Swae Lee on set for ‘Spoil My Night’
“The Post Malone one was taken about two years ago now. It was Coachella weekend, and I flew out to California to film a music video for Post and Swae Lee, which never ended up getting released. We filmed a whole video, and everything and the shot of him in the pool and Swae in the background was the last shot of the night.
Basically, there wasn’t any plans for anyone to jump in the pool it just kind of happened. As he jumped in, he was handed beer and cigarettes and instantly was like this is a great photo opportunity. I snuck in front of the camera and grabbed a quick shot. I was the director of photography for that music video, but unfortunately, it never came out.
No one ever knew why that music video never came out. It got approved by everyone on the back end, but they decided not to release it for some reason. It was a cool video nonetheless and a great experience, we got it done and had fun as well.”
Doja Cat at Lincoln Hall
“It was kind of a unique situation because she was playing a show in Lincoln Hall. A buddy of mine used to work at her management company and mentioned they were looking for some pictures, and I offered to be the photographer.
Basically, they just wanted pictures of her performing at the show, generalized behind the scenes. I managed to talk them into doing a mini photoshoot in the backstage area of the venue before she got started. It was a last-minute thing to get in some extra shots of her solo without any crowds or any other artists, kind of a blend of creative minds and last minute photography. We got some good images, I think.”
Ski Mask The Slump God on set for LA LA
“That was another music video in which I was the director of photography for a song called LA LA. We were filming it out in Plano, IL, and it was getting towards the end of the night. We were doing some horror effects sort of stuff. He’s got the blood-red contacts on, fake blood, and all that jazz.
This shot was taken while he was waiting around for everything to be finalized. So as he was sitting there looking off into space, getting into his zone, I quickly took out my camera and snapped a quick photo. I thought it was a really interesting photograph to look at. Many people would think it was staged, but it's just the product of waiting around. It was one of those opportunities I managed to sneak something in during some downtime.”
Cole Schwartz
is a Dallas native who started off his career in music as a Rock guitarist. Between 2010 and 2017, he was fortunate enough to have shared the stage with rock bands like Chevelle, Flyleak and Stone Sour. After playing at Austin’s SXSW, he decided to transition his music career into the expression of emotions using film and photography. Today he lives in Chicago and works professionally as a director of photography, photographer and photojournalist. He has worked alongside artists such as Chance The Rapper, Mac Miller, Post Malone and Juice WRLD. He's also done work for commercial brand projects for Whataburger, Lids and TGI Fridays. His work has been featured on Billboard Magazine, Complex Magazine and the Chicago Reader.