Check out Kevin Brown’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Brown.

Kevin, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I started working in the field of concert photography about a year after moving to Nashville to pursue a career working behind the scenes in the music industry. Even though that path wound up going mostly unexplored, during that time I started writing for a local music blog called Lockeland Springsteen. With that as a jumping-off point, I was able to pick up a few other writing gigs along the way. Though it was something that I was good at and also enjoyed doing, a chance opportunity to borrow my friend’s camera to shoot a show that I was already planning on reviewing. In this case, it was Jamie xx’s show at Marathon Music Works on 08.04.15 (special shout out to the venue’s security who let me shoot the ENTIRE show from the photo pit, which is in no way a normal thing).

This quickly turned into a desire to focus more on photography, so I managed to finagle a friend from Florida’s used Canon t2i away from him for a couple months while I tried to see if it were something I’d be interested in really going after. Eventually, the time came where that same friend said that I would either have to send back the camera or pay him for it – so, $200 for the camera, countless photo passes, and nearly three years later in a different city, here I am.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
First and foremost, I consider myself to be a concert photographer. Though I’ve spent the past year or so dabbling in the worlds of food/beverage, documentary, real estate, and wedding photography, the bulk of my work resides in the capturing of live music as a theatrical experience. My goal with every show that I shoot is to capture the raw state of the artist at work, and to try to do so from as interesting of a perspective as possible. I try to key in on facial expressions as much as I do the instrument(s) on display.

My editing process is meant to mimic the sense of feeling that the music gave off in the moment. Live music, thanks to several aspects – wardrobe, lighting and stage/venue design – is an inherently photogenic subject. It is, however, sometimes a difficult task to capture clearly (most artists don’t allow for the use of flash and a large portion of music venues limit photo pit access to three songs), many times because of the aforementioned aspects that make it so photogenic. Ultimately, I think that my end of the bargain relies on me conveying the energy of each unique performance.

Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
Receiving proper compensation for their time and effort.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
As stated earlier, I started out with a blog in Nashville called Lockeland Springsteen. However, most of my concert photography from the past three years has been published on Impose Magazine. Due to some shifts in editorial there, I recently left Impose to work for the North Carolina-based up and coming music blog New Commute. My full portfolio can be found here: bykevinbrown.squarespace.com, and my Instagram is @bykevinbrown.

Contact Info:

• Website: bykevinbrown.squarespace.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @bykevinbrown
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bykevinbrown/
• Other: https://spark.adobe.com/page/xI7yc3EDczkac/

Image Credit:
Chance The Rapper, LCD Soundsystem, Run The Jewels, Hundred Waters, St. Vincent, David Byrne, Sylvan Esso.

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