This week, Ritva hosts the Lens-Artists Challenge, focusing on music. Ritva’s line, “Whether it’s a street artist down the street, local band or a world‑famous rockstar on stage…” feels like it was written for my archive. My selections span that exact arc, starting with a street performer who seems to defy gravity and ending with a legendary rock band under the summer sky. I went back over a dozen years to capture a range of photos I don’t recall sharing in a challenge before. You can read Ritva’s entire challenge post here.
Emery Carl is one of the most recognizable buskers in the Seattle music scene—especially at Pike Place Market, where he’s performed regularly for years. He’s appeared in the Pike Market Buskers’ Festival and in Seattle’s Buskers Series, often introduced as the “Seattle Busker King.” His trademark blend of music and circus‑style showmanship—hula hoops spinning, a guitar balanced on his chin, and another played in his hands—was on full display during our 2014 visit to Pike Place Market.
In 2023, at a Renaissance Faire in Fargo, North Dakota, the Loch Morr performers played to the delight of a toddler who wandered from the audience right up to the stage. While Lauren Morris—an accomplished fiddler with regional roots—played a violin solo, the guitarist, clearly unfazed by the unexpected backup dancer, grinned at the toddler’s improvised choreography.
A regional German band that plays at many folk gatherings across the upper Midwest, the Bockfest Boys from New Ulm, Minnesota, travel a lively summer circuit but are best known for their Oktoberfest concerts. Who can resist dancing a polka when they play? Apparently, quite a few people in this Fargo audience decided to sit it out—only a handful of dancers swayed to the music in this photo, taken at Fargo’s German Folk Festival at Rheault Farm in 2016.
I’ve supported Trollwood Performing Arts for years—it’s been part of Fargo Public Schools’ music and theater offerings since 1978. In 2012, I taught sound design and performance audio for their summer main stage production, helping students learn how to run the sound system. Among other skills, I taught students to adjust the performers’ wireless mics so their vocals carried above the live orchestra tucked beneath the set. I didn’t take any photos of that show, but one of my favorite Trollwood images comes from the 2015 performance of Mary Poppins. The student-run production fills the outdoor amphitheater with musical energy each summer.
In July 2024, I purchased the Nikon Z7 II mirrorless camera. Of course, I took it to downtown Fargo to start learning the new tool. I tried some street photography, but the sound of rock music pulled me toward a small square where a stage—much like the old gazebos that once anchored so many towns—hosts summer evening performances. On this day, Walking Phoenix, an indie‑alternative rock band from Fargo formed in March 2020, was the featured act. They mix classic rock, blues, jazz, and a bit of R&B into a sound that’s hard to label but easy to enjoy. Their live shows have earned them a solid regional following, and they’ve even opened for a few national and international acts.
An annual event in Oro Valley, Arizona, brings classic cars, BBQ lunches, and musical acts to the Arizona desert. Jimi “Primetime” Smith brought his authentic Chicago blues to the stage. A guitarist and vocalist with deep roots in Chicago’s musical lineage, he’s spent decades on stages from storied Midwest clubs to regular stops across Arizona, including Tucson.
At the Bluestem Amphitheater—the same venue where Trollwood stages its summer main productions—musical acts of international acclaim draw crowds from across the Fargo/Moorhead communities. In June 2014, we attended a Beach Boys Summer Tour concert, part of a national series of performances. Headed by original band member Brian Wilson (in the blue shirt) and keyboardist Bruce Johnston, the group entertained us with their familiar 1960s musical style. I took this photo with my Samsung S3 mobile phone and later pulled it from a large archive search to reprocess using current software tools.
With the sounds of Good Vibrations and Surfin’ U.S.A. bouncing around in my brain, it’s time to close out my challenge response. Thanks to Ritva for taking me down memory lane and reminding me of performances from the last decades. If only I’d taken photos of Tina Turner’s Twenty Four Seven Tour at the Fargo Dome in November 2000. Or captured the fun we had at the Gordon Lightfoot in Concert tour in 2009, when we ended up with tickets gifted from two strangers at a local McDonald’s who needed to head home early. I’m most distressed that I didn’t have the equipment to photograph Paul McCartney’s US Tour stop at the Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis in 2005, when Lynn won two tickets from a Fargo radio station.
Last week, Anne reminded us that moving our bodies is a great way to skip the zoom lens, grab a nifty fifty (50 mm) or portrait lens (85 mm) fixed focal length, and zoom with your feet. Next week, Egidio hosts the challenge. Be sure to follow him here so you don’t miss the challenge, which goes live on Saturday, October 10 at noon Eastern Time.
If you’re sharing a Lens‑Artists Challenge response for the first time, welcome—we’d love to visit your post. To participate, publish your take on this week’s theme, link back to this page, and add the Lens‑Artists tag so others can discover your work. You’ll find more details on how the challenge works here.
John Steiner
