Rock and Roast Photographer — interview with NervousEnergies
It’s not everyday you get to work with the music industries biggest bands because you’re the trusted photographer for the job – but this is the life of Ryan Russell a photographer in the music scene in Seattle/Bellingham, Washington. When Ryan isn’t called in for a shoot he is roasting coffee and helping a local business get the word out about their coffee.
Recently Ryan discovered geocaching and caught our eye so we wanted to know his story:
For those who are unfamiliar with you, can you give a brief summary of yourself?
Hi I’m Ryan Russell, I spent 20+ years in the music industry photographing bands such as Paramore, Death Cab for Cutie, and My Chemical Romance. I (semi) retired from music 7 years ago and started working in the coffee roasting industry in Bellingham, Washington.
Why do you take photos? (Rather existential artist question here)
Whether at a basement show crammed with 100 people in a space for 20, a 10,000+ seat arena or an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere I’m always wanting to document wherever I am at that moment. Most of my work focuses on slice of life type shots rather than creating conceptual work in a studio setting. William Eggleston created incredible work from mundane scenes, while Charles Peterson captured the raw intensity and chaotic nature of live performances. Both photographers had huge impacts on the aesthetic of my photography.
How did you get into the music-photography industry?
In the early 2000s I was building websites for local bands in Birmingham, Alabama where I grew up. One of the bigger local bands at the time signed to a record label and asked if I would create a site for them. I also started college around this time, decided to sign up for a photography class and bought a camera to document the shows pretty much just to have site content. They started opening for bigger bands and I would be able to shoot both bands. Those bigger bands would start hiring me to shoot their photos, and it started spiraling up over the years. By the time I graduated college in 2006 I was shooting album and magazine covers and realized this is what I will be doing for a career.
What is something you wish people knew about roasting coffee?
It’s endlessly fascinating how very small changes can have big impacts on the final roasted coffee. One of my favorite parts of coffee is how the processing of harvested coffee can affect the outcome. Farms have different methods of removing the skin and mucilage from coffee cherries before they export the “green” coffee to roasters. You can have a coffee plant of the same varietal from the same lot on the same farm and process them 3 different ways after harvesting and each will taste completely different once roasted and brewed.
Here at HQ, we love hearing about geocaching origin stories. What is your geocaching origin story?
I had a few friends who geocached back in 2007 who explained to me what it was. I ended up making an account and poking around a bit but never had a GPS back then to find any. Fast forward to the present day, my mother-in-law loved taking her kids geocaching at a Montessori she worked at and mentioned a story about it around Christmas 2022. My wife and I have a toddler and I thought what a fun activity to do as a family. We decided to kick off the new year by finding our first (GC9XDHC) on New Year’s Day and have been hooked since.
What has been your favorite geocaching moment so far?
Hands down visiting The Switchboard. My wife, toddler and I were headed down to Seattle to celebrate Lunar New Year and stopped to visit it. First time visiting a huge cache and my toddler was so excited for us to open it. The complexity of using the switchboard cables to solve a puzzle was so fun. Not to mention, the puzzle re-encrypts itself after every visitor opens it along with a different pre-recorded message that gives you instructions at the start (I got Roz from Monsters Inc which the CO later told me was the actual voice actor). The Switchboard is also a Little Free Library and our toddler picked out a dinosaur book which has fueled dino-mania in our house ever since.
How would you explain geocaching to a non-geocacher?
An activity played all over the world using GPS to find containers and solve puzzles. It’s like a real world video game; you’re tracking things down, solving riddles, unlocking gadget boxes. Sometimes you even need a giant ladder to reach a hidden area but still waiting to see if there’s a final boss battle.
As you are relatively new to the world of geocaching, what are some things you would like to share with other new geocachers or people who are interested in geocaching?
Do not get overwhelmed with the amount of caches and different types. Try finding some less difficult caches to get the hang of what to look for, the workflow of signing the log, replacing, and logging the find in the Geocaching® app. If you run into trouble, don’t hesitate to fire off a message to the CO (cache owner) for an extra bit of help. They’re eager most of the time to assist new folks to help make the experience a positive one. Something I have been wanting to do myself, get out there and attend your local geocaching events. I’m lucky to live in a place that has a pretty robust geocaching scene and I can’t wait to meet some of the others that enjoy it in Bellingham.
Do you see any overlap between your experiences with going on tour with bands, your current role in coffee, and your journey with geocaching?
There’s a ton of creativity in all three. Looking at situations from different angles (sometimes literally) can help unlock things about each you wouldn’t have known otherwise.
Do you have any future plans for Geocaching/Adventure Lab/coffee collaborations up in Bellingham?
Bellingham has such a vibrant coffee community; I would really like to create an Adventure Lab connecting some of the major stops in town. I have also been brainstorming some ideas of how to make a few caches themed around the bands I have toured with. I photographed and designed Paramore’s Brand New Eyes album artwork which ended up having a photo for each song on the record. Could be cool to make some caches themed on each photo featured in the layout.
What has inspired you most lately?
A lot of the records I worked on are hitting the 10-year (sometimes 20-year, yikes) anniversary. I have been revisiting my photo archives and publishing unreleased shots and sometimes fresh edits to some old favorites over on my Instagram (@ryanrussell). It’s had me wanting to get back out there a bit and shoot some concerts when I have time.
