Guts Tour: Fan Fashion, Chicago Night 2 /  by Liz Brown

If you see yourself and would like your photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com (specify which image is you!). If you’d like to hire me, please email me, too. Lastly, if you’d like to support a local artist, my venmo is @estorie. If everyone I photographed sent me even just a little, I could easily pay my bills for the next month! Thank you!

xoxo Liz

THE MERCH BUS

Guts Tour: Fan Fashion, Chicago Night 1 /  by Liz Brown

If you see yourself and would like your photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com (specify which image is you!). If you’d like to hire me, please email me, too. Lastly, if you’d like to support a local artist, my venmo is @estorie. If everyone I photographed sent me even just a little, I could easily pay my bills for the next month! Thank you!

xoxo Liz

The Guts Tour Bus

fan fashion

the Merch Bus

a month without a phone /  by Liz Brown

I entered the Siggi (yes, the yogurt company) writing competition a few nights ago. I got the deadline wrong (I thought it was the next day), so I wrote most of the 500-word entry in 10 minutes. But I’m trying to focus on trying rather than perfection, on beginning rather than telling myself I’ll never make it. So I wrote something. Is it amazing? No. But is it honest? Absolutely. And it made me think about how often I reach for my phone to scroll as an escape rather than a resource or inspiration. I do think phones—especially the social components like texting and social media—can be beautiful conduits of connection, but I don’t often use them as such. I’m often zoning out, escaping. But I don’t want to live a life I want to escape from. And therein is my dilemma. I was the happiest and phone-free-est I’ve ever been during the weeks I documented fans at the Eras Tour, but that doesn’t pay the bills. I sacrificed and lost money todo that. It was 100% worth it, but it wasn’t sustainable. So how do I create a life that both affords for me to live, but sustains me creatively, relationally, and emotionally? I think I’ll be answering this question over and over for the rest of my life, and I think the answer will change as I do. But for now, here is the answer, the first-draft essay that prompted my creative crisis:

I’ve had a phone since I was thirteen. In 3 months, that will be twenty years ago.

It’s the first thing I look at in the morning and the last thing I listen to before I fall asleep. As a child, I always thought my first and last interaction of the day would be a partner, but instead it’s this small rectangular piece of metal and plastic.

Twelve year old me also didn’t care about photography, so she never would’ve anticipated that it would become my career. But what twelve-year-old me didn’t realize is that while, yes, there’s a component of photography that is about skill and practicing, a large portion of the art is simply learning how to pay attention. It’s the art of being present and noticing, and I’ve always been good at that. I’d notice my 8th grade crush’s favorite song and cologne, my best friend’s favorite flavor of Chex Mix, the way sunsets are somehow more spectacular over parking lots. All I did was pay attention.

But I grew up and I got distracted, caught up in on-screen comparison rather than youthful curiosity. In the last year, I’ve began desiring to return to the best parts of who I was when I was twelve: hopeful, curious, willing to try new things, always paying attention—and coincidentally never on a phone.

Previously, I’ve made excuses to keep my phone close like: “What if I miss out on a job because I didn’t see it right away?” But if immediacy is the appeal of my artistry, am I really valued for my art or just for convenience?

Really, what makes my art special is now I see things. And when I’m looking down at my phone all day, I’m only comparing, not creating, not noticing. I want margin in my life, I want breathing room. I want to start noticing again. I don’t want to greet a screen first thing in the morning. I want to greet my barista or my roommate (or her cats). Anything breathing. Something real. 

Because a tool of connection can just as easily become a conduit of isolation if I never look up.

And I want to keep looking up. I want to make eye contact with strangers across the room. I want to notice sunsets again. And more than anything, I want to create something beautiful, both through human connection and through art. I want to see what kind of art will come from my hands when I take them away from my tiny screen. I dreamed up a new photo project that involves documenting the people I know in the city I live in, all on film and paper, and if I dedicate the hours I spend on a screen into that art, over the course of the month, I think I can complete the project—and perhaps I’ll find more connection and part of my younger self, too.

Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour: Taylor-Gating in Denver /  by Liz Brown

This one was extra special; even from the parking lot, it was one of the best concerts of my life. I hope you can feel it, too.

xoxo Liz

P.S. If you see yourself and would like your photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com (specify which image is you!). If you’d like to hire me, please email me, too. Lastly, if you’d like to support a local artist, my venmo is @estorie. If everyone I photographed sent me even just a little, I could easily pay my bills for the next month! Thank you!

P.P.S. The other nights I’ve photographed can be found here:
Tampa, night 2
Tampa, night 3
Nashville, night 1
Nashville, night 1 (the bridge)
Detroit, night 1
Denver, night 1
Los Angeles, night 3
Los Angeles, night 4
Los Angeles, night 6
LA night 6 Taylorgating & 1989 announcement

Gracie & Muna

So make the friendship bracelets…

It’s been a long time coming…

“Say you’ll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe” I’ll never forget that feeling.

“Marjorie”

Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour: Fan Fashion, Denver night 2 /  by Liz Brown

welcome to the eras tour!

Denver was amazing: one of the longest and best days I’ve ever lived. Thank you so much for your patience as I edited and uploaded these hundreds of photos of your lovely faces and dresses. You are so creative and I wish I could do this every day, forever.

xoxo Liz

P.S. If you see yourself and would like your photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com (specify which image is you!). If you’d like to hire me, please email me, too. Lastly, if you’d like to support a local artist, my venmo is @estorie. If everyone I photographed sent me even just a little, I could easily pay my bills for the next month! Thank you!

P.P.S. The other nights I’ve photographed can be found here:
Tampa, night 2
Tampa, night 3
Nashville, night 1
Nashville, night 1 (the bridge)
Detroit, night 1
Denver, night 1
Los Angeles, night 3
Los Angeles, night 4
Los Angeles, night 6
LA night 6 Taylorgating & 1989 announcement

…ready for it?

debut

fearless

speak now

Red

1989

Reputation

lover

folklore & evermore

Midnights

Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour: Taylor-Gating & 1989 announcement Los Angeles night 6 /  by Liz Brown

I don’t know if I’ve ever been so tired as I was after this week. I walked over 50 miles and worked from about 2pm until 1am every day. But it was so worth it and I’ve never felt more like I’m meant to be somewhere or do something as I did during this summer, photographing Taylor Swift fans and their creativity and community. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I’d do this every weekend for the rest of my life and never get bored. Thank you to all the girlies who let me dance beside them and let me take a photo of them on their best days. ilysb <3

You know what song this is. <3

The security guard was singing and wanted to come over to trade bracelets, literally so cute.

1, 2, 3 LET’S GO BITCH on the outside barricade!!

during 22 <3

The cardigan being celebrated during “Cardigan.”

This dude was running across the front of the crowd and hyping everyone up and if there are going to be men in my life, this is the only energy I will accept from them.

The area with the largest crowd (where most of these photos were taken) had cool seating options and Taylor was super audible—however, we couldn’t see anything. A few folks had the livestreams pulled up on their phones and screams erupted every time she walked out in a new blue outfit. As I was walking around later, though, I found this iconic projector setup. You can’t tell me Swifties aren’t ingenious—this is my Superbowl.

1989 (Taylor’s Version) Announcement

the moment we knew <3