Sterling Andrews’ sterling new thing

Gooseberries is a sweet treat for music fans and fine art aficionados

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: March 23rd, 2009 | 12:00am

Four musicians look up at the sky, a bit perplexed with the pears in their hands. A bearded fellow, with a couple of ladies behind him, stands amidst balloons and bubbles. A band of seven, dressed in black, stare at the camera with white confetti on the ground and rifles in their hands. A trio in a yellow room present viewers with a crystal ball. These images, and many more portraits, are included in Gooseberries, an unusual amalgam of rockers and art installations, photography and LP packaging.

The mastermind behind Gooseberries is Sterling Andrews. A photojournalist, she’s been published in the Los Angeles Times, Filter, New York Magazine, and Spin, and has been photographing bands since the late ‘90s. Intrigued by the Los Angeles music scene, she began to take photos as distinctive as the groups themselves were, including well-known musicians such as the Shins, Spoon, Snow Patrol, and Death Cab for Cutie.

With Gooseberries, she’s gone a step further in her photographic pursuits. She’s created odd little environments of paint and paper, then styled and staged her subjects before photographing them in her home studio. The result is a collection of 11 x 11 fine art lithographs featuring Silversun Pickups, Great Northern, Rogue Wave, Earlimart, Rademacher, the Pity Party, Death to Anders, Happy Hollows, Le Switch, Afternoons, the Henry Clay People, and One Trick Pony.

Andrews herself is no one trick pony because Gooseberries is not just a collection of her portraits done amidst her own artwork. Inside the gatefold LP packaging is also a DVD of time-lapse videos, interviews, and single still images (mounted on hand-painted, recycled vinyl) of the bands that participated in her creative venture. Available through Eenie Meenie Records, the release will be limited to 500 signed and numbered copies. If you’re free and in Los Angeles on April 2^nd, a Gooseberries book release party, presented by Filter, will showcase some of the very musicians included as subjects.

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View more about Gooseberries online at gooseberriesbook.com/