‘This photograph from 1991. I had been assigned to photograph the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Amsterdam American Hotel; they were already a fairly well-known band at the time. So I arrived and a woman from the record company told me that my turn would come shortly. “My turn?!” It turned out there was a whole line of photographers waiting.’
‘I was not used to that, so I walked around the block for a moment. Then it was my turn. Two of the guys—singer Anthony Kiedis and guitarist John Frusciante—came walking over. Because I was sure the Peppers had four members, I started making some small talk about Amsterdam, you know. But those two clearly had entirely different things on their minds. They looked at me as if to say, “What is he talking about?” There was absolutely no connection. I wanted to put all four of them on one of those typical Amsterdam bollards: the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Amsterdam. I thought it would be fun, a kind of Beatles photograph. I had already found a good location for it. Suddenly, the woman told me my time was almost up and that I really had to start taking pictures.
Only then did I realize I would have to make do with these two! It was a warm day, and before I knew it they took off their T-shirts—presumably to show their tattoos—and started draping themselves around each other. I only had a wide-angle lens on my small camera, so I circled them once: click, click, click. Then it was over and everyone left. When I got home, it turned out to be an incredibly appealing photograph, with a dynamic all its own, in which I had barely played a part.’
- Name: Bob Bronshoff (1958)
- Place of residence: Amsterdam
- Portfolio: VARA TV Magazine, Groene Amsterdammer, Youp van 't Hek, De Dijk
- Information: none
