Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Wanted: Dreamjob... Rock 'n Roll Photographer

BODY:
You could call it a dark room, but Sam Holden calls it his sacred space.

you?re standing my darkroom and to look around here ? you?re kind of in my soul.

His soul is covered with at least hundred photos - all sizes, some color, some black and white ? some frayed, some neatly displayed ? and his soul is wired so he can constantly hear the rock and roll he tries to capture in his photos. How did this compact cave come to represent his very being? ?

music

The year was 1976 and Sam was a budding rock and roll photographer, at a very early age. Two very important things happened that year?

Bring in Kiss

I can tell you the very first record I bought ? it was Kiss Destroyer and they played Beth ? and as a seven year old it was Beth that sealed it.

And his dad gave him a camera.

It was a little Kodak instamatic - prolly a Christmas present ? I spent a large part of my childhood with my father in the darkroom?he was a photog also. prolly around 8 or 9 , I understood how photos were developed and I did that stuff with him.

Sam?s dad did some shooting for weddings, newspapers, and occasionally, found himself with a press pass for a few choice backstage trips.

My father had a really good rel?p with Wailin and Willy

That?s wailin Jennings and willie nelson

So I went with my dad to see each of those guys to see how to behave backstage and what can happen if you?re cool you know ?if you?er granted access to someplace you?ve always wanted to be ? you should probably try to be cool while you?re there.

After the young Sam Holden was shown the ropes ? both in photography and the fine art of ?being cool? ? the world, as they say, was his oyster ?

Music ? cheap trick

What was your first break ? the first time you were able to photograph someone larger than life? man, it was early?I got a pass to photo cheap trick at the york county fair.

Fast forward thirty years and Sam is not only going backstage to shoot some of his favorite superstars, but getting the stars to sit for him. Holden?s photos are actually super-modern portraits of the most notorious rock and rollers of his time. Most of his photos show a deliberate style that Holden has gone after for years?

I wanna see backstage ? I wanna see what?s behind the curtain ? I think everyone does ? can you get to the personal side of someone?

Holden shows what?s behind the curtain in a very lovely way ? he captures his subjects wearing distinct expressions, usually through very telling eyes.

Holden says he shoots his favorite photos with a very precious film camera -

The camera that I use the most is a Hassleblad?they can probably bury me with that camera.

Iggy Pop music

He shoots everyone from the likes of Iggy Pop to Ani DeFranco to local stars like Rodney Henry of Dangerously Delicious Pies, Lungfish, and John Waters?

Holden went first to Harford Community College, was rejected from Maryland Institute for Art, and graduated from University of Maryland at Baltimore County. But, he says, when he calls up Iggy Pop?s people, you need to hustle. And the fine art of hustling was something that he picked up in the field?

I learned how to hustle from photog I assisted. They didn?t teach me in school.

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