exploremusic

More than any band I can think of, RUSH have had to deal with an awful lot of loss, with several members of their management company passing in recent years, and now news of the death of Toronto photographer Andrew MacNaughtan, longtime documenter of RUSH and the man behind countless portraits of celebrities.

Only in his mid-40’s, MacNaughtan died suddenly without warning in Los Angeles on Wednesday, suffering a heart attack while in the midst of shooting his longtime friends from RUSH.

Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart of RUSH, have issued a joint statement in MacNaughtan’s honour via their Facebook page: “We’re deeply shocked and heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of our close friend and longtime photographer, Andrew MacNaughtan. He was a sweet person and a very talented artist. Words cannot describe how much he will be missed.”  (and Neil has posted a wonderful piece, about Andrew you can read by clicking through to NeilPeart.net)

MacNaughtan was known for his particularly keen eye and creative art direction, seen in more than 70 music videos and the art for over 150 album releases.   In fact he’d been the principal photographer for RUSH since 1989, capturing images on all their tours, promotional materials and album art.   A three-time Juno winner for album design, he collected a fourth award for Music DVD of the Year for Rush in Rio.   Another must-see for RUSH fans, is the Andrew MacNaughtan directed film, The Boys in Brazil (see part 1, below).

Andrew’s clientele extended to TV productions including So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Top Chef Canada and he co-directed the stunning new opening for Fashion Television.

Just a few years ago, MacNaughtan decided to make a difference in the world.  

He’d gotten the idea for Art Gives Hope, the charity he founded in 2006,  while shooting the Live 8 concert the year before.   He’d been doing a backstage shoot and pondered his extensive archive of photos of great Canadian musicians and thought that the pictures could do some good.

That first Art Gives Hope exhibit and sale of signed-by-the-subject prints went on to raise $55,000 for World Vision.

MacNaughtan also traveled to Kenya and Tanzania, Africa with the purpose of capturing the spirit and beauty of the landscapes, wildlife and people to raise funds for the prevention, care and advocacy of children in HIV/AIDS-affected regions.  So came the captivating book ‘Grace: Africa in Photographs’.  Proceeds from the book have gone to  Art Gives Hope.

To see images from MacNaughtan’s book, click through to artgiveshope.ca