As a female in the music industry i’ve always found it difficult to advance in my career. People always say its a boys club and that there’s no place for women in the industry. When it comes to touring, I do see that, its 99% men, and even if a women gets a job on tour, often they’re treated differently. When I started college, I noticed that the majority of my department was female (I went to The School of Visual Arts and majored in Photography.) It was so strange for me to see that in the touring community it was all male, but in the photography community it was mainly female. It was a weird dynamic at first, but as I continued with school I was between fine art students, which was female dominated, and the music industry which seemed to be male dominated. In my sophomore year, I interned for Universal Music Group for 2 semesters an most of the people who worked there were female, so again that dynamic of thinking only men work in music but really behind the scenes it was female dominated. On multiple occasions I noticed that I was being treated differently while shooting. One instance that has stuck with me was last summer. I was shooting an artist at Barclays Center in NYC, I knew the artist personally, and had an All Access laminate, a photo pass, and a guest pass for the show and during the 3rd song everyone who wasn’t on the tour was asked to leave. I got to song 4 and a security guard grabbed me and tried to force me out of the pit. I showed him my laminate and he said that it was fake and that I wasn’t allowed in there. Mind you I was the only female, and there was at least 8 guys in the pit with me, not all of them had laminates, but I was singled out and told to leave. After fighting with this security guard for a few minutes, one of the artists tour photographers noticed I was struggling to stay there and he came up to use and told security that I was allowed to be there. Luckily for me, the security guard finally backed off and I finished shooting the set. If it wasn’t for another male to confirm that I didn't sneak in, wasn't a band slut, or whatever this security guard thought my position was, other than being a legit photographer allowed to be there past others, I would have been thrown out, and trust me, I would have fought to the death to prove that I was actually supposed to be there. That was the most extreme example of someone assuming I was out of place just because of my gender. It’s happened multiple times, but this was the worst, most frustrating experience for me. Another hardship i’ve faced is constantly trying to get on tour and being told no. I have a pretty universal name, so i’m not sure its always been because i’m a female that people are saying no to me, but I wouldn’t be surprised in often that was the case. Back to working in the music industry, I started almost 8 years ago, when I was in High School. I created my own outlet called Music Kills Magazine.I used the site for the last two years I was in high school, I eventually shut it down and started shooting for other outlets. The first act I got approved for was All Time Low. They played a show with Boys Like Girls, The Ready Set, and Good Charlotte. It was my first time receiving a photo pass and it was one of the coolest shows. I had been to concerts in the past, had shot at smaller venues that didn’t require passes, but this made me feel professional. Then while I was in college I really went in and shot as many shows as I possibly could. It lead me to an internship with Universal Music Group, a freelance job with Tiger Beat Magazine, and being lucky enough to meet a lot of industry folks. I wasn’t able to find a job out of college, while I was in NYC so I had to come back to the San Francisco area post graduation. I’m still living near San Francisco, and still haven’t found an industry job. I never thought that when I graduated from college that i’d not only have to move back home, but that I wouldn’t be able to find a job in photography, music industry or otherwise. It’s been a weird few months and i’ve had to slow down on shooting shows but i’m hoping that some sort of paid gig will come my way soon. I think one thing thats important for photographers, especially ones who shoot music, is that you should always shoot other things. I got a lot of shit in college for primarily shooting music but I occasionally shot fashion. Now that i’m out of NYC I shoot fashion more often and its nice to be able to shoot something else when you can’t always go to concerts, continue shooting no matter what obstacles you face, and you don’t need to love everything you shoot. Shoot constantly, even if that means you go into your backyard and shoot some flowers, consistency is key and the more you shoot, the more you learn and the better you become. Thats probably the only thing I took from a four year art school. Constantly create and even if you get one great photo a week, that means you’ll have 52 great photos at the end of a year.
discoholicmusic
izzy806
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
gummygunk
kianamaiart
amandla
yousharknotpass
