Urban Marinade

It was about a year ago that I found myself riding an Amtrak train up to New York City very early on a Saturday morning. I arrived in the city around 6 a.m., went straight to my friend’s condo and proceeded to take a nap in preparation for Electric Zoo, my first big-time dance music festival. Two days later I returned to DC with hundreds of amazing photos and a dance music buzz that didn’t let up for weeks following the event. It was the greatest dance music event I had ever attended. And I was already looking forward to 2011.

Well 2011 is here. And the time has come to head back up to NYC. Electric Zoo will return to Randall’s Island Park next week for three days of electronic music succulence. The event is bigger. The lineup is better. And I’m a completely different photographer this time around. Last year I covered the festival for this blog and DC50. This year I’ll be working directly for Sara Cooper, one of the most respected publicists in the dance music business. I’ll have the honor of being the official photographer of her biggest stars, Sander van Doorn, Afrojack, Carl Cox, Josh Wink and Umek. I’ll also get a chance to continue my journey at becoming one of the go-to photogs in electronic music.

So how did we get here and what makes Electric Zoo special? Well the simple answer is hard work. The folks behind Made Events have worked tirelessly to build the Electric Zoo brand on a global scale. Last year I would have called EZoo the largest regional dance music festival in the Northeast. This year it has to be considered one of the best, alongside Electric Daisy Carnival and Ultra Music Festival. Tiesto headlines Friday. David Guetta is on Saturday. Armin closes out the event on Sunday. The rest of the lineup looks like a checklist of DJ Mag’s Top 100. Sander van Doorn, Moby, Afrojack, Benny Benassi, Calvin Harris, Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten, ATB, John Digweed, Carl Cox, Gareth Emery, Markus Schulz, and many, many more. To be honest, the line-up is beyond ridiculous. Just like Miami, Randall’s Island will be the center of the dance music universe for those 3 days. You don’t build a festival like that without a tremendous team and hours of incredibly hard work. Because of that, stock in Electric Zoo is rising fast. It’s incredibly exciting to think what each new year will bring with Made Events and Electric Zoo, but we’re enjoying the ride.

The other side of this is my photography. You guys know what my goals are. When I attend an event, it’s my goal to capture these artists doing what they do best. I’m in love with the music, so I try to show in pictures exactly what I’m feeling. I focus on the DJs. I try to capture raw emotion in the crowd. And I try to do it better than anyone else. At the end of a festival, I want to have told a story with my photos. Last year gave me the opportunity to explore this type of photography. I got really lucky with the above Afrojack shot and I think it proved I was doing the right thing. I then went down to Ultra and with the support of Sara and my right-hand man Rob, captured two stunning galleries from Miami. A month later I was photographing Tiesto’s Clublife Tour at the DC armory and again was reminded that “this is what I’m supposed to do.”

So this year we’ll do it again. I’ve got more experience. I’ve got loads of better gear to bring. I’ve got lenses that make grown men giggle. And I’ve got a vision that will hopefully showoff how much hard work is being put into each day, each stage, each set, each track being featured throughout Electric Zoo. If you’re anywhere close to the New York Metro region, this is your festival. At the end of the day, this is America screaming out that we too can embrace this music just as much as anyone else. It is an experience to behold.