What It Really Takes To Make It As A Music Photographer In Australia

How many times have you looked at someone else’s profession and thought, “Surely I could do that…” or even, “That must be the best job ever…”? Prior to working in the music industry, I used to think this way about music journalists and music photographers.

Thankfully for me, both those thoughts wound up being true about music journalism — well, the ability part at least, as this pandemic situation has really called the ‘best job ever’ part into question. But that’s for another op-ed.

When it comes to music photography though, the medium has always been one I’m happy to gawk at in wonderment. Australia is home to some incredible visual creatives and when it comes to capturing music in a style and way that is uniquely their own? There’s a strong community of photographers in our own backyard who have it on lock.

For a photographer like Michelle Grace Hunder, keeping the community strong and nourished has always been a huge priority. Prolific within the music industry for her RISE and Her Sound Her Story projects and decade-long career shooting some of the world’s biggest names, MGH has embarked on the next phase of her journey this year — as a mentor.

From Hip-Hop To Her Sound Her Story

Though her recent work with Australian pop/R&B phenom Ruel has earned her a global following of her own, MGH’s career beginnings are in Australian hip-hop. Her first major project was 2014’s RISE — a photobook documenting the genre, featuring over 100 portraits of artists from around the country. It put MGH on the map, though she says it wasn’t an endeavour she could have followed on her own.

“I didn’t really know that it was a job, I just knew that when I started shooting, I really liked working with artists and musicians,” she remembers. “I had friends who were artists and musicians, so it did really happen organically.

“I came across Kane Hibberd; he’d done a book, the Soundwave book. I got his advice on how to do a book and he was awesome. He was the only professional music photographer that I knew of at that time. I remember looking on his website, seeing all these bands he’d worked with and also the calibre of his work. I was so blown away and so inspired. He really was the first person who made me think, ‘There are other people doing this.’”

MGH spent the next few years grinding as a music photographer after RISE came out, her next big project bubbling along in the back of her mind: the acclaimed documentary and portrait series, Her Sound Her Story.

With filmmaker Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, MGH threw the spotlight on the importance of women to the Australian music industry and at the same time, highlighted some of the brutal realities many women in the industry still face.

The ability to adapt and move between projects ties in well with MGH’s work ethic — she refuses or is tied down. Currently, she is Ruel’s primary photographer and when she’s not on the road, she’s an in-demand portrait and studio music photographer in Melbourne. It’s a balancing act for sure for MGH, it’s part and parcel of the gig.

“When I started with Ruel, Her Sound Her Story was going full pelt — there was a big crossover,” she says. “I haven’t really had the issue where I’ve felt people are not approaching me because I’m doing so much Ruel stuff. I’ve been lucky. I know other photographers have had that issue, where they’ve been taken away by one client and they become known for that…it can be really tricky.”

“When you start out, you post for the work that you want to get. It’s similar when you’re continuing; you’re continuing to post the type of clients you want to get. It’s showing that you have versatility and you can work with different artists and that your particular style IS this sort of thing.”

Having photographed everyone from Ruel to Kendrick Lamar; Tonight Alive to The Cat Empire; Pharaohe Monch to Courtney Barnett, MGH notes her approach to photography and capturing artists on camera has changed over the years. Going from the hip-hop world into a variety of environments, the brain behind the lens has to change to meet the target on stage.

“It’s all about capturing the essence of the artist, no matter what style that is.”

“It’d been probably five or six years before I shot a gig that was outside the genre of hip hop,” she says. “At that point, you do just learn to be a bit more flexible with your style. It didn’t seem like a big jump at all to go to things like UNIFY or even to start shooting with Ruel. It became more about the relationship you have with the artist and capturing what they need, rather than a particular aesthetic and style. That’s the approach I take into shooting now, especially live shows.

“It’s all about capturing the essence of the artist, no matter what style that is. I try to imagine if there was a fan who missed out on seeing that show, if you could capture something that made them feel like they were there. That’s the goal. Having that photo that really sums up the energy and the vibe of that particular show if you weren’t there. Or, if you were there, that makes you go, ‘Yes! That’s exactly what it felt like’.”

Like the rest of the arts industry, MGH has felt the burn of the pandemic’s crippling effects on work. It forced her to regroup and as a result, the idea of running a masterclass started to take shape.

Master To Mentor

Pouring ten years’ worth of knowledge as a professional music photographer into a specially designed masterclass, MGH hopes to cut down the amount of hurdles and mistakes a new generation of music photographers can generally stand to make.

“The main focus of it is a lot of the unwritten rules and industry knowledge that just takes so long to learn or, you have to make mistakes to learn about it, because nobody tells you,” she explains. “The issue with me is that I get hit up daily for different bits of information; it can actually be quite draining. I’ve always been really happy to do it too, I’m happy to be an open book and somebody people can talk to about this stuff. At some point I was like, ‘I could just put this all into a document, it’s valuable’ — that’s been really great.”

Launched this month, the MGH Masterclass is accessible to all photographers, regardless of skill level. From beginners looking to learn the basics, to more experienced photographers looking for more information about copyright and payments, the course has been designed to cover all bases. Initially, the genesis for a central document of knowledge came through MGH’s side-hustle as a Twitch streamer during lockdown 2020.

Using the platform to stream editing sessions and host Q&A’s, MGH’s channel has become a solidified go-to for aspiring and established photographers around the world.

“Twitch was always like a live mentoring session; you’ve got access to ask me questions, I can teach,” she says. “This [masterclass] is an extension of that and I hope that the communities will really feed into each other and start learning from each other. I’ve got so many plans. When we were open, I started doing live streams of me shooting; that was something people were interested in. I’d love to be able to take the stream on tour. All of that feeds into this.”

Mentoring hasn’t dulled her hunger for being back out on the road and in a photo pit, but it’s certainly galvanised a desire to reinforce the key aspects of the job she holds dear, to a new wave of photographers coming up in a hugely digital age. At the end of the day, the work should speak for itself. That can be louder than any blue tick.

“It is very hard, because we’re brainwashed into thinking that validation equals our self-worth,” she says of social media stats. “We’re only worthy if the number keeps going up. I’ve really stepped away from just worrying about myself as an artist. I’ve really become passionate about educating a new generation; that’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than numbers. That’s a legacy thing, teaching a new crop of individuals coming through.”

“Some of my favourite photographers in the world have 2,000 followers,” she continues. “I’m not inspired by people who have hundreds of thousands of followers, I’m inspired by individuals’ work.

“As you progress and you get to a certain level, getting verified…it changes people’s perceptions. It does open more doors and give you validation in the eyes of others, which I think is ridiculous. You take the benefits of it, but you can’t worry too much about numbers or anything else. Keep your eye on producing quality work and your relationship with the clients.”

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Sosefina Fuamoli is a Samoan-Australian music writer and content producer living on Wurundjeri land. You can find her on socials @sosefuamoli.

For more info about Michelle Grace Hunder’s masterclass, head over here.

Photo Credit: Michelle Grace Hunder