Great things come in small packages.  And, in the world of documentary photography, being small and stealth allows you to pounce on your subject and execute amazing photos.  Fortunately for photographer and guitarist Nick Zinner, he can fit into your luggage and play guitar faster than most metal bands. 

It’s a winning combination that’s helped Zinner, who studied photography at Bard College and later worked as a printer at New York’s Small Darkroom, publish three photo books with Evil Twin Publications and St. Martins Books.  Not to mention the two Grammy nominations he’s picked up with his band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. 

All this considered, it’s no wonder the unrivaled capabilities of Ricoh’s new GR digital camera caught Zinner’s well-trained eye.  psychoPEDIA recently sat down with Zinner to talk about everything from his new toy, to Tom Hanks: 

How did you get started in photography?
A girlfriend in high school was taking a class. 

And you liked her, so you wanted to like photography too?
She was ok. But she was shy like me, and I liked how she could take a photograph of an object or a scene, and own it. 

So you felt like it'd help you relate to the rest of the world?
Well, I didn’t really know how to relate to the rest of the world, especially as a kid, so it gave me a way to observe the world. 

Why do you think most photographers wear all black?
Black absorbs all colors, and allows us to skulk in the shadows. It also looks great, should we have our photos taken.  It sucks in the light like we do. 

You printed photos professionally for years while playing music until your band made it big. Did you just realize at one point that you could switch it up? Play music for a living and take photos for fun?
After my first year in NYC, I made a decision that I wasn’t going to try and be a working photographer: I was interested in working in a lot of formats, I didn’t go to Yale, and I couldn’t handle the competition. But I never stopped taking photos; I just didn’t show them to anyone. When my band started playing in other cities and countries, everything was new and fleeting, and it seemed like taking photos was a way to both document and try to understand all of it. 

Who has been your favorite photographer?
The first one who really changed the way I looked at the world was Henri Cartier-Bresson. 

And who's been your favorite musician?
Hmm, that's a hard one. I guess I'd have to say Nick Cave

Who would you rather be chillin in a bar with, talking to over a vodka cranberry?
I've met them both. I’d probably say I got more wisdom out of Cartier-Bresson in 5 minutes then I did from Nick Cave. The thing I’ll always remember from CB was sitting at a table with him and watching him look up at another guy at the table and say, "I just saw a beautiful photograph, but I don’t have my camera.” Very French.

 You've printed a couple photo books; the last was published by St. Martin's. Do you find it hard for people to take your photography seriously since most people know you as ‘being in a band?’
It has usually been 'guy in a band' first, photographs later. But it’s a fine line because most of the images in the St.Martin's book were based around music. I just tried to get rid of most of the clichés.
Everyone wants someone to be one thing, you know? 

Ok. Let's talk tech… what are your favorite cameras?
I used a Nikon f2 for the first 10 years or so that I was shooting, and I really liked that because you could drop it off a cliff, and it would be fine. Mine actually was dropped off a cliff, but now I've mostly been shooting with the Contax T3 and G2, and this little Ricoh digital. 

What’s up with the Ricoh?
I like it because; it’s black, great in low-light situations, and has an amazing setting that makes everything look like a litho print, or a punk flyer called ‘text mode.’ The text mode is great for design, and seeing the design in everything around you. I got it at Adorama in NY after seeing some friends with it in Tokyo. Sometimes it can get noisy in the shadows when you’re shooting low light, but if you’re using it on a low ASA setting, it’s really sharp -- there are tons of websites about it. 

Do you only use it for fun party photos?
Ricoh GR scores big from the bloggers, and being tiny doesn’t hurt. It's pretty fast, and generally sharp. I've heard of people using it on ad jobs too. Check this blog out.

What are your favorite subjects?
The ones I've found myself shooting the most have been the crowds that my band played to, every bed I've slept in for the past 8 years, and portraits. I got into crowds after seeing William Klein’s photos from New York in the 50s, and I was impressed at how many faces he crammed in the frame, then you look closer, and everyone’s face is saying something about their character. I wanted to do that, but also document the social grouping that gathers for a rock show: it’s different and unique every time. Beds are almost the opposite of a crowd, especially slept in ones. They’re absent of people and they kind of hold the spirit of the sleep, the essence of the person who slept there. 

You seem like you're into pretty dark stuff, but you take pics of all of these happy, smiling excited faces. Do you admire the bliss and excitability in the kids?
Yeah, there are so many levels to it... I like that one face in the crowd- the ones where everyone is going crazy with their mouths open aren’t as interesting as the ones where the kids are lost in the music and the event, or when they look pissed off. 

So you like the pissed-off outcast?
Fuck yeah! I relate more to that than the kid flashing the horns. 

You just finished a world tour.  Are you just chillin and working on photos now for another book?
I’d like to do another book and have some shows, but we might do more touring which means more photos. 

If you were stuck on a deserted island with another person, and you could only have one... would it be your guitar and a recorder, or your camera and a film processor?
It depends if the other person could make music or look crazy like Tom Hanks in that movie Castaway... I’d probably take the guitar because I could either make the other person stay forever or jump in to the sea.

~Aliya Naumoff

Get Yours:

Ricoh GR, $699.95, from Adorama, adorama.com

Zinner’s I Hope You’re All Happy Now, $14.56, at amazon.com

Hear It:

For more from Zinner and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, check out yeahyeahyeahs.com

Get their latest, Show Your Bones, $12.99, at amazon.com

Beds, Crowd, and B&W photos Courtesy of Nick Zinner