The Cure, Houston, 1989
FRAME 36 STORIES No. 04
Friday I’m in Houston
In 1989, the Houston Post sent me to photograph The Cure – not only the band onstage, but the people who came to see them. What began as a concert assignment became a portrait of a generation, captured on film in the clothes, hair, attitude and faces of a Houston night.
The Crowd
The assignment wasn’t just about the band. The editors wanted the people, too – the clothes, the hair, the makeup, the attitude. In 1989, the crowd was part of the story.
Most of these kids are middle-aged now. In 1989, they were just faces in a crowd – young, dressed for the night, and unaware they were becoming part of a record of Houston at that moment.
The Stage
The room changed when the lights went down. What had been a portrait of the crowd became something louder and more theatrical – Robert Smith and The Cure framed by smoke, stage light and the blur of a live show.
What remains is more than a concert. It is a record of a night, a crowd, and a moment in time – photographed before any of us knew how much the years would change.