Jess Norton
In a day & age when we’re all expected to be photographers, videographers, editors, designers, and all the rest, the phrase multi-talented is thrown around a lot. New Jersey-based photographer Jess Norton, however, is an OG on this front. Starting from humble beginnings as an avid concertgoer around the tri-state area, she eventually became a staple shooter on the Warped Tour scene before honing her own brand, Camera By Her Side.
Jess represents all the best qualities of photographers, corralling all-access passes by any means necessary, courageously venturing off the beaten path for the epic shots that define the last great rock music festivals, and staying up late to edit it all for our viewing pleasure. Whether it’s in photos, videos interviews, or even her own writing – her work is a window into the truth of life on the road in all its sweaty, sleepless, sun-soaked glory.
Not only do her feature pieces bring out the best in any band members lucky enough to land her as an interviewer, but she’s also a force to be reckoned with in the pit, bringing us the rainbow-tinted wonder of all the action close to the stage. This is a bulletproof brand, built from the ground up, brick by brick.
For the story on how it all came to be, highs & lows alike, dive in.
You’re a mainstay in the whole punk, rock, and alt-music world. How did you get into that, and did you always know that you wanted to be one of the top photographers in that scene?
I started out as a pop girl. I was into boy bands, pop stars, girl groups . . . that kind of stuff. When I was in middle school I was very into the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Aly & AJ, all those Disney Channel people. Unfortunately liking that kind of music doesn’t really get you too much street cred when you’re trying to be cool in middle school. [Laughs] Everyone thought it was super lame, which is funny because those artists are literally made for and targeted toward that age group.
But I always liked the pop-punk scene too. I was never one or the other – I liked everything, all genres, my whole life. I went to my first Warped Tour when I was 12, and I remember people being confused, like, “I thought you only liked boy bands and here you are at Warped Tour?!”
Luckily, I have very cool parents who are into the music scene and open to a whole lot, which is why I am the way that I am. My dad chaperoned my friends and I at Warped Tour when we were 12, in the middle of the mosh pit and all that. And that experience pretty much changed my whole life.
The late 2000s Warped Tour era is definitely iconic.
Totally. But there wasn’t a huge overlap between the punk scene bands and all those Disney Channel groups. You pretty much liked one or the other. I didn’t feel that way, ‘cause I like literally everything. But I definitely gravitated towards the punk & alt scene a little bit more, especially in high-school, because the pop scene was very aggressive. It was cutthroat, and the different fandoms were always very jealous. It was always a competition. But I just liked going to shows, and at the end of the day, Jonas Brothers tickets were $150, and All Time Low tickets were $25. That’s a big difference for a 14 year old who doesn’t even have a job yet.
I didn’t even know that you could make a career out of just liking a band.
It’s funny you mention the Jonas Brothers because I just saw the photo you put up a while back, with the caption, “when you violently remember that all three of the @jonasbrothers are married” . . . that IG post actually made me laugh out loud.
Honestly the Jonas Brothers are a huge part of my career in music. I saw them in 2005 in Toms River, New Jersey, at a festival called Toms River Fest and they didn’t even have a name. It was just this little showcase stage, sponsored by Radio Disney, and at the time I think they were going by “Sons of Jonas” or something like that, as a Christian rock band. They had these little demo tapes that I still have to this day, little 4-song EPs. And of course, I’m 12, thinking that they’re cute Jersey boys, so I followed their MySpace and started going to every local show. They would play shows at the Stone Pony, and the Starland Ballroom, literally for $5. My parents liked them because they were wholesome (or at least not painful to watch), and they also weren’t “Disney” yet, so it wasn’t cringeworthy.
I wound up joining their street team, and I kind of got a feel for what it was like to promote a band from a business perspective when I was in 7th grade. I loved being part of their come-up. I think at that point in my life I wanted to be a dolphin trainer, down in Florida. I didn’t even know that you could make a career out of just liking a band.
So basically I had seen the Jonas Brothers for 2 years, all over New Jersey, for dirt cheap, and then they got a deal with Disney . . . and I couldn’t even get tickets to go see them anymore. There’s a whole story behind it: at one point they were all signed to Columbia Records as a Christian rock band, and they were trying to paint them as pop-punk, so they would wear Ramones t-shirts, Ed Hardy, ripped jeans, stuff like that. But Columbia dropped them for some reason, and Disney saw an opportunity and essentially said, “We’re gonna take these guys and manufacture the crap out of them.” It was crazy seeing that whole change take place.
I had no clue. I literally thought they just magically appeared on Disney Channel one day and then overnight became the biggest pop group in the world.
It’s funny because I used to get made fun of in school, pretty brutally picked on, for having them in my locker and whatnot. But I was basically like, “You guys are all going to like them in a year, anyway,” and I was right! A year later they were on Hannah Montana, and every girl who ever picked on me had a picture of Joe [Jonas] in her school binder so . . . joke’s on them. [Laughs]
Is there any other artist you saw blow up super fast and have that “overnight success?” Anyone who you had an opportunity to shoot, or interview?
There was an event called Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, sponsored by Disney Channel and Radio Disney, and it’s pretty stressful because you’re on a red carpet, and you have to be very careful of who you’re gonna spend a couple minutes with.
Long story short, I decided to not interview Shawn Mendes. I was going through the guest list, and at that time his only credential at the time was that he was semi-famous on Vine. I did get to take photos of him and see his performance and whatnot. But then, I don’t know, a year later he was opening up for Taylor Swift on the 1989 Tour. [Laughs] Honestly I couldn’t be more angry with myself and my judgement that day – I usually have pretty good radar with that kind of stuff.
And it is one of the things I really pride myself on: when I do attend shows, I always go to see the opening act, because you know in a year they’ll have a new album out, or they’ll get signed to a record label. Even if they're not really that good when you watch them, you should probably have them on your radar just in case.
You, more than anyone else I know, are a multimedia artist. You do photography, video, interviews, behind-the-scenes production work. What are some of the challenges associated with juggling all those responsibilities and doing content on so many different platforms?
There are a lot of pros and cons with all of that. Starting out I was very adamant in being well-versed in everything that I could. Part of that comes from not wanting to get stuck, and part of that comes from wanting to be able to jump into any opportunity or project. On the flip side, had I focused more on photography, maybe my photography would be better. As in, I’d be an absolute expert by now. [Laughs]
But when it comes to having a full time job as a photographer, I found that a lot of times [companies] don’t want to see that you are doing other things too – they just want you to just be a photographer. It makes things a little blurry. It’s kind of confusing for employers when they might know you for one thing, but you might also do something else.
That’s the great photographer / content-producer question that we all think about every day. It’s like, “Do I want to have a normal 9-to-5, or do I want something that excites me?”
Right! And it’s so hard, especially when you think about grittier aspects like, say, health insurance.
It’s also just tough to explain, sometimes. My family members and the other adults in my life never had that experience, where I’ve worked like 17 different jobs within the last 10 years, and all the jobs are legitimate and good and I’ve had a great rapport with all of them, and it’s not like I’m getting fired . . . it’s just that they’re project based. They run a certain amount of time, and oftentimes the same company will rehire me for a new project. But I think you can find with our parents, and the other adults in our lives, they worked the same job and retired from the same job they started in when they were 25.
Your photography style is hypercolorful and super vivid – I feel like it just pops. It makes concerts look fun. Tell me a little about how you developed your style over the years.
I know sometimes I can overdo it with the colors but that is just like what I like, my personal style. My favorite color is rainbow. [Laughs] When people ask me what my favorite color is, I literally can’t choose – it’s just a rainbow gradient. Everyone knows me as a very colorful person.
When I started doing photography, I loved shooting concerts, live music, and all of nature . . . but sometimes I felt like when I would shoot, and then edit all my photos in Photoshop or Lightroom, they just felt so flat. They didn’t feel like what I saw in my head.
When I’m at a concert I feel very euphoric. I feel lively and colorful, and sometimes the pictures don’t really portray that because they’re just from the camera. Anybody can hold a camera. Anybody can take a picture. And again, when I import it onto a computer, sometimes it just doesn’t feel like what I see in my head and how I felt when I was there. So a lot of the time I’ll take a picture that’s really dark and just add a couple pops of rainbow, maybe a couple color gradients, and that feels like it’s more me and what the moment actually was.
It’s not that I’m trying to make them look different, but I am trying to make them look like what my brain sees, almost like what the inside of my brain looks like.
I can totally relate to that.
Right? And sometimes the lighting is terrible and just doesn’t portray the moment exactly how it was.
My friends make fun of me sometimes because they’ll be like, “That sunset we saw the other night was not that purple,” you know? And I’m like, “Okay, I know, but it looks better and that is more how I felt it so let me have it.” [Laughs] It’s artistic license.
I’m trying to make [the photos] look like what my brain sees.
Tell me about shooting the last Warped Tour ever.
I worked the entire tour in 2018, the last year of the actual, full, cross-country tour.
I was hired by a company called Cool Suppliers, which is an ice pop brand, to run their social media and digital content for the whole tour, because they were a sponsor and a vendor. The CEO reached out to me and basically said, “You’ll come out on the road with us, live in the van, and just create content every single day. Let’s see what you can do!”
Like I said before, I’d been going to Warped Tour, continuously, every Summer since I was 12. So it was a dream of mine personally to actually get to go on a cross-country tour as a real, legitimate staff member, not just some rinky-dink groupie mooching and trying to do press every single day. Whether it was in production, or editorial, or social media, I knew I wanted to get on a tour somehow and Warped Tour was my dream, so making that happen was absolutely insane. Honestly I would’ve thought I’d’ve been an interviewer or something of that nature, but the opportunity that came to me was very different than I expected and completely fit my mindset of being well-rounded, well-versed, and always trying something new.
You started in New Jersey and went to California?
Cool Suppliers is based out of Brooklyn, and they basically hired 9 or 10 of us to work for them on the road. They had an RV with a bedroom and two bunks (I had one of the bunks, and then the kitchen table and couch turned into beds), and we all had different jobs within the company. Most of the people on the bus actually just sold ice pops, but I was there to take photos. That was our job all Summer: sell ice pops and go to Warped Tour every day.
So besides not having a refrigerator or AC or bathroom, it was really sick. I knew the lifestyle I was getting into. I knew I probably wouldn’t shower for days on end. But it actually wasn’t too bad – we got to shower every day, and we got catering.
That being said, I don’t think a lot of people would’ve been able to handle it. I know my mom was waiting for me to call and say, like, “Hey can you pick me up at the airport? I’m out.” But they also knew that I liked it so much that I wouldn’t leave even if things were not the best. Like, I got to see The Maine every single day and that was too good, just amazing.
Do you have any crazy stories from your career in photography & media?
My family & I really love Michael Franti & Spearhead, and he makes it a point to always play in Asbury Park, because he likes the community here. So this show was at the Stone Pony Summerstage, in August, so basically perfect conditions for a Michael Franti show.
I had all-access to that show, and I was standing side stage during his set when he happened to bring out a couple to slow dance to one of his songs. This couple had met at a camp for 9/11 children, because both their parents had passed away in 9/11, so it was really heartwarming and all. So I was taking pictures while Michael Franti and the band played a song for them, but then after the song, the guy proposed to her. So I was there to take their proposal pictures, basically.
It was a really beautiful moment, and the crowd was going wild obviously. After they got off the stage I went after them and I asked for their contact info so I could send them the shots. They were shaken up, but I got their information and emailed them everything I had, and they ended up using all the photos I took as their wedding invitations and placeholders at their wedding.
That’s incredible!
It’s funny too because I didn’t even know that they used my work for anything. I saw a story on Cosmopolitan magazine’s website, and I was like, “I think I recognize this couple – I think this was the couple that I took pictures of.” They’d put the woman’s Twitter handle in the article so I tweeted at her like, “Hey, I’m so happy for you guys – it’s amazing to be part of your proposal.” Right away she emailed me back and said, “Hey, actually, we used everything you took for our wedding.”
I definitely have some dramatic stories too, but that one was unexpected and so sweet – I was part of these people’s lives and I didn’t even know.
Do you have a favorite show that you have ever shot? Anything super memorable?
Being on Warped Tour sticks out because it was super challenging, photography-wise. It’s on the same exact stages every day, because they just break them down and build them up in different parking lots, and there aren’t any backdrops or cool lighting effects. I did feel very defeated at points of the tour where I was like, “There are so many other photographers here on this run with these bands who are so talented.” Meanwhile I felt like, “None of these pictures are coming out the way I want them to – what is going on?”
But I was able to bend that mentality a little bit. I would pull bands aside if we were at a cool venue and there was a cool like mural or something, and be like, “Hey, do you mind if I take a portrait really quick?” The main thing was trying to find different avenues so it wasn’t so mundane all the time.
Going to Warped Tour and doing all those shoots every day really helped me exercise my photography, practice & get to a better place, and force myself to try different things instead of just taking the same shot every single day and worrying about all the other photographers and what they were doing, which was incredible stuff. It inspired me to focus on my own style and not give up on that.
You’re making me wish I had been on that tour.
I hope that it will come back some time, maybe not the same exact Warped Tour we knew, but maybe something different but in the same vein. I really feel like it was integral for all those bands. I feel bad for like all these bands coming up nowadays that don’t have Warped Tour as a platform.
Since we're indoors a little more these days, not out shooting shows & festivals, I’m curious — What do you think is the biggest upside to the whole Coronavirus challenge and what have you gotten out of it that could be a silver lining?
I’ll be super real with you for a second: the COVID pandemic has been pretty awful for my life, working in live music & entertainment, and I’m sure a lot of other people in this industry can agree. It definitely just seems like never-ending lame stuff happening.
Looking at the silver lining, I think that this is a time where a lot of people can focus on being creative without deadlines. It could be a time for them to reset, find their center. I haven’t picked up a camera in weeks, but it feels nice that I can kind of recalibrate my brain and look back at my past work, all my old edits, and see where I’ve grown and what I want to learn from and move forward with.
I hope that people are using this time to focus on what’s important in their lives and like take a step back.
Thank you for being real. That’s refreshing.
I think that for everyone, especially in the creative fields, whether they’re dealing with losing their job or not knowing if they are ever going to have a job again, it’s rough. A lot of my friends in the music industry who work on tours, [they feel like their lives] have no meaning right now. Like, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to Doordash or Uber? They don’t know. I’m fortunate, because I still do freelance writing & social media work, but it’s a very scary time for creatives.
I think that if we just start finding different outlets and stop being so worried about what’s gonna come, maybe we can create new things that will help us move forward.
That’s a really good way to look at it.
I went to one of those drive-in concerts recently, and saw this local band called America Part II, from the Red Bank, Neptune area. It wasn’t a big deal – it was just in a parking lot in Toms River. But I cannot tell you, the amount of sheer serotonin I received from attending that concert . . . I felt euphoric.
I literally shot the show from the sunroof of my car, because you have to stay in your car, but . . . it just felt so good to be at a show, watching live music, turning my camera on and taking some pictures, even if they weren’t the best pictures I had ever taken, because it showed that we are going to move forward and find solutions to this. Even though we have to make some adjustments, we’re gonna make it work. I hope those drive-in concerts continue, because it made me feel great, so I hope other people can find that too.
