Nick Zinner is not a photographer on the side. After four books featuring his shots, the latest being the October-published “Please Take Me Off the Guest List,” the Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist’s time behind the lens isn’t simply something to do in-between recording and touring.
“We all think it’s very important to constantly be working in many different fields and collaborating with other people,” says Zinner of the YYY agenda. “I really wanted these photos to be not about Yeah Yeah Yeahs as much. Obviously, I can’t escape it; it’s what I do. But I had a collection of images I liked that weren’t specific to being in a band.”
Zinner, who was raised in Sharon, Mass., took to photography while in high school in Cambridge. “It was something that instantly made sense to me as a teenager. It was like my way of relating to the world and being able to savor moments that I knew were fleeting.”
The series is an equal collaboration with longtime friends, writer Zachary Lipez and editor/designer Stacy Wakefield, who magically entwines the text and photos. “We went to the same loft parties and clubs,” Zinner reminisces. “The friends that create together stay together.”
Boston Book Festival: A Literary Rock Star Showcase
With Nick Zinner, Kristin Hirsch, Nick Flynn, Dean Wareham and more
Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
John Hancock Hall
180 Berkeley St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Copley
$10 donation,
www.bostonbookfest.org
