Photo:Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
Piper Ferguson/Weldon Owen
In her new book,Indie, Seen, out now from Weldon Owen, Ferguson shares some of her most iconic photos — and the stories behind them — from the indie music scene throughout the years. With a foreword from The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Ferguson creates a comprehensive guide of some of the genre’s most notable bands.
“I really want it to be a celebration of a lot of the bands that everybody loves, like The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol,” she says. “But I also would love for people to check out a lot of the bands that maybe they’re not as familiar with…I really wanted to embrace all of the scene.”
From photographingThe Killersbefore they started playing stadium shows, to snapping an intimate onstage picture ofAmy Winehouseat the height of her fame, Ferguson shares some of her stand-out photos and the stories behind them with PEOPLE.
01of 11
The Strokes
The Strokes, 2001.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
02of 11Sleater-KinneySleater-Kinney, 2005.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon OwenFerguson recalls photographing Sleater-Kinney at Levi’sFaderSuite in 2005.“That photo means so much to me,” she says. “They were super chill. They were really into having a decent portrait. They wanted to make it good for me.”“I had never heard a girl band like them before. I couldn’t understand how [lead singer Corin Tucker] could sing like that. It was so incredible and so punk rock and so different and unique, and it just really made me want to be creative as a woman.”
02of 11
Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney, 2005.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
Ferguson recalls photographing Sleater-Kinney at Levi’sFaderSuite in 2005.“That photo means so much to me,” she says. “They were super chill. They were really into having a decent portrait. They wanted to make it good for me.”“I had never heard a girl band like them before. I couldn’t understand how [lead singer Corin Tucker] could sing like that. It was so incredible and so punk rock and so different and unique, and it just really made me want to be creative as a woman.”
03of 11Carlos Denglar of InterpolCarlos Dengler of Interpol, 2003.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen"My good friend Apollo Star, who worked the door at my club, had a studio and I shot everything there,” Ferguson says. “He always used to have a lot of after-hours parties as well, after the club. Carlos [Denglar of Interpol] came to an after-party at the studio.““Apollo had the rabbit, so that wasn’t even at a shoot. It was at probably three o’clock in the morning. Carlos just picked up the bunny and was holding the bunny, and I happened to snap a photo of an after-hours moment.”
03of 11
Carlos Denglar of Interpol
Carlos Dengler of Interpol, 2003.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
“My good friend Apollo Star, who worked the door at my club, had a studio and I shot everything there,” Ferguson says. “He always used to have a lot of after-hours parties as well, after the club. Carlos [Denglar of Interpol] came to an after-party at the studio.““Apollo had the rabbit, so that wasn’t even at a shoot. It was at probably three o’clock in the morning. Carlos just picked up the bunny and was holding the bunny, and I happened to snap a photo of an after-hours moment.”
04of 11
Insight/Weldon Owen
“They came in with the paper plates,” Ferguson says of the band from Brooklyn, photographed here in 2003 for a Levi’s photoshoot. “Because Levi’s was giving away the jeans, and people would call them Free Vi’s. That’s why it says, on the paper plate, ‘There’s no such thing as free jeans.’ Because I think obviously somebody had to make them.”
05of 11The KillersThe Killers, 2004.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen"Nobody had really heard of them much,” Ferguson says of one ofThe Killers' early performances, which took place in a retro bowling alley during the 2004 South By SouthWest music festival. “But when they played that show, it was awesome. They went for it. … It was like they had been performing their entire lives.”
05of 11
The Killers
The Killers, 2004.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
“Nobody had really heard of them much,” Ferguson says of one ofThe Killers' early performances, which took place in a retro bowling alley during the 2004 South By SouthWest music festival. “But when they played that show, it was awesome. They went for it. … It was like they had been performing their entire lives.”
06of 11PJ HarveyPJ Harvey, 2009.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen“I just love that she had that sort of crown on her head,” Ferguson says of Harvey, whom she photographed forMojoMagazine in 2009. “She hadn’t been around in a long time, so everybody was real excited to see her perform. When I was photographing her, I just felt like she was giving herself to us for that moment, and that it was just like a gift.”
06of 11
PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey, 2009.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
“I just love that she had that sort of crown on her head,” Ferguson says of Harvey, whom she photographed forMojoMagazine in 2009. “She hadn’t been around in a long time, so everybody was real excited to see her perform. When I was photographing her, I just felt like she was giving herself to us for that moment, and that it was just like a gift.”
07of 11
Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer, 1999.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
08of 11Kim Gordon of Sonic YouthKim Gordon, 1999.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen“I love those photos of Kim so much because I had never personally seen a female badass bass player in a skirt,” Ferguson says of the Sonic Youth co-founder. “I mean, I had seen other female bands, but for some reason she just came out as almost like the front person.”
08of 11
Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth
Kim Gordon, 1999.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
“I love those photos of Kim so much because I had never personally seen a female badass bass player in a skirt,” Ferguson says of the Sonic Youth co-founder. “I mean, I had seen other female bands, but for some reason she just came out as almost like the front person.”
09of 11BeckBeck, 2005.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen“Every time I’ve ever photographed him, he’s just down to do whatever,” Ferguson says of the “Where It’s At” singer. “He wants to chat about everything.”“I was like, ‘I want to do a picture of you just walking down the street, but it’s raining.’ And so I just put the poncho on him and handed him the umbrella and just wanted a photo of him walking down the street in the rain in Los Angeles in Hollywood, because he’s so quintessential L.A. kid, like L.A. cool kid. And he was just so down to do whatever I wanted, and that’s how he’s always been.”
09of 11
Beck
Beck, 2005.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
“Every time I’ve ever photographed him, he’s just down to do whatever,” Ferguson says of the “Where It’s At” singer. “He wants to chat about everything.”“I was like, ‘I want to do a picture of you just walking down the street, but it’s raining.’ And so I just put the poncho on him and handed him the umbrella and just wanted a photo of him walking down the street in the rain in Los Angeles in Hollywood, because he’s so quintessential L.A. kid, like L.A. cool kid. And he was just so down to do whatever I wanted, and that’s how he’s always been.”
10of 11Karen O of the Yeah Yeah YeahsKaren O, 2009.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen“She always seemed really confident,” Ferguson says of the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, whom she photographed in 2009. She recalls hearing stories of O covering herself in olive oil before going on stage during the band’s early days in New York.“I thought that was so incredible,” Ferguson says.
10of 11
Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Karen O, 2009.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
“She always seemed really confident,” Ferguson says of the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, whom she photographed in 2009. She recalls hearing stories of O covering herself in olive oil before going on stage during the band’s early days in New York.“I thought that was so incredible,” Ferguson says.
11of 11Amy WinehouseAmy Winehouse, 2007.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen“Everybody wanted a piece of Amy that day because she was probably the most sought after performer at that Coachella in 2007 that everybody wanted to see,” Ferguson says of this photo of Winehouse from the festival.“I’m glad that I got her putting on her shoe because it was just this insecure moment of indecisiveness, of shoes on, shoes off. She seemed so vulnerable at that moment and just unsure of how to really take it all in. And I think so many artists experience that, but maybe don’t talk about it as much.”
11of 11
Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse, 2007.Piper Ferguson/Insight/Weldon Owen
“Everybody wanted a piece of Amy that day because she was probably the most sought after performer at that Coachella in 2007 that everybody wanted to see,” Ferguson says of this photo of Winehouse from the festival.
“I’m glad that I got her putting on her shoe because it was just this insecure moment of indecisiveness, of shoes on, shoes off. She seemed so vulnerable at that moment and just unsure of how to really take it all in. And I think so many artists experience that, but maybe don’t talk about it as much.”
source: people.com
