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Lumino Loses Friend & Photographer Niva Bringas
from: luminomagazine.com
by BARRY BRECHEISEN
On Wednesday night Chicago, music and the world lost a photographer and a friend. Niva Bringas, Photo Editor of Midwest Beat and photographer to the rock stars, died at the age of 43. Maybe you know his name and maybe you don’t but I bet you’ve seen his photographs at some point in a magazine or online.
I had the pleasure of knowing him and being able to call him both a colleague and more importantly a friend, since our paths crossed back in the late ‘90’s in a photo pit. Ever since he’s either worked for me or I’ve worked for him. Niva was born in Miami but was raised and lived in Chicago his whole life. He started shooting in the mid ‘70’s and got his first big break when he started photographing a girl who lived just down the street from him. That girl turned out to be JOAN JETT and this was back in her Runaway days and the rest as they say is history.
Even with being JOAN JETT’s photographer through the decades, Niva didn’t set out to be a photographer right away. Instead he went into a different type of shooting, law enforcement. Niva became a Chicago police officer but of course getting shot in the line of duty has a way of changing your perspective in life and that experience brought him back to his first love, photography.
Niva has studied with many of Chicago’s greats through the years including Stan Malinowski and Art Ketchum. In 2000, he took over as Photo Editor for Midwest Beat Magazine. Through the years Niva’s work has appeared in almost every major publication of music and otherwise including Rolling Stone and the Chicago Sun Times. If he wasn’t being the official tour photographer for JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS he was the acting secretary for the C.P.P.A (Chicago Professional Photographers Association), which he did for 3 years
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Recently, Niva added tour manager to his resume. Niva took over the reins as tour manager for Chicago’s own Michael McDermott and when he wasn’t setting up shows he was of course doing what he does best, taking photos. His recent work appears on Michael McDermott’s new album.
Niva Bringas will be missed and I can’t believe I’ll never see him in a photo pit again. This year alone I’ve seen him at Nelly Furtado, Roger Waters and the Chris Cornell pit to name just a few. He always made me smile and had the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known. My condolences goes out to his family and I hope they know what an impact he made to all of us through the years.
If you live in Chicago area a service will be held on Sunday, September 16 from 4 PM to 9 PM at the Drake & Son funeral home (5303 N. Western). Also there will be a memorial service on Monday September 17 starting at noon with the burial service following at the Rosehill Cemetery.
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