February is here and that means stores are bogged down with Valentine’s swag. For some, this is a source of supreme agitation, but plenty of others are warmed by the holiday — down with all the fuzzy energy of love. Cheesy as it may sound, a lot of us love the crap out of love. And, we aren’t necessarily partnered or awash in long stem roses, either. We may not even be terribly romantic. We just feed off of the vibes spawned by mutual admiration and caring.
Photographer Patrick Hughes is one of these “love lovers” and his work is a celebratory testament to the positivity he experiences at music festivals. Drawn to the high energy of the festival scene, Hughes works to capture his subject’s joy in his snaps. That may mean a singular moment when the corner of a woman’s mouth turns up in a wry smile or a fire dancer raises an eyebrow in a salute. It can be an impulsive kiss or a head laid gently on the shoulder of a friend as dusk settles around them.
Regardless of whether it’s a candid moment or a person showboating for the camera, Hughes longs to shoot magic. And, he does so more often than not. His photos make festivals feel like the epicenter of glee, and you want to be part of the scene.
We spoke with Hughes this week about his “Faces of Festivals” project and how it gave his work a sense of meaning from which he previously felt divorced. We were also keen to gather insight into his gear and what draws him to a shot. He isn’t the first festival photographer to talk about the energy of the events, but he was the first to tell Uproxx about it with such a deep reverence and happiness.
We might have a small crush on him. But, that’s probably just us getting hyped on Valentine’s Day.
How did you get started in photography?
When I was only 15 years old, my grandfather, who has now passed, gave me this old film camera to mess around with. He was thinking maybe I could have some fun with it. So, I took some film classes in school. I wasn’t really too into it. I was more into music and messing around with guitar and stuff. It wasn’t until I was about 19 or 20 that I really started to pick up a camera again. In the digital world, I felt I was getting to progress more with my style. From there, it was trying to pick up gigs, get to shows, have some fun, and photograph some music. I started doing the festivals in 2011, and at the time, I was just photographing whatever. I felt like my photos were pretty meaningless. Any decent photo I had of a musician I felt was pretty pointless because there were always 20 other photographers at any of these festivals photographing the same thing.
I felt like I needed to come up with an idea that was something more substantial and something that I felt meant something more. I think it was at Electric Forrest in 2012, I took this one beautiful photo of a couple in a warm embrace and it just kind of like hit me right then. I was like, “That is what I need to be focusing on, all these amazing people, all these different walks of life you see at a lot of these events and everything in the music scene.” And from there it developed into this whole little thing I’ve been doing.
Is this what you call Faces of Festivals?
Yeah.
I was scrolling through all the ones on your website and they’re so fun to look at. They all tell stories.
A lot of people have told me “Why don’t you try to talk to some of these people and get their background and their stories.” I tried to do it once, and it didn’t go over very well. A lot of people at these events they’re very … I don’t know a good way to put it … intoxicated sometimes. Approaching them and showing them a very candid photo of themselves, whether it’s a couple kissing or just a candid photo of someone hanging out dancing in the crowd doesn’t always go over well.
I approached a handful of people to see how they would react, and I got a lot of looks like I have 10 heads. I felt that wasn’t the route I needed to be going down. Every time I show someone after the fact — you know when I put it up on the site and someone responds or a friend of theirs sees it and tags them — the person who was in the photo is ecstatic. I’ve never had someone tell me that they hated the photo or to take it down or anything like that. Everyone loves it that feeling of being captured in a moment that no one else around them really saw or remembered.
That’s true, especially at a festival where there is so much going on. You’ve been going to them for a really long time, right?
2010 I think is when I went to my first one.
You were obviously into music beforehand. What flipped the switch to let you know that you wanted to go to festivals all the time and take pictures?
It was definitely the first one I went to. My girlfriend, at the time, Katherine, was working for LiveNation setting up catering and things. She introduced me to these type of events, and my first one was Mountain Jam, which is upstate New York. It’s a really fun jam festival on a mountain. I remember walking in and being blown away because I’d been going to concerts and events my whole life, but I didn’t really realize how many larger outdoor events there were like that. It opened my eyes, and I started researching more and more of these outdoor events. There’s a whole world of it that I didn’t realize. I was shocked that I was so sheltered to it growing up, even though I listened to a lot of music.
It all clicked. By the end of the first night, I was like “I love this. I want to keep going to stuff like this.” The rest of that summer she took me to probably 10 more and we had a blast. But at that time, I was not photographing at the events, I went for fun. It was only the following year when I said to myself “Man, I really gotta bring a camera here and try to get into some of these.”
The first one that I actually got into photographing was a small festival in upstate New York called Catskill Chill. I reached out to them and said “Hey, check out some of my photography. I’d love to come snap some photos.” They gave me a press pass to come snap photos, and I was uploading some throughout the weekend and putting them online and before the second day, I got an email from their marketing director wondering who I was and how I got in and who I was working for. I was like “I’m just me I’m here.” They’re like, “We love your work. Do you want to work for us?” And I said, “Yeah, sure.”
They hired me right on the spot. That was definitely a very happy moment for me. What I was photographing was being seen as worthy enough to be on somebody’s photo scene with the million photographers they have.
That’s awesome. I love the idea that you were just posting shit, and suddenly, you had a job.
Right?
That’s the dream.
I thought that the email was going to be bad like he was going to yell at me for doing something wrong. I didn’t have any access with the pass that they gave me. It was just “You can come for free, snap some photos, very minimal pit access, no backstage, no onstage, none of that.” But obviously, I was sneaking around a little bit and trying to get some better photos. A couple times I was in places I probably shouldn’t have been, so I thought I was going to get in trouble when he emailed me. But, he was just like “No. We love it. Good job!” I was a little taken aback.
How many festivals are you averaging a season?
I would say in the last three to four years, I’ve been averaging about between 10 to 15 for the year. There’s always room for more.
That seems like a lot because those go on for days, and it’s nonstop.
It can be a little rough, especially when you have the back to back weekends. You’re at a festival, and you come home on Monday. You have two or three days at home to do whatever you need to do, and then, you have to head off to another one.
How much gear do you bring to these things?
I like to keep myself pretty minimal even though I do have a lot of gear that I keep with me back home. I always carry two cameras, a handful of lenses, other little accessories, and everything like that.
I see a lot of photographers that really go balls to the wall and have all the crazy gear and lenses and everything. I try to keep it a little bit less; it’s just the main things I need to cover. I take a little bit of a different approach with the gear that I choose. The difference between a zoom lens and a fixed lens — like just a straight 50-millimeter lens or something like that — is those lenses tend to be sharper and better colors, but you’re limited to that range. So, I’ve been using just those prime lenses where I don’t really have any wiggle room to zoom out or zoom in. I have to be in the right place at the right time to get the shots that I’m getting.
All of these shots that you have… or the majority of them… you were stationed somewhere where the subject is in the frame?
Every single photo I have, yeah. With a zoom lens, I can zoom in or out, moving that frame in different ways depending on how far away they are. A lot of people tell me: “Man, I saw you running; where were you running to?” And, I’m like, “I had to get the shot.”
So instead of moving the lens in and out, it’s you moving in and out.
Yeah.
I can see why other people might not opt to go that direction. You must be so active at these things. No wonder you’re not carrying a ton of gear.
I try to keep moving. I got stopped by a couple of my friends and they’re like, “Can you just stop and sit down and hang out for a minute?” I’m like, “I gotta keep moving.” I can’t help it. I have that slow-mo feeling like I’m missing shots. I’m wasting my time by just relaxing and doing what you’re supposed to be doing at these events, which is just having a good time with friends.
If I wasn’t going to these things and taking photos at them, I wouldn’t be going to as many of them because getting photos is what I absolutely love doing. I don’t see it as work. I see it as me being me, doing what I want to do. If I’m out and about at a concert or a festival and I don’t have my camera with me, which is very rare, I feel like I don’t know what to do.
What are you looking for? If you’re running to get shots, what is it that calls to you and says, “I must be photographed.”?
I try to find people that are a little bit out of the ordinary. A lot of my favorites have been a whole mass of people that intrigued me, whether it’s the way that someone smiles or someone’s fashion they were wearing. It’s just an energy that they give off. It’s so high energy; it’s love and energy radiating off of them. I try to capture that in the photo, whether it be a straight portrait or a candid of someone dancing around. I capture the essence of how their energy felt to me.
Nice. I’ve heard other festival photographers talk about that energy, too. It seems like that’s really important to all of you.
It really is, and it’s a crazy feeling seeing it because I’m a very laid-back person. I don’t go too crazy dancing around, but when I’m at these festivals what I see most I love doing is people watching. I love cruising around the crowds and trying to find those unique people that I got an energy vibe from. It always puts a smile on my face seeing people being weird. I tell everyone to keep being weird because everyone loves it.
That’s wonderful. It also seems like you’re super into couples.
Yes. I haven’t been very lucky with finding a woman myself, but I find that loving couples are necessary for this project. There’s so much love going around, whether they’re just friends or they’re lovers there’s a crazy amount of hugging and kissing and loving on each other. Everyone is there to have a good time. I love getting these photos. A lot of the hugging photos have been of people who only see each other at these events. When I see friends rushing at each other and jumping into embracing hugs, that’s a moment. That’s them truly happy that they reconnected with an old friend.
I love people that celebrate that kind of stuff, it makes me so happy. It’s so much better than people who feel like it’s something that’s assaulting them like “Oh, how dare they throw their happiness in my face.” You’re like “What? What is wrong with you?”.
Right?
My last question is, what do you have coming up? What’s next for Patrick Hughes?
I’ve been trying to do some side projects as well as doing this. I hope to someday be able to create content that’s worthy enough to create a photo book showcasing all of the love and all of these beautiful people you see at these types of events.
I haven’t thought too much about it, but hopefully, in the coming years, I’ll be able to put it together. I think I need to find someone to pick the photos for me though because I could never choose. Personally, I think my photos aren’t worthy enough. Every photo that I take I’m like, “Oh, it could be better.” It’s a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that I’ll always continue to grow with that sort of mentality. I feel like I’ll always be pushing to get a better shot. But, then, it’s bad because when it comes to picking and choosing what I think is best and such for something, it’s extremely difficult for me because I don’t see it. If I stay strong with this, I’ll be starting to create some more work that I think will be book worthy.
