We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hunter Borkowski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Hunter thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My dad is pretty much the reason I am so passionate about music and wanting to be a part of that industry. He is a music copyright lawyer and I grew up with so many different genres and influences from such a young age that it really helped shape my interests and career path later on in life.

When I was younger I was also extremely academic based – I took every AP class I could fit into my schedule and strived after straight As for as long as I could remember. When it came time to decide where I wanted to go to college, I felt like I was about to hit a massive wall. I really wanted to pursue the arts and my passion there and was afraid of how my parents would react to that. Especially since the college I want to go to was across the country. To my surprise, both of my parents told me to follow my heart and choose where I wanted to go. My father even told me that he didn’t want me to make the same mistakes as him. Don’t get me wrong, he does love his job and being a copyright lawyer he was able to be more involved in the music industry than the average person. But he also had a creative side to him that he never followed, choose academics and law over his other passions. He still regrets letting go of that side and he didn’t want me to do the same.

If it wasn’t for his advice and support I would not be doing what I was right now, which genuinely is crazy to think about.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Since I was a kid I have always been surrounded by music thanks to my father. I grew up playing multiple different instruments as well as being in choirs for years and always have felt a want and need to be near music and the industry in some way, shape or form. In high school my aunt lent me her camera to try things out and I got the opportunity to photograph my favorite band and ever since that first concert I’ve always wanted to do it.

When I went to college I moved across the country to pursue a degree in Fine Arts and discovered the beauty of the Risograph and Zines. I feel in love with physical media, which happens to have been a very big part of the punk DIY culture as well as the underground music scene. This bridged a gap for me as I struggled to decide if I want to only do photography or do other art mediums as well. In this day and age everything is online and digital, and although I do upload all of the Zines online for people to see, the physicality of these interviews is what I strive for.

Going to an art college I was surrounded by many different creative minds, many of them musicians. I started off with photographing their sets at basement shows as well as doing some portraiture for them. It ended up evolving into me being able to do promo photos, album covers as well as interviews with these musicians. Since then I have been able to branch out from the little bubble I had from college and have been able to work with many different musicians from different places. A dream that little Hunter could never even imagine.

Just in 2024 I have been able to photograph ever single one of my favorite bands, some multiple times, and it’s something that I’m so incredibly grateful and proud of.

At this point I just want to do more work. I would love to be able to do more portraiture photography for some bigger artists and expand that way. My next goal is to go on tour with a band and hopefully have the opportunities to do that with many other artists down the road. I also am toying with the idea of turning interviews into video interviews or maybe even turning it into a podcast. Theres a lot of different things I would like to pursue, and luckily I have the opportunity to do so.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

When I’ve been invited by an artist to come photograph their set I always photograph every artist that is playing that night and always send those photos to everyone I take photos of. If the artists are smaller/up and coming artists I always try to talk to them after their set and get their instagrams to stay in contact. Since I started doing that many of those artists have reached out to me afterwards and hired me to help them with projects.

I also have a lot of music friends that have recommended me to other artists who majority of the time reach out and want to work with me!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think that being very knowledgable and passionate about music has really helped me. I genuinely love going to concerts so much and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a night. I also think that editing is very therapeutic for myself which definitely makes that aspect of all of this a lot easier.

Being knowledgable in music, music theory as well as the process has been extremely helpful when I’ve had the opportunity to interview artists. I think that I’ve come up with very interesting conversation starters and gotten some very unique and insightful answers out of the people I’ve been able to talk to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nosebleed-press.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shottbyhunter/ + https://www.instagram.com/nosebleedpress/

Image Credits

All photos included taken by me (Hunter Astrid Borkowski)