In all the routes I’ve wandered through the world of photography, the decade I spent bringing my camera to punk shows has to be the most natural. In the last era of house shows before the cell phone, there was still a purpose to the role within the scene, and so I was able to forge something of an identity within various scenes from behind the camera. (This is both my ideal role as a photographer, and as a part of a social scene in general.)

Through the camera I found my way to various high-profile, high-capacity shows with their lighting set-ups ideal for a wide-angle lens, my favorite shots were always in the packed rooms from behind a drum set or on top of an amp in impossible lighting in a violent crowd. These were challenging shots, and when a band was impressed by them, it was a pretty great feeling.

I can’t remember the last show I hauled an actual rig out to & I obviously have aged out of that role now, but I realize that I was lucky to have that camera. It was an awful time of the Iraq war and punk rock was a weird space and among all those outcasts, I had this thing, almost like a lifeline at times, a sense of self among the outsiders. I knew it meant something then, I just didn’t know why until now.