The Best of 2011: Music Photography

Written by Melanie // December 31, 2011 // Features, Photos // No comments

We’ve been to nearly 300 shows this year, in cities scattered all over the globe, from our hubs in Tampa, Denver, and London, to Toronto, Columbus, Detroit, NYC and LA. We’ve traveled hundreds of miles in planes, trains, and cars, braved extremes of heat, cold, and port-a-loos, danced with hippies and hipsters, and ingested untold quantities of alcohol, always with cameras in hand.

For the writers and photographers who are known collectively as The Ruckus, live music is the integral why behind this business of music blogging. We photograph shows in order to steal memories – the anticipation, the gasp of amazement, the look of rapture, and finally, the moment of utter exhaustion when it’s finally over and everyone has given all that they can for the love of the music. Photographs are a visceral connection to these incredibly powerful, but ultimately fleeting moments, and we want to capture as many as we can.

It is with love and gratitude to the bands, venues, and fans who make it possible for us to do what we do every day that we present our Best Photographs of 2011. We hope that these moments (100 in all shot over the last 365 days) capture your heart the way that they did ours. Thank you for being such an important part of this year. We can’t wait to see what 2012 brings our way.

- Melanie & Tiffiny (with Lizzie, Meli, Sheena, and all of The Ruckus kids)