Backstage

Before something becomes iconic, it’s just happening.

Before the photograph becomes an archive, the outfit becomes a reference, or the artist becomes a name everyone recognizes, there is a room somewhere filled with half-finished conversations, garment bags, cables, makeup, nerves, bad lighting, and people waiting for something to begin.

Culture isn't usually announcing itself while it is being made.

It happens in dressing rooms and parking lots.

In rehearsal spaces, dive bars, studios, sidewalks, and the few minutes before someone steps into the light. Backstage is interesting because the performance hasn’t completely taken over yet.

We tend to experience culture backwards.

We see the photograph after we know the significance of the person in it. We recognize an era after its visual language has already been established. We call something iconic once enough time has passed to understand what we were looking at. But someone had to be there while it was still becoming.

That is what interests me about photographing backstage spaces.

Not access for the sake of access, but proximity to the unfinished version of something.

The mess around the frame.

Creative direction often focuses on controlling what an audience sees.

Backstage reminds me to pay attention to what was never designed for them.

Because.

Culture happens before it makes history.