Besides being a talented singer and songwriter, Tess Park also takes amazing photographs. Here the Canadian chanteuse shares some of her private photographs and on the road diaries with NUIT.
There is something interesting about photographing musicians. They are gifted creatures, often faking confidence and self-worth until they believe in themselves. But there is an air about them, an undeniable presence that can’t possibly be captured in a photograph. Naturally, as with any performer, there is a vain side to all rock ’n’ rollers. They expect to be photographed. They may act humble, but there is an arrogance and self-assurance which has brought them to their level of success, not necessarily a bad thing at all really, seeing this confidence in people is inspiring and makes you want to possess it in yourself as well.
It is strange as a photographer, to see artists you really look up to through your own lens. In a sense, you have control over that person for the period of time you are photographing them. They are vulnerable to you. You are capturing that person as YOU see them, not necessarily how they like to be viewed. Being a musician is in a way somewhat like never having to grow up. You just get to have fun every day and do what you love, go from one city to the next and make loads of friends. It’s the ultimate job… at least that’s how it looks to most from the outside.
1. Grimes – I shot this photo of Grimes at the Polaris music prize in 2012, in Toronto, for Art Rocker magazine. She stared me up and down before I took the photo and then I said “thank you” and walked away.
2. Gregg Forman – I’ve known Gregg since I was about sixteen through his work with Cat Power. He’s worked with so many great artists and is so talented himself. This was taken in China Town, in Toronto, before a Cat Power show in early 2013.
3. Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) – This was backstage at Brixton Academy in December 2013. I was really drunk when I met him so I don’t remember a ton of what I said, but he is the king of cool and it was very cool to photograph him.
4. BadBadNotGood’s, mascot – BadBadNotGood are a very cool band blowing up in Canada at the moment. This is at ‘Field Day festival’, summer 2014. I probably shouldn’t reveal the identity of the person in the costume, but he basically just gets to dress up and dance on stage while crowd goes bananas. Best job ever!
5. Laura Hermiston (Twist & BB Guns) – Laura is a dear friend of mine. This was a last minute shoot, just got inspired one day and asked to shoot in my friends’ studio. I usually don’t photograph in a studio, but the photographs from this session turned out really nice. She photographs beautifully.
6. Courtney Taylor-Taylor (The Dandy Warhols) – Courtney is probably one of the most confident people I have ever shot, a very relaxed person to photograph.
7. Jeremy Katz and Cameron Allen (Froth) – Backstage at ‘Psych Fest 2014’. Made friends with this great band called Froth from California. They make really cool tunes and have great band camaraderie.
8. Alexander Ebraham Ahmadi and Cole Devine (Cosmonauts) – Cosmonauts are another cool California band, signed to Burger Records. They’re also really fun to hang out with!
9. Brent DeBoer (The Dandy Warhols) – Brent’s a really nice guy and a fantastic drummer! That was a really fun night with the Dandy’s in Toronto. My friends and I took them to the Embassy in Kensington Market and hopefully showed them a really good time! I think they had fun.
10. Charlotte Marie (BB Guns) – Charlotte looks like a 60’s groupie goddess in this photograph. This is backstage at the ‘Optical Sounds Psych Pop Volume 2’ release party.
11. Cole Devine (Cosmonauts) – Cole loves Spacemen 3 as much as I do and I absolutely always photograph anyone wearing any Spacemen paraphernalia, of any sort.
12. Michael Rault – Michael is a cool dude on the Toronto music scene these days. He plays a lot around Canada and is gathering a huge following. This was taken in between a photo session I was doing with another great Toronto band, called Invasions.
Words and photography by Tess Parks