Seattle Native Zoe Rain to Photograph Macklemore & Ryan Lewis 2016 Tour

Five years ago Zoe Rain was failing her high school photography class. 

A self-described troubled kid, Rain took the class only to get an art credit at Roosevelt High and continued to shuffle through her curriculum, despite loving to shoot “insects and flowers and silly kids’ stuff” when she was younger. Her high school teacher introduced the then 17-year-old Rain to professional photographer Jason Koenig, who was volunteering at the school. That meeting changed her life. 

Koenig is friends with Ben Haggerty (a.k.a. Macklemore) and shot the star’s hits “Can’t Hold Us,” “Arrows” and “Downtown,” the video which recently won an MTV award for the group. Koenig took Rain to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ first live gig as a duo–the release show for their first EP together–at Fremont’s Nectar Lounge, where she shot that show and hung out behind the scenes.

“I remember listening to that record in the car ride home and being instantly in love with it,” Rain says. “But I had no idea what it would turn into.” 

What it turned into was traveling with them for the 2013 international tour and, eventually shooting their 2014 Grammy performance.

“2013 with them was the best year of my life,” she says. “There is no better feeling than doing exactly what you love, doing it well, and doing it all over the world.”

When M&RL were slated to play the 2014 Grammys, Rain took it as another golden opportunity. “I contacted Rolling Stone’s photo editor,” she says, “and pitched myself shooting them. Rolling Stone had done stories previously along the format of ‘road to the Grammys’.”

By building up bonds of trust with the rap duo early on, she says, they were more than welcoming. “They [went] out of their way to give me opportunities, such as letting me shoot the press image that was used to promote the Grammys on billboards, buses, in The New York Times,” she says. “Although I worked hard for it and took what I thought was a rad image, [these are opportunities are] impossible to come by, even if you are an incredibly talented shooter.”

In 2014, M&RL won four Grammy awards, including Best New Artist and Best Rap Album, and Rain was right there to shoot the experience, though it almost never came to fruition. “I snuck in with Ben’s help,” she says. “I didn’t have a pass. I was walking in with them and Macklemore said, ‘Hey I’m really late for sound check’–he was a performer so they had to let us go.” The pictures she took there were featured in magazines and on billboards across the country and since then, her work has been on the cover of Billboard Magazine, The Seattle Times and Rolling Stone.

Next year, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis will be venturing out on another national tour: An Evening with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Rain has signed on again to document the tour.

“I am so honored and blessed to continue this journey with the Macklemore camp, and travel with them for the next six months,” she says. “Having this year off to grow as a person and an artist has really matured me, so I think this tour will be a whole new learning experience. This is going to be the longest amount of time I have ever worked continuously away from home, so it is going to be a challenge. But the type of challenge that changes you for the better.” 

Donning dark-rimmed glasses and casual attire, Rain sips her coffee in the Ravenna cafe where we met to chat and muses on the difficulty of being a professional photographer. Despite her successes, the hustle to break into–and stay in–the scene is nortiously hard. She recently took up a residence in Chicago to up the ante, splitting her time between here and the Windy City. “I needed a change,” she says, “to push myself in a city where no one knew me.”

Rain explains that other nationally known bands (and their managers) are dubious of people they don’t know shooting events. She references Beyoncé, who has forbidden photographers from shooting in the pit beneath her events because of all the unflattering shots that have been released.

“Managers are protective of their artists. Getting backstage for shows is not really a thing unless you get in with a band early on. [Grammy winner] Sam Smith–he and I were emailing back and forth–and he got me a pass to a show but I still had managers booting me out after the third song. There’s a lot of mistrust.” 

Despite the difficulties, she notes that photography has shaped her life and given her plenty of opportunities. “I’m a lot more confident than I would be without it. I’m a hard worker and manage my time well. I’m not a big partier and I enjoy editing more than I enjoy other stuff. I have a vision.” 

To see more of Rain’s photography, including shots of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (like the one above), click here. She’ll also be blogging from the road in 2016, which you can check out here.