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

Alright, Jorden thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? We’d love to hear the backstory the illustrates how you grew your brand.

I started photography in high school. I worked at a coffee shop and saved up enough money to buy myself a camera. Originally, I wanted to start doing photography just to take photos of my friends to post on Tumblr. However, I’ve always had a love for music, I was always going to shows.

One day, I was looking up shows to go to on Facebook Events and I found one at a local record store. I normally wouldn’t bring my camera to shows, but I felt a desire to bring my camera this time.

So, I brought my camera, I started taking photos, and that sparked my love for music photography. When photographing music, there were new challenges. Lighting changes, movement, so many little moments I could capture- I was so excited. I was just happy to have found a new subject for my hobby.

The next day, I posted the photos on Instagram, and I tagged the band, not expecting to hear back or get any attention whatsoever. The bass player messaged me that they loved my photos, and wanted to make me their personal photographer for all their shows going forward. They happened to be playing a local festival a few weeks later, so I joined them there, and met and photographed so many other bands.

This festival was local bands, and it was so amazing. This made another thing clear to me: I had no idea how my photography was going to be known by larger artists, but I knew I wanted it to.

So, I started sneaking my camera into other shows. This was a risk- I was underage, sneaking my camera into bar shows I wasn’t old enough to be in the first place. I got kicked out a few times (valid) and I realized I would need to start getting some kind of professional backing. I needed to be able to take photos and not have my age, or lack of credentials stop me from getting the shot. With some kind of backing, I would be able to photograph larger artists, at bigger venues, I could get more opportunity. I could get more photos.

From there, I actually just started messaging musicians directly on Facebook, Instagram, anything, asking for the opportunity to photograph their show coming to my city. Sometimes I would not hear back, other times they’d say yes.

I was so happy with the progress I had made. But, as larger artists were coming through Kansas City on their tours, I wanted the opportunity to photograph them, too. But, like, there was no way they were going to respond to me on Instagram.

I knew I needed to do something different. From there, I started emailing music publications, sending them my photos and all but begging them to let me photograph shows for them. I got hired by a publication called The LP Collective, and about a week later, I was photographing bigger shows. I also decided to apply for another publication, a local one called Beyond The Sound. Soon after I started there, I was doing personal photoshoots with bands like HUNNY, Young Guns, and Bad Suns. It was crazy.

A few years later, I was in college, not much was different, I was feeling a little stagnant. But one day, I was leaving class one day and got a Twitter DM from someone I used to see all the time whenever I photographed shows. This person asked me if I was looking for a job in the music industry, at Universal Music Group. I had my interview, I got hired, and I got to see a different world of music. (Marketing for the music industry)

Looking back, it’s clear to me that a lot of my journey is only possible because I took risks. I risked (and experienced) embarrassment, rejection, debt – all to take photos. All to create art. Looking back, I can see how many times I said “Screw it, the worst thing they can say is no” and how often that actually worked out for me.

Jorden, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into music photography by basically being determined to get into it. I snuck my camera into shows, I emailed publicist after publicist, manager after manager, and at the end of the day, those connections I built were what led me to work in the music industry.

I do photography of all kinds: Music, Lifestyle, Branding, Weddings. I just love taking photos, so I take photos of everything. But music is my favorite. I help my clients capture their shows, products, life and love through a different lens.

The most recent opportunity I’m most proud of has to be working with Janelle Monae and Black Women Photographers. This opportunity meant a lot to me for a number of reasons. I love my photos from the show, it was Janelle’s hometown show in our city we’re both from, and working with an organization like BWP was just so inspiring as a black woman. When I first started photographing shows, there wasn’t a lot of black photographer representation, let alone black women photographers. It felt very full circle to cap off my 6th year of music photography with an opportunity like that one. When I was first starting shooting shows, I had no idea there would ever be a time when I could work for a local, queer, black woman, for a black organization, in my hometown. I’m so thankful!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think I’ve had many moments in my journey where I’ve needed to be resilient. I think and hope I will continue to!

When I first started shooting shows, I was just sneaking my camera in and praying that security wouldn’t notice and kick me out. For a while, this was resilience to me: I wanted to take photos at shows, I didn’t know how to professionally, but I still made it work.

But, I knew that wasn’t how I wanted creating to look like for me long term, I wanted to feel like I belonged there.

Then, resilience meant trying again after being rejected by artists and their managers when I asked to photograph a show.

Then, resilience meant staying up all night editing one show, so I can photograph one the very next day.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think for me, being a creative gives you a different way to see the world. When you start making art, you notice colors differently, you frame things differently, you can notice little details you may not have been able to see before. To me, that’s truly the most rewarding aspect: I can see the world through a new set of eyes.

Contact Info:

• Website: Jordendurkee.co
• Instagram: Instagram.com/Jordendurkee

Image Credits
Jorden Durkee