‘Photography is Dead’: In Conversation with Lewis Evans

The evolving media landscape demands constant originality. Expertise in a growing range of mediums and, ultimately, the resilience to navigate increasingly competitive and commercialised spaces is essential to succeed in any creative space. Lewis Evans, a photographer, videographer and creative director now based in Chicago, has travelled the world with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Greta Van Fleet and Blossoms. Now living his life in parallel to some of the world’s most idolised musicians, he has learned to seamlessly capture raw and fleeting moments whilst navigating life on the road. Before setting off on his latest tour with Inhaler, Lewis discusses his journey into music photography and how he hopes to use his privilege to help other creatives get their foot in the door of the music industry. 

“It’s so funny now because I’ve probably not used my degree in six years”. Before studying journalism at the University of Sheffield, Evans had never touched a camera but used his keen interest in music to write reviews and articles for local blogs and publications. However, like many others before him found, the written medium, especially at a local level, is heavily saturated with writers, leading to very little reward. “I’m such an impatient person,” he commented. “I’d find myself doing these music reviews, and you’d spend hours doing it, and then it would just exist for a second and then vanish. I was just thinking, how much time can you actually give to this before you burn out?”. 

After being inspired by the other people on his course, Lewis blew the rest of his loan on “a shit camera” and began to photograph the local music scene. “I really enjoyed seeing the fast payoff in terms of taking photos at shows and what you then got out of it compared to writing”. Following graduation, Evans moved into a marketing job and continued to build his portfolio through working with smaller bands, yet his break came in the form of photographing the English indie rock band Blossoms. After shooting the first three songs for a local publication, the standard for any press photographer at gigs in the UK, Lewis posted the images online and presumed that was it. “Later that day, Tom, Blossoms’ front man, reached out on Twitter and was like, ‘Oh, do you mind if we use some of the photos?’. I was like, ‘Of course!’. Then the next day, I got an email at 5 pm from the manager saying the guys really liked the photos. Is there any chance you can get to Nottingham to do a show tonight?” And he was in. 

After finishing the UK tour with Blossoms in December 2018, shooting venues such as Brixton Academy, there was a quiet period for photography work before the festival season began. “Blossoms had a few summer festivals, and I’d never really done any festivals and stuff, and they were like, ‘Do you want to come to Spain with us?’ We did the show, and it was amazing. It was one of those sunset slots where the sky was purple and orange. Everything was just way too nice,” he explained. “I just had this moment, and I was like, this is what I want to do, and I just need to make it happen.”

The following week, Lewis submitted his notice to his marketing role. “I left, and I was like, fuck, I’m going to have to try and make rent,” he admitted. “Later that week, Blossoms’ manager called me up, and he was like, ‘Hey, we’ve just taken on this new band. Would you be interested in going on tour with them?’. He was like, ‘The money is shit, it’s tiny venues but I think they might do alright,’. That band was Inhaler. Then they just fucking exploded.”

Image Credit: Lewis Evans, via Chuff Media

Since 2019, with the exception of the dreaded Covid years that no one likes to talk about, Lewis has travelled from Japan to Mexico, all across the States and back again. Working directly with artists, labels, and creative directors alike, he has found ways to remain creative within the everyday chaos. “I personally enjoy working directly with the artist because you get unfiltered access to what they want. A lot of the time, if you’re doing stuff directly with labels, it can be sort of more what they’re wanting rather than what the artist wants,” he commented when asked about his style of collaborating with different people. “I’m really careful with offers, and I’ll work with people that I really want to work with. Either I like the music, or they’re just nice people. At the end of the day, when you spend so much time with people, it’s just not enough to spend that with people that just aren’t nice.”

Tending to adopt both an observational and interactive style with his subjects dependent on setting and genre, his photographic style has been developed and honed through years of practice. “If it’s a press shoot, I’ll tend to do a load of pre-production beforehand, kind of put in loads of references, both stylistically and compositionally. But then for tour stuff, a lot of it that I really like doing is just being opportunistic,” he observes. “I’m so glad that I have never had any training or any education in photography because so much of it has come from trial and error, and I feel like you can stylistically run into things by making happy mistakes that then you kind of adopt as your own. If everybody followed the technical aspects of photography by the book, then everybody’s shit would just look the same.”

This originally is what landed Lewis some of the most sought-after projects in the industry, including photographing the Arctic Monkeys on their 2023 UK Stadium Tour after Inhaler supported the band across Europe earlier that spring. However, when you’re involved in something so big, it can be hard to stay present and enjoy the experience. “Sometimes, now you can just get so preoccupied with getting through it and getting it done that you don’t take in those moments,” he reflects. “I do try now, even if it’s for a minute or so, just to sort of take my earplugs out and just watch because you don’t want those moments to kind of bypass you. When I think back to why I got into it, it was just purely because I loved it so much. You don’t want to lose that.”

Every creative has battled with burnout during their career. Working with artists on a long-term basis on worldwide tours offers its own unique challenges. Each show needs its original content, as whilst the venues and audiences change, much of the show stays the same. “It can get so hard to try and change things or mix things up. I’ll set myself challenges, so sometimes I’m only going to have this lens on for this gig, or certain shows I’ll only let myself shoot from the crowd, because I think it’s as important for the band as it is for you that the work is varied because they don’t want to see the same shit every night, or they get bored. I think there’s definitely a really desirable skill in trying to constantly reinvent what you’re doing, because it’s both very creatively rewarding, but then it just stands you in good stead for work.”

Having skills across multiple mediums is now prevalent for longer tours. “One of Inhaler’s managers, who I get on really well with, came into the dressing room one day, and he looked at me. He was like, ‘Photography is dead, you’re a filmmaker now.’” Since then, Lewis has gone on to work on huge video projects, including directing live videos alongside Joshua Halling for Catfish And The Bottlemen at their comeback shows last summer. “Sometimes you just need a kick to do stuff, because that’s one of the best things that’s ever happened, because I’ve got so much work from doing video. If you can do both, it makes you so much more desirable for tours, even if you can only do it like moderately well, it’s better to have that than nothing at all.”

Image Credits: Lewis Evans, via @lewsvans on Instagram

Established in 2022, The Name Game is an organisation that helps female, nonbinary and trans people navigate the music industry, aiming to level the playing field for creative careers. Founded by Daisy Carberry, a Senior Marketing Manager at Atlantic Records, she has created an open online community that is free for all, where industry knowledge isn’t gate-kept and opportunities are shared, ranging from shadowing professionals on video shoots or photographing global artists on tours. In early 2023, Lewis collaborated with The Name Game, providing opportunities for creatives from underrepresented backgrounds to photograph Inhaler’s Cuts and Bruises Tour to help build portfolios and gain professional work experience. “I’d had this idea for ages that I wanted to do something. I’d kind of thought about doing it off my own back, but then I was like the whole point of doing it is to get attention and focus for something that isn’t about you.” 

“The music photography world is still just so male-saturated, and I feel it can be such an uncomfortable environment, and some people can be so dismissive,” he reflects. “I feel like I just still see so much negative, patronising behaviour towards people, especially women or trans people or non-binary people or people of colour. And obviously, as someone that experiences a lot of privilege from both my background and the position I’m in now, it seemed like a good opportunity to kind of do something with it.”

“I actually hit up like a couple of people about trying to do it with them, and there was just, like, no effort to do it. And I was like, I feel like this is quite a good idea. Why would you not want to do this?” After meeting Daisy through Pale Waves when he photographed a few shows for the band, Lewis reached out when she launched The Name Game. “I was like, ‘Would you be interested in doing this with me?’ And she was like ‘100%,’ and it was amazing. We worked together to set everything up, and it was fucking amazing. It was so much fun. There were hundreds and hundreds of people that applied. It was so enjoyable going through everybody’s applications, seeing the breadth of work that was there, and the ability from so many different people, from so many different walks of life, and it went so well.”

While the response to the opportunity was overwhelmingly positive, some social media users had taken to the comment sections to let out their grievances that the chance to photograph these shows wasn’t directed towards them. “The reaction was kind of what I expected it to be. There were so many guys who were commenting on the post, being like ‘this is discriminating against men.’” Whilst some didn’t see the importance of the opportunity, many people in the industry did. The Name Game as an organisation has flourished in the past few years, with Name Game Nights acting as Q&A sessions and networking events for people to meet and engage with industry professionals, giving valuable advice and experiences that are generally inaccessible. “The whole thing that I wanted to get out of it was raising awareness of what Daisy was trying to do,” Lewis reflects. “It was so cool to side and work with someone who was trying to do such good things, and I just really hope that my friends who I work with, and peers of mine, will pick up on this.”

So while breaking into the industry is no easy feat, the support put out by organisations like The Name Game try to make it more accessible for those who have the drive and persistence to work through. When asked about advice for people wanting to get started, Lewis said, “It’s so simple, but the best advice is take more photos. The only way you’re going to get better at something is just by doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it again. Practice is always going to help, and small shows are so informative because if you can work with basically next to no light, or, like, the worst condition possible, you’re going to find it easier with anything else in the future.”

“I think photography is similar to music in a sense. I don’t think there’s a golden ticket, but there’s definitely something to be said for just going and going and going and going.” “I feel you create your own luck by putting yourself in positions and situations where something can arise,” he explains. “But it’s fucking hard, it’s really, really hard”. 

And it is. There’s rarely been a story of any creative having a straightforward journey into their career of choice. It is a testament to hard work, an awful lot of patience and an innate drive to succeed. But it can be done. Whilst there is no set path to success, Lewis has shown that for those willing to keep pushing and trying, the rewards, both creatively, professionally, and personally, can be immeasurable. 

To keep up with his recent work on tour, Lewis can be found at @lewsvans on Instagram.  

Words by Arabella Wright