Access All Areas
Photography
Photographing Musicians, On and Off Stage
Words by Kerry Payne
In an unexpected corner of Midcoast Maine—far from the industry centers of New York and Los Angeles—a group of photographers gathers each October for something rare: direct access to the inner world of music photography, guided by two of its most seasoned practitioners.
Pamela Springsteen and Rob DeMartin have spent decades documenting the culture of live music from the inside. Springsteen’s portraits of artists including Willie Nelson, Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz, Melissa Etheridge, and Bruce Springsteen, reflect a career shaped by access and trust, while DeMartin’s long-standing work with the E Street Band—along with documenting Springsteen on Broadway and his collaboration with President Barack Obama—speaks to a life embedded in the rhythm of performance.
Their work carries a quiet authority shaped in arenas, backstage corridors, and long-standing creative relationships. Together, they bring a perspective defined not just by proximity, but by an instinct for the moments that unfold just beyond the spotlight.
What they bring to their workshop in Maine is not just technical expertise, but perspective: how to move through a space with intention, how to anticipate a moment before it unfolds, and how to earn the trust required to photograph someone at their most unguarded. Over the course of the week, students work across a spectrum of environments that mirror the realities of the profession.
In Portland last year, they photographed live performances by national touring acts—including Violent Femmes, KT Tunstall, and Toad the Wet Sprocket— navigating the constraints of stage lighting, timing, and access that define concert photography.
Elsewhere, the pace shifts. In rehearsal spaces, bands like Weakened Friends work under the direction of their lighting teams while photographers study how subtle changes in light and positioning can transform an image.
Back on the coast, the work becomes quieter—and in many ways, more revealing. Musicians including The Autumn Defense, Griffin Sherry, Mikaela Davis and John Lee Shannon, and Speed of Sound step into environmental portrait sessions where the focus shifts from performance to presence.
Here, the landscape plays its part. Light slows. Direction becomes collaboration. And the photographs begin to move beyond documentation into something more interpretive—something intimate and lasting.
For Springsteen and DeMartin, teaching is an extension of the same instincts that guide their photography: attentiveness, patience, and a deep respect for the subject.
“Access All Areas was a turning point for me. The real-world, hands-on experience with experts and peers gave the self-assurance I needed to actually pursue concert photography–and I haven’t looked back.” - Jen Horton
The setting plays an equally important role. Hosted at Blenheim Park Maine—a lakeside orchard and creative estate in Bremen—the workshop unfolds across a range of environments, from curated sets amidst the landscape, to a fully equipped studio, each offering its own possibilities. The work is given space to breathe. Images are reviewed with care. Conversations stretch.
“When you step away from the noise and place photographers in a setting like this—working closely with artists over multiple days—something shifts,” says Kerry Payne, photographer and founder of Blenheim Park Maine. “They begin to see differently, and that shift carries into everything they create afterward.”
Payne’s approach is informed by nearly two decades in photographic education, where she began to recognize a gap between classroom learning and the realities of working in the field. The program at Blenheim Park was built in response—designed to place photographers inside real environments, with real subjects, where instinct, adaptability, and creative voice are developed through experience.
That philosophy is strengthened through collaboration— from Lauren Wayne at the State Theatre in Portland to John and Crissy Stirratt’s Sonic Sleepover music festival in Bremen— which have created opportunities that extend well beyond the bounds of a traditional workshop.
What has quietly emerged at Blenheim Park is a distinctive workshop program—one that pairs small cohorts of photographers with leading voices in the field, not in classrooms, but in lived environments where the work itself becomes the teacher.
Visiting instructors include Greg Gorman, Maggie Steber, Sarah Leen, George Nobechi, Aline Smithson, Simon Lewis, and Cig Harvey—each bringing a distinct perspective, but sharing a commitment to immersion, rigor, and connection.
In Maine, the light lingers a little longer, the air carries sound differently, and for a brief window each October, music, landscape, and image-making come together in a way that feels both grounded and quietly extraordinary.
Photographers Featured: Top to bottom, Gallery 1 by Jen Horton, Gallery 2 by Juliana Hock,
Gallery 3 Photos 1 - 4, by Ethan O’Brien (1), Jackie Middleton(2), Jen Horton(3), Mike Colucci (4)
