Note to Self: Don’t Die

I find myself returning to the lyrics,“Note to self: don’t change for anyone. Note to self: don’t die.” Despite all of his setbacks in recent years, Ryan Adams has managed to keep to those vows.

I don’t know if a Adams is a good person, I’m not about to do a thorough investigation, and to be honest, I don’t care that much. I tend to evaluate people based on how they treat me during a photo shoot, as well as how cooperative they are in making good pictures, and on both fronts, he was fine.

I initially connected to him through his management, when I did a series of musician portraits for the Other Music record store. Through 2000 and 2001 I did sessions with over a dozen indie rock artists who struck me as relevant to that moment. I got my start photographing bands, and it was this was a fun project to reconnect to that energy. We did the session in Soho Grand on West Broadway in a his hotel suite. He was just waking up, but was a playful and cooperative participant.

The second session was for Q Magazine and I managed to get us into the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. It lent some texture to the pictures, as well as giving a nod to the retro vibe of his music. It’s, “Let’s go back to the 1880s, instead of the 1970s!”

I was inspired to do this post because my wife and I have been revisiting Adams’ classic Y2K era albums. At the time, it struck me as him making old-sounding music for young people. Revisiting it 25 years later, now that it is actually old, it sounds better, like he was making it for the future past all along.

Top Image: A slice of the contact sheet from our session, at the Soho Grand Hotel, NYC. October 21, 2000.

Second Image: My pick as the final for the Other Music exhibition: Sound of Music, 2002.

Bottom Image: My favorite photo from our 2003 session. Lower East Side Tenement Museum, NYC, September 30, 2003.