Shared with Your friends and Mandy’s friends
….May 2023….Mandy Line, lead singer of Helium5…. a mutual friend in Dresden introduced us.
i’ve never had much luck photographing metal bands. in the early 2000s, i covered a few hardcore and nu-metal bands from the New England hardcore scene and southern US. none of them were interested in being in front of my camera. the photos were always the same, angry guys usually giving the camera the middle finger. i also think it had to do with me not looking or being part of that scene.
i was immediately interested when i learned about Mandy. the first time we met was on a Saturday night, i navigated several trams around 11pm to get to Mandy’s flat in a part of Dresden i had never been to. we spent most of the time telling stories on the terrace. it was apparent from the start of our conversation that i met someone genuine. it took me a while to nurse a beer down before i had to find my way back at 2am. Dresden isn’t “the city that doesn’t sleep”, so getting around after midnight is cumbersome.
this was the last photograph at the band’s rehearsal space in the basement of a massive monolithic building constructed during the GDR that probably could withstand a nuclear blast. i hadn’t photographed a band in 15 years. i was exhausted at the end of a long trip, but i was reinvigorated seeing Helium5 play and listening to them tell stories. we shared a laugh when they told me about the time Depeche Mode played East Berlin, and some of the crowd did not believe they were really playing until Depeche Mode walked on stage.
i enjoyed photographing Mandy and the band. there’s a lot of intensity in her story. this photograph is more somber than the others taken that night. there will be more….
