It’s like everything happened all at once last March and the last sixteen months have been an experience, to say the least. The pandemic has been a bombshell to the live arts industry but finally live music is back, for now. (Let’s keep it that way, get vaxed, stay masked!)
This is the first installment of A Year of Pandemic: Catching Up With Central Ohio’s Concert Photographers. The idea for this series is to reconnect with the local photographers we see at the stadiums for international tours as well as the local concerts at small clubs and basically to give everyone some love with some fun Q&A questions. It’s been a hard year, right?
Our first posting in this series features one of the busiest folks around, photographer and cartoonist Rick Carr!
Links: https://www.facebook.com/r.l.carrphotos
Instagram: @rlcarrphotosanddoodles
Shows are slowly coming back but will be different. What do you see changing for shows in the long run?
I’m predicting live shows won’t change that much. I think this summer, and maybe the fall will be a weird transitional period, but then people and things will snap back like nothing happened. That being said, I have loved the streaming shows this past year (special shout-out to The Rambling House who consistently had the best sound and video of all the shows I watched). I would love if bands and venues continued to offer streaming options for future shows.
How have you been spending the pandemic? Have you been shooting or involving yourself in some other creative activity?
So my day job, which is basically Office Space but not as funny, really amped up during the Pandemic. They moved us home, and all of my clients moved home and required a lot of extra support. That’s been a major distraction and huge part of this past year. But on the creative side, I do a lot of nature photography. I especially like shooting Herons and Egrets on the Olentangy. It’s a tricky business because you can watch these birds for thirty minutes, and you feel lucky if they do one interesting thing the whole time. It requires patience, but I enjoy watching them, so it’s a fun afternoon whether I get the shot or not. Also, I draw cartoons, which is an odd thing to explain to people out of nowhere, but it’s a thing I do. Anyhow, over the course of the pandemic I finished a comic book and have been trying to develop a daily comic which may turn into nothing, but has kept me entertained and distracted.
What is keeping you inspired?
I don’t know if “inspired” is the right word, but the things that have kept me engaged this past year include local music streaming shows; local photographers on Social Media; New Yorker columnist Andy Borowitz, and a cartoonist named Nathan W. Pyle who draws a cartoon called Strange Planet.
Things or projects you’d like to promote?
Would love if people would check out this animated video I worked on with Jeffry Forrester Tobin for his song Magic. We worked on it all last summer. It was a lot of fun and one of the best collaborative experiences I can remember. Also, it turned out great, and I just think people will just enjoy it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDEaab-GgN4
What was the last show you shot before the pandemic?
The last show I aggressively shot was the “Columbus Covers Columbus” local festival at Victory’s in January 2020, which was great fun. I think at the time there were reports of Covid in Asia and Europe, but nobody had a sense of what was to come. Barely a month later, I had tickets to see Angela Perley and The High Definitions at the Rumba Cafe in March. That turned out to be the very last Saturday before Ohio shut down. That was a weird night. The bands sounded amazing, and I took a few photos, but everyone could feel the shut-down coming, so the venue was half full, and the night had a very unsure vibe.
What show were you most looking forward to that was cancelled or rescheduled?
I was really looking forward to the Nelsonville Music festival. That’s always a favorite festival. I had an especially good time in 2019, and there were several 2020 bands I wanted to see. When the outdoor festivals started canceling I think we all realized we were in it for the long haul.
What are you most looking forward to in a post-pandemic world? (Whenever that may be)
Honestly, I’m feeling very apprehensive about the initial post-pandemic period, which is just a product of this past year’s isolation. So high-level I’m simply looking forward to acclimating and not feeling that apprehension anymore.
