The Local Music Scene: Bootsy Holler releases new book on Seattle indie rock world

An iconic music photographer is returning to the Pacific Northwest to celebrate the release of her book Making It: An Intimate Documentary of the Seattle Indie, Rock & Punk Scene, 1992-2008 by Bootsy Holler. 

Bootsy gave us an opportunity to talk with her directly about her new book release ahead of her upcoming tour that is kicking off this weekend. She will be at Easy Street Records in West Seattle on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. and Third Place Books – Seward Park on Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m.

I spent Sunday morning devouring the new book, immersing myself in the images and the stories found throughout the pages. I immediately felt transported back to the shows I saw during those years and loved getting anecdotes sprinkled in of Bootsy’s experiences being on the other side of the rope.

One of my first questions to Bootsy was “why now” for this book, but it turns out it wasn’t planned for now specifically. This creation has been a work in progress for almost 10 years. She started the book as a way to create a showcase of her photography, akin to a gallery that you can experience anywhere, making it accessible to a larger group of people. There was an interest to take this life experience and create a tangible story, a piece of art out of time and a way to share her legacy with her son. 

The years were spent carefully curating and editing which images to put into this book. Bootsy went through all of her old negatives and contact sheets to decide what should be in the book. Some of the images had never even been printed. She worked hard on not overly focusing on one artist over another and battled internally with who to include. Ultimately, she had to lean into her artistic intuition and chose the images that related to her story and her experience. The end product has a natural flow as it follows a musical journey in black and white, color, lighting, focus and shapes.

Throughout the book, you learn little bits about Bootsy’s life. One thing that intrigued me was her artistic journey and how her love for fashion and textile art influenced her photography. She shared that she is both visual and analytical with her art. The analytical side shows through in her ability to lean into spatial relationships and her creation of negative space. 

Looking through the images, you can see how she uses shapes and diagonals with her positioning and how her love of patterns shines through. When Bootsy got started in photography, everything was focused on black and white, which heavily influenced her use of lighting and contrast. As she expanded into using color, she was able to build on her foundation and enjoyed that the addition was really like a bit of frosting on top. The majority of her photography decisions are based on her trusting her instincts and her point of view, whether with color or black and white. 

The title of the book Making It led me to my next question: “At what point did you feel like you had truly made it?” I was curious about this question as it seems to be an elusive goal for so many artists. The answer was similar to how I would have responded: “I don’t think I made it, I’m still trying to make it as an artist”. 

Bootsy told a story of being asked this when she was in the peak of her Seattle days shooting a band at the Vera Project, and someone came up to her and asked, ‘How did you get so successful? How did you make it?’” 

From Bootsy’s point of view, she wasn’t making it at the time, but she was able to see how there was a romanticized perception of what she was doing, of being on the other side of the ropes, of being part of things. She was just trying to make a living and keep food in her fridge. She never thought her photography would get into every show. She never wanted to be someone who was taking advantage of others. Bootsy focused on growing her skills and following her passion. For her, it wasn’t really a question of whether she would shoot something. She inherently couldn’t not do it; she was always making art. 

This ongoing need to create art is what has brought Bootsy to this point in her life, going on tour to share her book. The book will be available on her website along with a variety of small prints that can be purchased directly. Some of the prints will be available at the tour stops as well. 

I wrapped up the interview asking Bootsy what her advice would be to aspiring music photographers. She said to just go and run and be original and do your own thing. Don’t try to be someone else. 

I recommend getting a copy of Making It and spending the time to go through the images and the stories. It is truly a beautiful book created by an immensely talented photographer and storyteller. It was a huge honor to get to interview such an iconic photographer and badass woman business owner from the Seattle music scene. Thank you, Bootsy!

Rachel Gardner is immersed in the local music scene. Between owning a record store in downtown Edmonds, booking music for several local festivals and music series events, playing bass guitar and showing up to support local artists, she keeps her ear on what’s happening around town.