Philip Glass arrived serenely cerebral, without pretense. Bif Naked came growling with attitude. The aim was to move both of them to someplace deeper, more spontaneous. That's how it is when you photograph the famous and musical, says Mark Mushet. In a world when recording artists' images are relentlessly honed and packaged, Mushet strives to move beyond the 'brand' and reveal something of the character of his subjects.

The results found here are outtakes from an exhibit of Mushet's work that opens Friday March 5, at 8 pm at Zulu Records in Vancouver. Mushet is a serious aficionado of industrial, Indian classical, European jazz and just about every other sort of music. "I try to keep my CD collection down to 1500."  The portraits in the show are just as eclectic, ranging from veteran jazz bassist Barre Phillips to opera diva Jean Stillwell to self-styled "scrappy bitch" Veda Hille.

"Most of the images were taken during informal, one-on-one sessions that allowed for a rare level of intimacy, playfulness, warmth, and the revelation of real personality," says Mushet.  He compares his approach to musical improvisation, and says a key first step is "just to be straight up" and ask his subject: "What's on your mind?"

Scouring old mug shots

These days, Mushet has a special insight into what's on Veda Hille's mind. Having photographed her many times, he now "collaborates" with the Vancouver-based singer in an unusual way. He's been combing the Internet for mug shots of criminals from times past, sending the most evocative to Hille as she works on her latest album, which draws inspiration from carny music and Weimar Germany's cabaret scene. Some of their shared favourites, found at www.smokinggun.com include Patty Hearst, Bugsy Seigel and a co-conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. All of them radiate a strange, insouciant glamour reminiscent of what passes for cool in today's stylized celebrity images, Mushet says.

That overdone look is nothing Mushet is interested in replicating -- and so the invitation to his subjects that they join with him in an improvisation leading … who knows where? "There is always something they want to hang on to," Mushet says, "and that's the thing I'm trying to get them to let go of."

David Beers is founding editor of The Tyee.