Jordan Hefler

Coming across photographer Jordan Hefler’s social media feed can feel a bit like tumbling down the infamous rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. Spectacular landscapes, technicolor concerts, and eccentric old city charm collide with the retro flare that’s become her signature style over the last few years shooting in and around Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Interspersed with all the action (and there’s a lot of it) there’re also enough mouthwatering shots of pure southern comfort food (think grilled corn, fresh crawfish, and Cuban sandwiches) to make you want to book a flight down south ASAP. 

And yet, for Jordan, all that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, her hidden talent, as it’s revealed itself in the last 12 months, is repurposing concert, commercial, and editorial content for a second life, and creating new material (courses, tutorials, presets) seemingly out of thin air. In an age where we haven’t seen live events in over a year, Jordan’s willingness to experiment hits on that pressing question: How many f^cking ‘Throwback Thursdays’ can we post?

And yeah, we get it: TikTok creators often across as cloying. Most of us past a certain age blanch at some of the so-called “content” floating around on that particular app. Jordan’s found a way around all that mess. Her humor feels accessible and authentic without being forced or orchestrated. It’s actually … funny, and even more so for a specific swathe of photographers, videographers, and directors aspiring to make careers out of their passions. 

So read on for the full interview, where we talk about lucky Instagram DMs, the importance of calibrating your camera gear, and how much we both wish we could build a time machine and transport ourselves back to the early 2000s when Linkin Park was the biggest band in the world. (Among other things).

You hear a lot about how important it is for content creators to be at “the center of the action,” in, say NYC or LA, so I found it fascinating that you're located outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with your major client base in New Orleans. What made you want to stick around there?

I grew up in Phoenix until I was in middle school, but my parents are from Louisiana. They wanted to move back to Louisiana when I started high-school, so we moved to this town called Lake Charles, and then because I was in state, I decided to go to LSU in Baton Rouge for photography. I graduated from there in 2014 and just never really left. I’ve always loved New Orleans and I probably, at some point in my life, will move there because I think it's a really great city. It has lots of culture, and it has lots of unique aspects about it. Not only are there major music tours coming through there constantly, but there’s also a lot of marketing opportunities to shoot. So many people traveling there from all over the world all the time, because it's so unique.

I discovered your work by way of your photos from an Imagine Dragons concert in 2018, which I know you shot for Interscope Records. I know there are tons of different paths to get into shooting live music — how did you get involved shooting for a band and for a label, specifically?

I got my start shooting local bands, for free, just trying to get content and then also shooting for these small blogs and websites.

The funny thing is: I never check my Instagram DMs. I hate them. I don't know how to organize them, and they stress me out. I don't like how everyone can essentially be texting me through my Instagram all the time, so I never check them, and because of that I probably miss out on a lot of business opportunities, because I only deal with my email. But this one day I just happened to check ‘em, and someone from Interscope's digital team had messaged me and was like, “Hey, like we'd love to have you shoot Imagine Dragons in New Orleans in two days!” It was a very last minute, but it was really cool because it was such a huge tour, with amazing production, just insane pyro and lighting and everything. Those are some of my favorite photos, but honestly I hate taking all the credit for ‘em. There's a level of talent you need for photographing concerts, but when the show’s that good production wise … it's hard to get a bad shot, you know? I was very lucky and spoiled with those photos because that concert was just incredible.

Between concert, lifestyle, commercial, and sports shoots, which photography mode is your favorite?

Concerts are definitely my favorite. I love the unpredictability of it. Of course, that's also a downside: It's kind of scary, and can be overwhelming sometimes when you can't control the lighting, or what the crowd's doing, or how long you're in the photo pit for … but that's what makes it so exciting. On the flip side, it also depends on the artist. If the artist is a pianist, their concert’s probably not super exciting to shoot, but doing a portrait session with them might be amazing, cause you can get super creative. But if the artist is a hardcore band, shooting their show is going to be so lively and exciting.

Then again, I think something intimate about doing portraits with someone — it all depends on the energy of like the person you're photographing. With concerts, you have like five seconds before the show starts and you have to make do with whatever is backstage, so again, it's a lot of pressure, but it forces you to get creative. Versus [with portraits], someone hires me for an hour and a half shoot on the LSU campus and I know all the spots to go. I know what time of day to go. I'm very comfortable.

At the end of the day, I enjoy shooting branding photography and marketing photography for companies that kind of jive with my aesthetic. If we sync up, it’s like a match made in heaven and it's fun to put my spin on someone else's brand, and also have them trust my brand at the same time, to reflect theirs.

Do you have a favorite brand you’ve worked with on a commercial work basis?

I got to do some stuff for Visit Baton Rouge, and I got to shoot a bunch of different scenarios for them for their marketing. The thing is, I don't see my photos because they're being used in ad placements in other cities, so I don't actually ever really know where they all “live.” But it was really cool to shoot my town in a way that’s appealing to people who don't live here. It was, it was interesting trying to see things differently, this mixture of people and food and places, the casino, this whole festival … just a bunch of different scenarios, but all under the same guise of: everything that makes Baton Rouge appealing to travel to. It wasn’t just a commercial shoot — It was more of a campaign.

Someone actually once texted me that they were on an airplane and saw my photo in the little pamphlet, because they were traveling here. I never see any of it, ‘cause I already live here, you know? I always find out through other people, like “Oh, so-and-so saw your photo on a billboard somewhere else.” I just never know what or where. As a photographer, you’re just doing your own thing, and you're on your own computer, you're exporting your files, and they're on your hard drive, but you never really get to see them out in the wild. When they’re used to show other people, who don't even live here, why they should come here? That’s really cool.

That makes me think of this one Jack Johnson song, called ‘Sunsets for Somebody Else,’ which is about how brands use photos of Hawaii, and the North Shore, and beautiful places like that, just to sell generic vacations, without really paying homage to the place or the culture itself.

That totally makes sense. It’s also weird because I sometimes get into this mindset of, “Oh, Baton Rouge is a small town, and there's nothing to do here.” But then you get an opportunity like [the one I just mentioned for Visit Baton Rouge] and it forces you to look at it like a tourist. Like, if I were an ambassador for the city, what type of things would I highlight? How would I portray that in my photography? So then I’m like, “Oh, there's actually some cool stuff here.” So I was honored to do that, really, except I still don't know where the photos live in the wild. [Laughs]

“People always ask me, like, ‘Oh, was Lil Wayne nice?’

And I'm like, ‘I photographed him with a 70-200 mm lens, from a photo pit that I was escorted out of after 15 minutes … do you think he even knew I was there?’”

What do you think is the biggest misconception about concert photographers, and photographers in general?

That we're friends with the band, and that we're rich. And that we have all this “access” to do all these crazy things.

People always ask me, like, “Oh, was Lil Wayne nice?” And I'm like, “I photographed him with a 70-200 mm lens, from a photo pit that I was escorted out of after 15 minutes … do you think he even knew that I was there? Do you think we talked?? Do you think he knows my name???”

When people see the photos, they’re immediately like, “Wow, so you got to go into the tour bus, and you got to meet these people?” And yeah, sometimes there are situations where you get to meet the artists or whatever, but you're not going to fangirl in that moment, because you're a professional. Nor is it always an amazing experience. A lot of my music photography I've done for very little to no money, but it makes you look cool by association, so people just assume that you must be super wealthy, or at least have all-access. They don't know how press photos work, or about the 3 song rule, or about how half the time it's not even paid.

One of my favorite TikTok videos you posted was with that J.G. Wentworth jingle, with the caption talking about “photographers waiting on those net30 commercial clients” — is there anything you learned about business and finance in the world of photography that you might not have come across in another career path?

It’s working for yourself, in general — it’s not specific to photography. The thing is: no one has your back. You don't have a team, you don't have a boss to ask, and you don't anyone making sure things are running smoothly. No one's speaking on your behalf, no one’s one's promoting you … you have to do it all yourself. What I've learned is that you really have to be an advocate for yourself, not only with marketing yourself and networking and sharing your work, but also by standing up for yourself: following up with those people who haven't paid, making sure they have all the paperwork they need, etc. It’s a never-ending job you never get to clock of, whereas in other professions, you clock out at five o'clock, get home, get your paycheck, and move on with your life.

“As a creator, I want to be creating things all the time.”

What's the biggest challenge of being a concert photographer, as opposed to being in fashion, or in editorial or something like that?

In music, you need the setup. I guess you and some friends could get together and put on a show, or you could shoot your friend's band’s show … but if you want those awesome high production-value photos? From an arena tour? You can't just waltz on in there and do that. You can't make that happen for yourself. In a way, you're a slave to that whole process and that whole industry, versus in fashion, or anything else, you can kind of stage those things yourself. You can collaborate with people very easily, or you could start your own brand, and make it happen.

With concerts it's so much harder if you want to be in that mainstream “bucket” of famous artists, who are on tour, and you can’t just snap your fingers and make that happen. It's a lot of work to network, get the contacts, get approved, get access, even just to get your foot in that door. Honestly, with the pandemic happening, my biggest fear is that music's going to finally come back a year from now and everyone's going to have forgotten that I take photos for concerts. I worry that all the work I've done up to this point will be for nothing. Right now my thought process is: How can I repurpose old content from concerts into stuff for TikTok or Instagram? Just to remind people, like, “Hey, I still do this and I'm still eager to do this. Don't forget about me when concerts come back.”

I totally understand that. I’m sick of seeing the same “a year ago today” posts.

That's my worry! Like, “How many throwback Thursdays can I do? How many times can I say, like, ‘I did this cool thing three years ago.’” I don't want to live in the past, but at the same time, in this industry, all we can do right now is live on the old content. And it's really frustrating — as a creator, I want to be creating things all the time. These days I’m just like, “Well, I guess TikTok is one way I can create this in a new way, cause people there might not have seen it yet on my Instagram. Or maybe I can re-edit this photo in a different way to make me feel new again?” But I really worry: It’s already a competitive space, and now that everything's shut down, it's like, “Dang it, starting from the bottom all over again whenever it comes back.”

What’s your favorite show you've ever shot and why?

I always share this one photo from when I shot Fall Out Boy back in 2016, on their ‘Winter Is Coming’ tour. They had fake snow coming from the ceiling and it was basically just foam bubbles, but it photographed like snow. Plus, the way this stage jutted out, it was like a big V, and the photo pit kind of went behind the V so you could take shots from behind the band, looking out to the crowd. And that’s the viewpoint all photographers all want, cause it gives the impression you’re onstage, as opposed to ordinarily you’re shooting from the front, you know? I got this really awesome photo of [FOB guitarist] Joe Trohman walking towards the crowd — it’s shot from the back, with the “snow” falling down on his guitar and all that, and it just looks so epic, cause it was such a huge production.

What's a piece of gear that you can't live without?

Recently I've been having this come-to-Jesus moment with myself where I'm like, “Are any of my photos in focus, and have they ever been?” I even got my eyes checked, I was so worried. I was doing a senior portrait shoot, and I was like, “Why can I not get this girl's face in focus?! She's standing in front of me! I have an hour to shoot her, and I only have like 10 photos in focus!” I was having a whole midlife crisis about it, but then I realized that a lot of my lenses probably needed to be calibrated. So ordinarily I’d say I can't live without my prime lenses, but lately I don't trust them. So right now it’s my 70-200 mm lens, which is my favorite for concerts. It’s funny because when I started out, I would see people with those lenses and I'd be like, “Oooh, you're an old man photographer and you have a long lens.” But actually, it is some of the best glass I have, which is interesting because it’s actually my dad's lens. He does a bit of photography too, but at some point he kind of just gave it to me cause I use it more. It's almost as old as I am and it works wonderfully.

My actual favorite thing you’ve ever posted was an Instagram story saying “Evanescence on vinyl slaps” — Fallen is one of the first CDs I ever bought, back in ‘04, or ‘05, off Amazon.com. So I'm wondering: if you could go back to any era of music to cover/document it as it was happening, what would it be?

That's so hard because part of me like is so nostalgic for the sixties and seventies. I'm a huge Beatles fan. My house is all decorated Beatles, my dog's name is Ringo … I love the Beatles. And I also love Led Zeppelin. Actually what really made me want to get into music photography was seeing those iconic black and white 35 mm photos of Robert Plant, and Jimmy Page with the double-neck guitar, or all these photos of the Beatles [when they first landed in the States]. I always wanted to live during that time, but I would never want to shoot concerts on film. Cause that sounds treacherous.

So as for era, I would have to say early 2000s, because all the music from that time period — what I was into as a middle-schooler and younger — is what I listen to now. I'm very much an early 2000s emo pop punk kind of person, and I can't imagine what it would’ve been like to photograph those bands, like, in a house show situation, or maybe at the House of Blues or something. Plus, you’d be able to use digital. [Laughs]

Any specific show you’d’ve wanted to attend?

I am very upset that I'll never get to photograph Linkin Park with Chester [Bennington]. I used to go so hard on Meteora. I even did a hip-hop dance for the talent show to “Nobody's Listening” in sixth grade, so … I would have loved to photograph Linkin Park at the height of the Hybrid Theory and Meteora days. Maybe not any specific concert, but at least one concert during that time. That would have been the most amazing show.

Or early Blink-182, back when Blink was smaller and still had Tom [Delonge]. Like Take Off Your Pants and Jacket-era or earlier, cause they were already really famous by then. I’m thinking back when they were still dickheads and nobody believed that they were ever going to be famous. [Laughs]