I started writing this as an introduction to what my day looks like as a concert photographer, but my introduction part kind of got off the rails, so let's make this a series instead. Here in the first part, I'll go over a "short" introduction of how I got into photography, which evolved into a love for concert photography and how that love carried me to where I am today. I'm squeezing over a decade worth of my life here, so it's not the shortest post I've written. Here we go…

Introductions

Hi! My name is Richard Samael Forsman, aka Samael Creative, and I'm a 34-year-old photographer from Helsinki, Finland. I've been involved in photography more or less ever since I got my first Fuji film camera from my grandfather when I was still under 10 years old. Back then, we didn't have proper digital cameras yet, and shooting on film required much more knowledge of photography principles because you couldn't just point and shoot hundreds of shots and hope to get a couple of good ones.

Back then, I obviously didn't really care about the quality, and most of the time, I barely even got my films developed. But what it truly gave me was some core knowledge to build on later. I technically even shot my first concert photos with my first Fuji camera.

It took a long time before I got into photography more deeply. I've always been creative, but back then I was more into drawing and painting than photographing. I wasn't raised in a family with a lot of money to invest in the gear needed, but whenever I got to try out some of my classmates' cameras, I was always really excited about getting into it. Creativity has been my escape from depression and traumas, which have affected my life as a whole.

Getting more serious

My music photography hobby really began in 2011 when I got my first DSLR, a Canon EOS 600D (called Canon EOS Rebel T3i in the US). Finally, I had a proper camera to learn how to shoot completely manually without worrying about film and development costs.

If I remember correctly, my first attempt at shooting music photography was a DJ emanon show at Beats From The Vault. My friends from the goth club circles invited me to join this short weekend trip to Tallinn, Estonia, and obviously, I wanted to use my new DSLR as much as possible. I really did use it throughout the whole trip. However, almost all of my photos were completely unfocused trash, especially the ones from the club night. But it really lit the spark that burns to this day, and I really hope I've learned a thing or two since then.

During the same trip, we also attended the Body Machine Body Festival 2011, where I shot bands like Protectorate and Freakangel for the first time of many. Unfortunately, my shots of Freakangel were so horrible that they requested me to unpublish the photos. And honestly, yeah, they were terrible photos. It obviously hurts to get such requests, but that's life. Sometimes it bites, but now I've shot some of my favorite photos of the same guys.

After I got into it, I really tried to join as many shows as possible, but at that point, I only got some really small shows from bands I had never heard about before. Not really something that would give me any name as a photographer, but I learned. On top of those small shows, I also joined Club Infektio as a photographer multiple times. Their house photographer, Tuure Kaunisto, taught me a lot about using a DSLR and what type of shots they really wanted.

My first festivals!

I got to shoot my first music festival during TUSKA 2014, where I covered bands like Emperor, Anthrax, and Ensiferum, which were on a completely different level than anything I had covered previously. I'm really sad that I've lost all photos from my first festival ever because I was stupid and accidentally formatted my PC hard drive without putting my photos anywhere safe. No idea if they are still on some ancient Facebook page.

The second festival was more pop than anything else I've covered. Serena Pop & Rock Festival 2014, a couple of months after TUSKA, turned out to be a bit of a failure as the first day barely had any people there, and I believe the tickets didn't really sell as expected. On top of that, there were issues with almost everything during the event, so I guess it wasn't the most successful. However, I enjoyed getting to be officially part of the festival crew led by the veteran photographer Karo Holmberg.

But then something happened, and I lost my spark for many years. In 2016, I sold my DSLR and shortly after, I started a new job as a video-focused graphic designer. Unsurprisingly, in that job, I began to get more interested in making videos, which meant video cameras. Because my workplace had plenty of cameras to loan, I didn't really care to invest so much money into buying my own gear just yet.

In 2018, I decided it was a good idea to launch my own company on top of a full-time day job. In short, it turned out to be extremely stressful, and I realized that I'm not that type of entrepreneur and never will be again. I was supposed to launch a creative agency with a couple of my friends focused on the music industry because I already had a lot of experience working in the industry as a graphic designer and album art illustrator.

Well, my friends bailed on me, and I was left with a registered brand name, Morbid North, which soon after launched as a band merch e-commerce store. That adventure was short-lived as the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the world, closing down the live music scene completely and killing the sales of the merch. Obviously, bands had no money to invest in such services anymore. Morbid North closed down in 2022. That's a story for another post in more detail later.

During the pandemic in 2020, I was also working from home like most of the world who could. That also meant that I couldn't access all the cameras from my workplace anymore, so I decided to buy my own gear, which I thought would also help me do some product photography for my own merch store.

Well... I really got into it and invested in a studio's worth of gear quite quickly. Because I wasn't a complete noob in photography, I knew what I needed and what I wanted. My workplace had unlimited options of cameras to try out, so I had already found what I really liked and could invest in without big regrets.

Hello Sony a7SIII <3

I really loved my new Sony a7S III. I had been watching Sony cameras for quite a while already, and this choice was inspired by my interest in video content. I almost bought a Blackmagic, but I'm glad that I chose the Sony because it turns out I was more into photography than video after all.

It really helped that I had a partner at home who was happy to be my model, and her dancing hobby connected me to a bunch of other people who were also eager to model for me, like Anni Dohlen, whom I've worked with multiple times since then. Additionally, I got back into the TFP photography scene and quite actively worked with multiple models to try out my creative ideas. That also pushed me to invest in another camera body focused more on photography than video: my second Sony body, the Sony a7R IV. Yeah, I was really putting a lot of money into this, and the reason was that I started dreaming again about becoming a professional freelance photographer.

In 2021 the live music scene got reanimated

Now, 10 years later since I had my first DSLR, I've had two new cameras, a new spark for photography burning brighter than ever, and the pandemic restrictions were finally loosening their hold on the live music scene. During that year, I shot something new at least once a week, and on top of that, I still had my day job and was struggling with my merch company. So, I really kept myself extremely busy. On top of everything, my partner had decided to launch her own hair salon, and because I was foolish enough, I invested a lot of my time into that as well by doing the branding, website, and marketing, only to see her closing it down shortly after, despite such a promising start. Eventually, it wasn't an easy decision to close down my own company, Morbid North, and that seriously hit me hard, so the joy of photography was really something that I needed at the time.

A guy from the original Club Infektio crew, Hexexen with SadeN, was now running another club event called Neonya!! Party and booked me to shoot their Halloween rave event. The weeb genre honestly isn't my thing, but I do like electronic music and I've been to quite a lot of raves in my lifetime, so it was a familiar scene to work in. Everyone seemed to like my photos, so I've been booked to shoot most of their events since then. Shortly after that, I was invited by the Club Infektio crew to shoot their after-festival event at Hellsinki Industrial Festival, and I just requested a photo pass for the whole event. Since then, I've shot every Hellsinki Industrial Festival event and been an active music photographer. I think it's important to note that I keep using the term "music photographer" instead of "concert photographer" because I also shoot in the club scene and not just conserts specifically.

Joining Tuonela Magazine

Early in 2022, I began reaching out to music magazines and webzines to offer my services as a photographer. Helsinki already has a thriving photography scene, but the niche I was most interested in industrial/EBM was not well-covered in any of the Finnish music media. After contacting nearly every music publication in Finland and a few international ones, only three responded. Two showed interest, and I decided to work with Tuonela Magazine because they responded promptly, although both were unfamiliar to me. My first assignment for Tuonela Magazine was capturing King Satan and Hocico performing at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki, which also marked my first visit to that venue. Since then, my journey has been extensively documented on my social media and in previous blog posts.

A little career change

At the end of 2023, after enduring a challenging year marked by depression, a breakup from a long-term relationship, and struggling with my own existence, I made a significant decision to leave my day job. I felt that my efforts were not appreciated by my superiors, coupled with low wages and no prospects for career advancement, which dampened my motivation to continue. When offered a severance package, I negotiated and decided to leave. Shortly afterward, the company underwent substantial layoffs, confirming my decision and validating the tense atmosphere I had sensed for some time.

Reflecting on this experience, I acknowledge feeling conflicted that a company I admired wasn't my ideal workplace. Nonetheless, I gained valuable insights and lessons that I can apply moving forward in my career journey.

So here I am, amidst a fresh start after leaving my job and company behind. Pursuing my dream of becoming a professional photographer has been my focus, despite challenges like AI advancements, social media's impact on photographers, and the heightened tensions in the Western climate affecting job markets. Despite these obstacles, I remain steadfast in pushing forward.

In the past year alone, I've captured my first 90 shows for Tuonela Magazine. Alongside this, I've covered numerous other events and shows, with my photography featured in four other music magazines. Recently, I've also agreed to shoot for Metaljunkbox, marking my fifth collaboration with music media, as I prepare to cover TUSKA 2024. Who knows? Perhaps more opportunities with Metaljunkbox will follow, should they appreciate my work and wish to explore further into the Finnish music scene.

What's next?

This post was more about my background, how I got into photography, and what brought me here. I think I missed quite a lot because my life has weathered many storms. In my next posts, I'll be going into detail about what happens when I prepare for photographing three days at a metal festival, what occurs during the event, between the festival days, and how I get everything delivered before finally getting to rest. So basically, what I was supposed to write about!

See you at TUSKA 2024!