OKC JOURNALIST CAPTURES MUSICAL MOMENTS WITH CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY
Nathan Poppe said goodbye to March and hello to April by photographing eight bands over four shows in four nights at three different Oklahoma City venues.
“It only really hurts in the morning. Today, I slept in longer than usual,” he told The Oklahoman. “I credit it to two-plus years of very little concert productivity.”
But his recent post-pandemic flurry of concert photography also could be considered a snapshot of his enduring passion for capturing the live music experience.
“A lot of concert photography is saying ‘Hey, this really wonderful moment, it happened. ... And I’m just happy to be here and lucky to capture this one moment,’” Poppe said.
The OKC journalist is sharing a collection of his favorite concert moments — mostly shot in Oklahoma — in his first solo photography show, on view through the end of April at Lively Beerworks.
“I believe that’s one of Wanda Jackson’s last live performances, and that was shot at Tower (Theatre). That Charley Crockett moment was a sold-out show, and that was right before omicron hit,“Poppe said, pointing to his photos on display in the OKC brewery’s taproom.
“It’s just fun to be able to look and have all those memories kind of rush back, like thinking about Kacey Musgraves at the Diamond Ballroom. She will never play at the Diamond Ballroom ever again. I mean, she’s playing arenas now ... so that’s never going to happen again.”
OKC platform Rally puts art in unexpected places
Rally, an artist-led platform advocating for Oklahoma artists, is presenting the first public collective showing of Poppe’s concert photography.
“We’re cultivating community through creativity ... and a lot of our heart is getting art in unexpected places. I love watching someone walk in someplace,
and when they started their day, they weren’t planning to come into contact with art. And then they came in and it surprised them because it was put in front of their path,” said Rally co-founder Josh Vaughn.
“Most people just go, ‘Well, that’s cool,’ or they don’t really look at it. But then there’s that small percentage that start looking at it, and they buy a piece or they start asking questions. Or, some people will run into stuff like this and start creating.”
A photographer, writer, videographer and purveyor of enamel pins, Poppe is a chronicler, champion and sometimes critic of his home state.
He and Vaughn met in real life — as opposed to just on Instagram — when Poppe served as a juror for the annual Paseo Photofest exhibition in 2018. They both had worked featured in Photofest in 2019.
“I’m a photographer myself, so I’m actually really particular about photographers. But I saw in his work a certain spark,” Vaughn said.
Photojournalist started documenting local music in college
Poppe’s interest in documenting the Oklahoma music scene was sparked as he studied journalism at Oklahoma State University.
“Stillwater at that time was kind of in a supernatural moment for talent, because you had Other Lives just about to go on tour with Radiohead. Colourmusic was still around, and DEERPEOPLE had formed and were putting on ridiculous house shows. So, there was a lot of really fun, interesting music happening,” Poppe recalled.
“But I was terrified of even picking up the camera around that time. You know in ‘Jurassic Park,’ where they’re like, ‘Is that heavy? Then, it’s expensive; put it down.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m gonna drop that. ... I’ll just write the story, and I won’t drop anything.’ But I had some really talented buddies, and they pushed me to give it a try.”
Interning at The Oklahoman inspired him to launch a video-based music show at OSU called “on.” By the time he graduated in 2011, he was organizing house shows and filming bands while riding around in a Volkswagen bus for “The VDub Sessions.”
“(Longtime The Oklahoman photographer) Doug Hoke was pretty instrumental in helping me learn there’s more than one lens,” Poppe said. “He had hired me to shoot a Taylor Swift concert ... and it was overwhelming. It was baptism by fire in a way, but I got some good shots. But that’s where I learned, ‘OK, there are other lenses and other ways to shoot this.’ ... And I just wanted to keep doing it.”
Journalist shifts from music community to homeless community
From 2014 to 2018, Poppe covered movies, television and music at The Oklahoman.
“That’s when I kind of went into concert overdrive. I was probably seeing about 200 to 250 sets of music a year,” he said. “I had a lot more energy back then. You hit 30, and things start hurting.”
In 2018, he shifted focus and became
editor-in-chief of The Curbside Chronicle, an OKC street paper that employs and empowers people transitioning out of homelessness.
Poppe helps write, design and edit the magazine, which works to build community between homeless and non-homeless people, increase awareness of social issues leading to homelessness and decrease the stigmatization of the homeless.
“A lot of what I was doing at The Oklahoman when these photos were taken was covering the music community: A group of like-minded individuals that are all striving to make art and put on shows and do their thing. And Curbside isn’t an enormous departure from that; it’s just an entirely new community,” Poppe said.
“It blows my mind that I got to be so close in the pit to shoot a lot of these concerts, and with Curbside, I get invited to people’s houses after they’ve ended their homelessness after a couple of years or five years or 10 years or 20 years. It puts me front and center and extremely close to a community — and I hope I never take any of that for granted.”
Photographer still rocks love for music
Along with his work at The Curbside Chronicle, Poppe continues to photograph concerts, music festivals and local band publicity photos. The opportunity to show his work at Lively Beerworks gave him a chance to do something out of the ordinary.
“I’m so used to — and you know the drill — where you write a story or take a picture, you publish it, and you move on to the next thing. That is how I am wired. So, taking the time to sit and look back through photos isn’t something I normally do,” he said.
“Going through and picking some favorites for this, I looked through — no joke — all 10,000 photos on my Flickr. ... But I think these are the best or some of my favorite things that I’ve taken over the years, going back to one of the first concerts I ever shot.”
Working as a concert photographer has allowed him to immortalize many rare moments, from Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl performing his 2015 OKC tour stop sitting on an elaborate rock ‘n’ roll throne after his breaking his leg in a tumble from a concert stage in Sweden to OKC’s Flaming Lips playing a series of “Space Bubble” shows at The Criterion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That was one of the most surreal, dreamlike concert experiences ever,” said Poppe, who was part of the videography crew hired to document the Lips’ “Space Bubble” concerts.
“I’ve gone to like a dozen Flaming Lips shows over the course of several years. Nothing can really prepare you for the adrenaline rush when ‘Race for the Prize’ kicks in and confetti just blasts right next to your face and you’re just like, ‘Oh, gosh, he won’t stop moving and spinning stuff. I don’t know what’s going on. Am I even getting anything?’ It’s such a rush.”