Snapped during the 2007 Coachella Festival, an iconic photo of Amy Winehouse on stage revealed an emotional moment of vulnerability, according to Indie Rock Photographer, Piper Ferguson, as reported by PEOPLE.
The photo taken by Ferguson and published in her new book "Indie/Seen" showed a struggling Winehouse balancing on one foot and indecisively managing a ballet slipper on the other.
For Ferguson, this was a unique occurrence begging to be snapped as she was "glad" to have photographed Winehouse while the singer was trying to process the magnitude of what was happening. The photographer adds how this was a moment of vulnerability which most artists undeniably experience but are not part of any conversations, as much as it should be.
Amy Winehouse at Coachella
At the time, Amy Winehouse rode the coattails of her best-selling album "Back-to-Black" to success at only 23 years of age, which shot her a chance for a placement at a Coachella Festival happening that year.
Ferguson echoed this sentiment by sharing how "everybody" at Coachella that year was lining up to see Winehouse perform, going as far as to call the pop artist "the most sought-after" singer to watch during that festival.
This explains her nervousness when it came to performing that day, especially because it was her first time singing at the festival, which reportedly had over 60,000 people in attendance.
In a YouTube video of her whole Coachella set, Winehouse can be heard verbalizing how everybody around her hyped up the festival, saying, "Wait until you get to Coachella," before joking about her fumbling during the performance.
Because of a tragic turn of events, Winehouse could only perform at that particular iteration of the festival due to legal drama that prevented her from returning to the following Coachella held in 2009. Two years after that, Winehouse would also pass away due to alcohol poisoning.
Ferguson's snapshot of Winehouse can be seen as a poetic simile to the British pop icon's career. The honesty that Amy Winehouse shared through her artistry and unabashed personality will forever be cemented in the psyche of her fans as beautiful, no matter how brief it all was.
