We Were There: Austin Concert Crowds, Shot from the Pit, 2007-2017

We Were There explores the symbiotic relationship between rock concert fans, the bands, and the photographer at music festivals. Sandy Carson's photographs candidly capture the true human experience of interacting with music.

Sandy Carson is a Scottish photographer who has exhibited nationally and internationally, from Texas and New York to Switzerland and Scotland. His commercial clients include the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, Nike, ESPN, and Disney.

Alyssa Coppelman. Austin, TX
Alyssa Coppelman is a photo editor with over a decade of experience, primarily as Assistant Art Director of Harper’s Magazine.She has extensive experience with photo editing, sequencing, and picture research, and regularly sources images from a wide variety of artists, galleries, and collections worldwide. Alyssa co-curated Slideluck Austin VI,judged Critical Mass and Flash Forward contests, and has been a portfolio reviewer at Fotofest Houston, PhotoNOLA,
Photolucida, Filter Photo Festival, and Atlanta Celebrates Photography. Alyssa is a regular contributor to WIRED Photo and has written for Feature Shoot and Slate's photo blog, Behold. She recently designed Preston Gannaway's photo book, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Working directly with photographers, Alyssa provides oversight in editing, sequencing, design, and editorial aspects of portfolios and book projects.

Sandy Carson. Austin, TX
Sandy Carson (b. 1972) is a Scottish photographer who emigrated to the United States in 1993 to pursue cycling, and enjoyed a 15 year career traveling the world as a professional cyclist, where he honed his skills as a photographer. Carson’s photography explores sensitive cultural issues of American consumerism and the social landscape with a scrutiny particular to one who was born and raised in another country. Constantly at play in his photographs is an irony born from the juxtaposition of disparate elements, a duality that consistently informs his viewpoint and is an intrinsic element of his work. Carson’s photography examines a specific and personal segment of American life with a bent simultaneously absurd and poignant. Sandy has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, including Houston Center For Photography, Lawndale Arts Center, Houston, The University of Texas, Trinity University in San Antonio, Finch & Ada Gallery, New York, Musée de l’Elysée, Switzerland, and Street-Level Photoworks, Glasgow. A monograph of his work on the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, Paradise Has Relocated, was published in 2010. His second book We Were There is a symbiotic study of nearly a decade dcumenting concert fandom as shot from the pit. His commercial editorial work is published in The New York Times, Aperture, American Photography, The Guardian, The Oxford American, Juxtapoz, The Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, and GQ. His commercial clients include Virgin, Nike, Red Bull, Remington, ESPN, NPR, Disney, Ebay, Volcom, Fender, and Atlantic Records. He currently lives and works in Austin, Texas and
is represented by INSTITUTE.

Dr Katherine Parhar. Glasgow, UK
Dr. Katherine Parhar is a prize winning photography writer, lecturer and curator based in Scotland who exhibits in the UK, EU, USA and India. She is the director of Fòcas Scotland, a non-profit organisation that commissions, trains and exhibits Scotland’s top emerging photographers internationally. Her writing on Scotland’s contemporary photographic practice is published regularly by respected UK outlets including Tate Papers and Photomonitor. She is editor of
Scottish photography journal Studies, and co-leads a newly founded research forum for gender and photographic practice with a range of partners including Napier University, Ryerson and OCAD.