An Interview with Brittany O’Brien
As told to Mariel Wiley
Hippo Campus, 2019. By Brittany O’Brien
With daylight creeping deeper into each afternoon and the warmth of another summer quickly approaching, there’s one experience that most of us are missing now more than ever: live music. A year spent in quarantine left us craving that shimmery feeling that hangs in the air above the heads of thousands waiting for their favorite band to walk on stage; that harmonious sensation of an arena full of voices singing out as one; that warm buzz in our souls left behind by the encore.
But concertgoers aren’t the only ones eager to dive back into a world of live music. The roadies, bus drivers, and sound techs who bring our beloved shows to life felt the sting of a shuttered live music industry on both spiritual and financial levels over the past year. Music photographers, in particular, were left not only without gigs, but also without that special creative outlet found on stage and on the road with a band.
To get a better sense of this experience from the inside, I spoke with Los Angeles-based music photographer Brittany O’Brien about her career, the current state of the pandemic-hit music industry, and her hopes for a return to the creative passion beginning to glow on the horizon.
Mariel: The start of every photographer’s creative journey is an important part of laying the groundwork for the future of their career. Can you tell us a little bit about your background with the medium?
Brittany: I got interested as a teen — I was always the kid who had the point-and-shoot of the friend group, and I just documented everything we did. I was just taking photos of everything, so I got involved with my high school yearbook. And then all my friends were in bands, so I would take the camera from yearbook class to go take photos of them playing.
M: So many of us start out shooting with our close friends. It’s such a natural way to learn how to capture emotions and memories. What was the next step in your journey after graduation?
B: I moved to San Francisco to figure out how to do photography, and from there I found an internship with a wedding photographer in the area. That’s where I learned everything I know about Lightroom and how to edit, and started getting into the local music scene.
M: So, you didn’t study photography formally — you forged your own path?
B: I did, and I was really, really lucky with that one.
M: I know how hard it is to kind of make your way up in the industry on your own. A lot of us are in the same boat: young creatives just trying to figure things out as we go, and who still don’t know how to get where they want to go.
B: Yeah, I’ve learned over the years that it’s really about how much tenacity you have, and the willingness to keep going even if you get knocked down. That’s kinda the only way to forge your own path, you have to accept that “no” is going to happen a lot before you get the “yes” that changes everything.
Hippo Campus, 2019 by Brittany O’Brien
M: You said you started out on a point-and-shoot. Was that film — and do you prefer that over digital?
B: I shoot film for fun, and occasionally an artist will want a film-based photoshoot. When I was growing up, I had a horrendous little Nikon point-and-shoot. But it didn’t really matter since I was just capturing the memories, I didn’t really get into film until I had already spent some time working in the music scene.
M: Would you say that your internship and your move helped you to refine your aesthetic style?
B: My internship taught me all the basics, so it wasn’t there that I truly defined my style at all. I really started to hone in on that when I started touring. I would be shooting the same thing over and over again and started to really like how certain things looked, like rich contrast and grain.
M: So, you had your internship and then moved into the music industry from there. Do you feel as though your career sort of neatly fell into place, or did you face some road blocks along the way?
B: It’s both. I can’t say that I haven’t had serious luck happen to me. Everything on this path — tour photography — is just connections, it’s who you meet. That’s the bread and butter of this industry. I got the opportunity to tour with Twenty One Pilots my first tour, so that was pretty wild! My boyfriend’s band was opening for them, which introduced me to that world at its maximum capacity. From there I met a string of people that liked my photography — I can’t say that I would be here if I didn’t know what I was doing, so it’s just that mix of luck and really grinding.
M: I’m also sure you’ve experienced some amount of imposter syndrome — it’s inevitable when you jump into a gig that to you seems a bit above your pay grade, but that you actually are qualified to shoot.
B: Oh, absolutely. I think every single creative deals with that, no matter what level they’re at. There have been countless times where I’ve thought “I shouldn’t be doing this.” Not as much now, but definitely in the beginning when I’d wake up on tour and I’d be getting paid to eat at this gas station, I’d be thinking “that’s pretty cool, how am I doing this?!” Now I’ve found confidence in myself, but it definitely is a huge challenge for a lot of us throughout our careers.
M: You mainly photograph musicians, even since high school. Have you ever been drawn to a different subject?
B: I have such a passion for music. I’m also kind of jaded by other kinds of photography: I’ve just done the thing I love so much that doing anything else seems boring. When I started out, I was doing engagement shoots, assisting on weddings and family portraits. That was fine — I was still learning new skills every day — but as soon as I got a taste of music, I was like “oh yeah, I don’t want to do any of the other stuff ever again.” I became determined to be only in music because any other type of work just feels corporate; motivated by money. I’d rather enjoy what I’m doing whenever I can.
M: I think that’s the goal for a lot of us. I’ve gone through the whole weddings/family portraits/grad pics ringer too — it’s humbling to still have to pick up that type of work every once in a while when it’s not where your true passion lies.
James Supercave, 2018 by Brittany O’Brien
M: So what is touring like? I know a lot of people have a really glamorized idea of it, but has your experience on tour matched what you imagined it would be?
B: It honestly is what I hoped it would be like whenever I used to dream about it. It is NOT glamorous at all, in any form! It’s hard and it’s long and there are days where you just want to be home — you get tired of eating out all the time. But it’s exactly where I want to be because you’re working hard and you feel accomplished at the end of every day: you did stuff today that you feel great about. As someone who loves that feeling, being on tour is like a drug. For a lot of people, the idea of traveling around and going to concerts every night with your best friends is dreamy, but only some people can accept the realities and the struggles that come with it.
M: Is having that close friendship with the musicians you’re shooting important to you?
B: Absolutely. Having a relationship with the artist is vital because to get good photos and be good at your job, you have to share these close spaces with the artist. I have to make sure that I approach every situation as an extroverted, confident person to really nail tour photography. When I toured with Hippo Campus and K.Flay, I barely knew them. I had to quickly get to know them and get comfortable being in their space — start to develop a relationship fast and not shy away from it.
K.Flay, 2018 by Brittany O’Brien
M: Do you have any favorite memories from the road?
B: Oh, yeah: I got to go to Europe for the first time with Imagine Dragons, and I will never forget stepping onto the stage in this soccer stadium in Germany and standing in front of 27,000 people with my camera. Like, I’m here and I’m doing the thing I’ve always wanted to do. And then that same day having the artist Grouplove yell out to this full arena “this is Brit’s last show, we love you Brit!”
M: Literally tens of thousands of people hearing your name and recognizing your work and presence must have been amazing.
B: You know that feeling when you’re a kid that it would be crazy if you ever became famous, I got to feel that for five seconds. Then it was gone, but that was all I ever needed. I’ll never forget that.
M: Something I’ve been thinking about in the process of ideating this article is how I’ve noticed that photographers and musicians in a way are like twin flames. Have you noticed that same creative drive in yourself and in the artists you work with — the only difference being that our art is for the eyes and theirs is for the ears?
B: Totally! We grind the same way, we both really have to push for our creative dreams. It’s a very similar path and I think 90% of the people in my life are musicians because of that. You just build friendships through understanding those similar likes and dreams.
M: I think also there’s a relationship between music being such an emotional art form, and your goal to document completely candid emotions. You’re both in this flow state feeling the emotions you’re creating.
B: The most important thing to me is to be authentic with the photos I take. I think it’s just so much more real for everyone involved: the band can go back later and look through the photos and remember all these unplanned moments that happened. I take a lot of inspiration from Annie Leibovitz, because she creates these portraits that are posed but look candid — the way that she captures things like that made me want to do something along the same lines.
M: I could be wrong, but I think she’s the one that said she disagrees with the adage that you should make your subjects as comfortable as possible. She’d rather dig deep into these deep emotions and bring different thoughts to the surface. Have you ever had to work at trying to pull the emotion out of a subject you’re photographing, especially if you don’t know them well yet?
B: That’s actually what I’ve been doing with crew members in live music who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic. It’s all these people I don’t know, and we’re going into these interviews — I try to bring up these harder subjects with them and photograph them while they’re talking about these harsh realities.
M: Is that a project we’ll be able to see sometime soon?
B: Yeah, it’s going to be an art gallery and (hopefully!) a book titled ‘Last to Open.’
COIN, 2019 by Brittany O’Brien
M: That brings me to my next topic: what the future looks like for people who work in live music. Do you see yourself back at these shows in the near future now that we’re emerging from the other side of the pandemic?
B: Absolutely! There are a couple festivals happening in the fall that I hope to be a part of, and a couple of bands I work with are putting together plans for touring in the coming months, so there’s hope out there.
M: I know people had taken for granted access to live music before we were all thrown into quarantine, and now everybody really misses it so it’s super exciting to have it back on the horizon.
B: I used a lot of time during lockdown as a kind of creative reset: working on different projects and staying busy trying new things. I started a zine called ‘From Lockdown with Love,’ and I also run a monthly environmental blog called ‘Framework’ just for fun. I have a big crush on the environment and being a better earth-walker, so I just started Framework as a way to inform people of things that I learned about sustainability that I wanted to share.
M: Do you have anything else in the works as well?
B: I’m also setting up a website platform called ‘Women who Tour,’ which is a resume-hosting space for women who have experience on the road. There’s a big problem where it’s hard to find women to hire for tour crews, and I found myself wishing there was a place online where I could find them. I also want it to be a place of information for women looking to get into this kind of work, like steps they can take to get into touring jobs that aren’t the super visible ones. And this platform isn’t about excluding men — anyone is welcome.
M: Where can people keep an eye on all your upcoming projects?
B: My website and my Instagram — that’s kind of my bread and butter, that’s where I’ll be!
You can find more of Brit’s work on her website. Keep up with her latest moves on Instagram.