A lot of you have already met Kirstine (and your autocorrect probably changed her name to Kristine if you’ve ever emailed her), but we bet you didn’t know she photographed Bono of U2. Or Stevie Nicks. Or Metallica. Did you know she photographed Steven Tyler of Aerosmith? Because she did.
Kirstine started her career behind the lens over a decade ago in concert photography. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to get a seat close to the stage when at a show you’ve probably seen a small group of photographers darting back and forth and snapping away at the band. Well a lot of those photographers work for music industry publications to gather images for concert reviews, band interviews, and music announcements. Kirstine is one of those photographers.
Everyone at Organic Headshots gets along with each other so well because we’re kind of overachievers. And Kirstine is no exception, because it wasn’t enough for her to get up close and personal with KISS’s giant shoes, she had to do it while working for herself.
In 2018, she started her own music publication: Loud Hailer Magazine. And now Loud Hailer has 35 contributors across the US who photograph and review shows for all music genres, as well as band interviews and album reviews.
The same lenses she uses in our studio have also been pointed at Tom Petty, Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Alice Cooper, Rammstein, Michael Buble, and New Kids on the Block, to name only a few. And Eric Clapton at the United Center just last week.
“One of my favorite concert moments was shooting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on their 40th anniversary tour at Wrigley Field,” she says, “I’d never seen him before and I am a HUGE fan. It was raining so heavily that day and the rain was pouring off the top canopy of the stage directly onto all the photographers below. Even though I was getting soaked and my cameras were getting ruined, I didn’t care. It was such an amazing show. He passed away only a few months after that, and I count myself as so lucky to have that experience.”
Another moment Kirstine will never forget was when she got to meet Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac. He has his own bar/restaurant in Maui and she and her husband stopped by as a blues band played at the rooftop bar. As it turned out, Mick himself was playing the drums with the band. Kirstine introduced herself, chatted him up, and returned later that week with her camera and his blessing to photograph him playing with the band. If you drooled while reading that, then you’re as much of a music nerd as Kirstine and you should get together for a beer someday.
Concert photography combines Kirstine’s two favorite things in the world- music and photography. It’s like her own personal adrenaline sandwich to not only be standing a few feet from her childhood music idols with the crowd screaming behind her, but to do so with a camera in her hands.
Portrait photography uses a completely different part of her brain. It’s also all about capturing a moment in time where someone looks their best and is represented as their authentic self, but the images are created with more time and control.
