Fuck it, why not?

Photography By Jessie Rose

Music photographer Jessie Rose opens up about getting out of her comfort zone, the re-emergence of the DIY rock scene in Birmingham, and her latest quarantine project, “Lost in Isolation”.

Birmingham, United Kingdom

What is your history as a photographer?

It's strange really it didn't happen on purpose! It was kind of a merging of interests; I'd been taking photos since I was very small, when my mom and my Nan used to let me finish off their rolls of film. As I got older, they'd buy me my own disposable cameras and I took them everywhere!

I started out with an interest in art, which was always the only class I actually enjoyed and never skipped. When I got to college, it was clear that my drawing was pretty awful compared to my peers and I wasn't a very gifted painter either! I decided to take a photography class alongside fine art because I knew I liked taking photos. Something just really clicked for me and it was like I could finally turn the ideas in my head into something tangible!

I have always been fascinated by people; how they interact with each other and the world around them. Initially, I’d just walk around busy places and photograph the life there. As my confidence grew, I’d speak to people and ask if I could take their portrait sometimes, but I preferred to be more of an observer. Now I get to do both! When I’m shooting a show or a tour, I like to kind of dip around in the background. When I’m working with artists on portraits, I love being able to capture something that shows them as a person or illustrates their project in a very honest and tactile way.

How did you get into shooting music and musicians?

To start out with I was working in fashion, shooting editorials and backstage at fashion weeks for various magazines and brands. Music, and the imagery that accompanies it, has always been one of the bigger influences on my style and way of shooting but it was never where I thought I’d end up working. I think its good to keep forcing yourself out of your comfort zone though, so when artists started to approach me about portrait shoots it was really fun to do something a bit different!

Then a friend asked if I could bring my camera to one of their shows and take a few shots, like how I was shooting backstage at fashion week, and see if I could get a couple of live ones too. They knew it wasn’t really my jam and don't think either of us were expecting much. I won’t lie, that first gig was terrifying, because I wanted to get something decent for them, and it was all so new to me! But a few songs in the concert I thought, this is sick, I wanna do more of this shit! I just knew after that, music was what I wanted to be shooting and it’s bizarre because there’s every possibility I’d have never found that out if I hadn't thought ‘fuck it, why not, I’ll give it a go’.

What have been some notable moments in your music photography career?

I think seeing my photos in the magazines I read when I was growing up has been the most surreal thing for sure! I used to buy Kerrang! Magazine religiously each week as a teenager and my room was plastered in posters and clippings from it. So to go into a shop and see my own photos in there was just insane!

What's the music scene in Birmingham like?

The scene as whole in Birmingham has been like a weird roller coaster since I was a teen to be honest! When I first started going to shows there was a really strong community in the alternative scene. We went to shows as much as our pocket money would allow and it was so nice to have a space to be yourself and grow in.

Then there was a big shift; the venues we loved closed or were taken over by new people and I feel like that all but disappeared. It certainly became more sporadic but there has always been little pockets of people doing all sorts of things.

I think for me when one door closed I noticed there were a lot of others I’d never even noticed before; I think thats probably one of the best things about living in such a diverse city with such a young population. With so many unused spaces waiting to be taken over, there is always someone making something, whether its art shows or gigs, but you kind of have to know where to look. This makes the scene a total contrast to places like London, where theres just a lot more space dedicated to the arts. I feel like art is more respected in cities like London, which in turn means theres a lot more of it happening. Thats something that's always seemed so sad to me because I know my hometown has so much to offer but the platforms for artists are just so scarce! When I came back to shooting gigs in Birmingham, it was like this bizarre shadow of how I remembered it all.

Over the past few years, I’ve seen this very DIY movement sort of spring back into action; there’s a lot of exciting things starting to fill those gaps again. My only hope is that now with everything the way it is that doesn't stop. There’s so much potential in the city, especially in the punk and DIY subcultures, and it’s something the city needs to maintain its live music community.

It’s a very weird time for everyone, bands, venues, and fans. I’d hate to see lack of funding and redevelopment from the HS2 railway squash all that, but it’s so touch and go! I guess all we can hope for is people start coming out to shows again and support their local scene once everything opens up! First, we have to prove there’s something worth saving before councils will listen and consider the arts as something they should be backing in Birmingham.

What is your current project "Lost in Isolation" about?

So the series is a collaborative project that I started shooting with Milkie and Sam of Wargasm during the first UK lockdown. Myself and Wargasm work closely as a creative team to produce a lot of the imagery for their band and lockdown introduced a new challenge to that creative process! We could no longer meet up, chat and shoot together, and honestly I think that sucked for all of us!

Milkie and Sam spent their first lockdown in Belfast and I was in Birmingham, but we still wanted and needed to stay creative. So we decided to make a body of work shot the only way we could, via webcam! 'Lost in Isolation' was a phrase Sam used right at the start of the project of sum up the way it was easy to feel like things were getting lost in this weird digital space that we were suddenly boxed into, and all we could do was try and translate that using the medium of yet more screens and virtual representations of the realities we were all facing.

Creating things is a very tactile and raw process so to have that taken away was so alien, and I just feel like those few words perfectly encapsulate what we want to try and do with this project. Each shoot holds its own mini narrative and story. Whilst all being set in houses and gardens, relatable everyday spaces, the theme is always more erratic and abstract. This is how it felt to be physically trapped in one environment but have your mind running to a million and one different places to try and stay stimulated. A bit like cabin fever, isolation sickness. This is an exploration of the emotions we all cycled through over and over and how it effected us, and how we processed and we're able to documented them. Ironically, I think it's helped me to feel a little less ‘lost’ in the end.

Since shows aren't happening for a while, what else have you been doing to stay creative during the pandemic?

Honestly I’ve been trying everything and anything I can to keep my mind off the fact that life is so different right now! Mostly I’ve been enjoying the time to work on more mixed media pieces, experimenting with new things, figuring out how I can take those ideas into future projects. I guess just trying to make the most of the fact I’ve been landed with this abundance of time and make it as productive as possible. It isn't always easy; there’s been a lot of days where it feels like times just completely melted away from me, but I think everyone can relate to that. Aside from trying to make new work, I’ve been trying to do more reading, which I’d neglected for a while. It's been good to make time for that and to be away from screens and the internet! And as lame and cliche as it sounds, walking, just going on aimless little expeditions everyday has really kept me sane and I’ve still felt like I’ve been able to be around life and the world, even if its from a distance. I often find the further away you look from your own discipline the more inspired you become.

What's next for you?

It really feels impossible to say right now. If I could resume where we paused in March I’d be ecstatic! But it’s hard to know when that will become a possibility so I’m just going to go with the flow, keep keeping on however I can! Keep shooting as much as I can when I can, especially with projects like Lost in Isolation, that I feel still have avenues to explore in the coming months. Then in the time in-between I’m going to start work on some ideas I’ve had floating around for more print based projects and releases, so when the times right they're ready to go. I think sit tight and ride it out is all any of us can do right now!