Behind The Lens: Katarina Benzova

Photo Cred: David Surowiecki

Live Nation's Behind The Lens features predominant & up-and-coming concert photographers sharing their most memorable concert experiences and much more. Joining us for the series is Rock concert photographer Katarina Benzova. At just 13 years old, Slovakian-born Katarina left home on an international modeling contract, sending her to live in all of the major fashion cities around the globe. It was through her extensive travels during her 10 year career as a model that her ambitions outgrew the runway, prompting a deeper need to rediscover both herself and the rest of the world from the other side of the lens.

It was through that lens that she grabbed the attention of none other than Axl Rose, the iconic front-man of Guns n' Roses. Axl was so moved by the photos that Kat took of the band at a show in Vienna, Austria, that he immediately hired her as the bands exclusive photographer. She continues to tour with Guns N' Roses as their official tour photographer. She has quickly become one of the most in demand rock photographers and has shot and worked with other legendary bands like Aerosmith, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, ZZ Top, Courtney Love, Motörhead, The Cult, Sebastian Bach, Thin Lizzy, Jane's Addiction, Alice In Chains, Black Label Society, KORN, Van Halen, to name a few.
 
Katarina will be donating 10% from sales of any of her prints to Crew Nation through the Rock Photography Museum during the month of March. Browse prints HERE! 

Katarina is the founder of Mission11, an organization united by a mission to save the planet and its species. Mission 11 is partnering with organizations and artists to take on some of the most pressing and complicated challenges facing the world today.  

Featured Photos

Courtney Love

I photographed her in Philadelphia in 2016  at the Theater of Living Arts. I absolutely loved capturing her grunge rock performance. She is a fierce and powerful woman, musician, actress, songwriter, author, provocateur, mother and wife of a rock god. In each and every one of these roles Courtney Love has demonstrated a wholehearted commitment to her art, and an intense drive and a lust for life , but have also led her into some unwise, uncharted, and even dangerous territory. And that’s what makes her extraordinary.

Lemmy Kilmister, Motörhead

June 24 2012 - Grasspop Metal Meeting , Dessel, Belgium

During another amazing European summer festival tour working with Guns N’ Roses, one of their headlining stops was Grasspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, and the band that played right before their set was Motörhead. I’d never seen them play live before this and I can’t imagine a better place than with tens of thousands metal fans jumping and singing along their classics. Lemmy was the living, breathing embodiment of heavy metal, though he refused to embrace the term, claiming he was just performing an amped up version of Rock 'n' Roll in the tradition of his heroes like Little Richard or Chuck Berry.
This was the only time I got to photograph Lemmy before his passing and I feel extremely fortunate to have had at least that opportunity to photograph him in his element, doing what he loved the most.

KISS, backstage  

I was lucky enough to join KISS on the European leg of their 40th Anniversary World Tour they did together with Def Leppard. I came there as a photographer for their opening band The Dead Daisies, but ended up shooting all 3 bands on a regular basis. Shooting KISS is difficult as they have been photographed in the same costumes and same makeup for the past 40 years and as a photographer you’re trying to capture them in a different way that hasn't been seen before.The most exciting thing about shooting KISS is the show itself. It feels like rock n’ roll Cirque De Soleil. Fire, moving platforms, smoke, flying band members, fireworks,  fire breathing, guitar breaking and of course more fire. I have so many photos of them and it was hard to pick one so I picked the one that you wouldn’t expect. 

Eddie Van Halen 

Unfortunately we just recently lost one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. His outpouring of riffs, runs and solos was hyperactive and athletic, making deeper or darker emotions feel irrelevant. I feel so incredibly lucky I got to see Van Halen play and photograph them. If I would have known that was the last time I would photograph them I would’ve taken millions of more shots. It was such an awesome festival called Stone Music Festival in Sydney 2013. It was the first time Van Halen performed in Australia with David Lee Roth!! Crazy!! Van Halen's only other concert in Sydney was on April 20, 1998 when former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone was the VH lead singer for one album only. So it was definitely a mind-blowing experience and I feel beyond lucky to have been there. Other bands that performed that night were Aerosmith, Jimmy Barnes, Kings Of Chaos and many others. 

Guns N’ Roses 

April Fools 2016 was a big day in rock history and I’m extremely lucky to have been there to document it. That night Guns N’ Roses reunited on a stage at the Troubadour and it was the best show I’ve ever seen. The energy was insane! The tickets were sold in a old school way and you had to wait in line at Tower Records to get yours. People flew from around the world to stay in line in hopes to get one. The show rocked so hard, that one of the monitors was pushed and Axl unfortunately broke his foot few songs in. But that didn't stop him from finishing the 3 hours set or full on world tour that was scheduled after that show. That's what I call Rock N’ Roll and feel fortunate to be their tour photographer for over 10 years now.

Steven Tyler

I’ve worked for Steven & Aerosmith for at least 7 years now and there is never a moment I get bored of photographing them. Constant energy, unpredictability and fun! It was hard to pick one photo, but given the time we live in now, this one spoke to me the most from the artistic standpoint and represents how a lot of us feel right now.

Angus Young, AC/DC

I felt super fortunate when Axl asked me to join him and AC/DC on the European leg of their Rock or Bust tour in 2016. He jumped in for Brian Johnson. Working with these amazing people every day was a dream come true.

Axl Rose

This is one of my favorite photos for a lot of reasons. It captures what I love about photographing live music. It's about movement, emotions, but also about elements. The movement doesn’t have to be of the person that is being photographed. Rain or shine, the show must go on and you as a photographer must adapt to any scenario and get the best out of it.

Billy F. Gibbons

Billy is one of America's finest Blues guitarists and an amazing human. I got to photograph him many times around the globe, but this was probably the first time I photographed him and this photo is still one of my favorites of him. ZZ Top did an Australian run of the La Futura World tour in 2013. I was working with two bands at that time. Guns N’ Roses and The Dead Daisies. ZZ Top was an opening band as well as Aussie rockers Rose Tattoo for Guns N’ Roses on that tour. Unfortunately due to schedule, I could never make it to photograph the opening acts on this tour. But The Dead Daisies had 2 shows opening for ZZ Top during that time and I could finally photograph them! ZZ Top's image has been as unchanging and as memorable as their music. The band's iconography — beards, cars, girls and that magic keychain — transcend all bounds of geography and language. So my goal was to capture them a little different than everyone else. And I love creating a studio-like portrait looking scenario, that you wouldn’t even know was shot during a live performance. There is that magic of capturing authentic feelings, rather than trying to recreate them in the studio.