Candid Camera

Just because you own a camera and take pictures of your buddies when you’re drunk doesn’t mean you’re a great photographer. It’s actually very difficult to take a photo that’s interesting to anyone beyond the other drunk people in the photograph but Sanna Charles has this rare talent. She got into photography when she was really young, mainly because she was excruciatingly shy and introverted and would have done anything to avoid speaking. Her photos of the people she meets at festivals and concerts are strangely beautiful and capture the spirit of the moment perfectly.

ice: What do you like to take pictures of most? Sanna: I like taking pictures of people mainly. Animals, woods, lakes and rivers are really great also. You have taken lots of pictures of Slayer fans and Slayer crowds. Why? The Slayer stuff came about when I saw them at a place called Donnington. I distinctly remember the crowd before the band came on. It was a ridiculously hot day and for some reason they’d moved the show from the main stage to a smaller stage, which happened to be in a tent. Donnington is just dust—there’s dust everywhere—and everyone was covered in it. They were also full of booze so it looked like a kind of war zone, complete with all these staggering kids with glazed eyes and heat stroke. The band came on late which meant that all these fans had been squeezed into the tent for hours. I was lucky because I was backstage taking photos so started passing out water to the dehydrated kids. It looked like a cage-full of wet, helpless kittens. When the band finally came on, the whole place erupted and everyone seemed to forget that they were about to die five minutes before. I know this probably happens with loads of bands but it just seemed different with Slayer. There were a lot of men loving other men, but not in a gay way. It was very primal. Did you follow the band around?  I followed them around the UK and then to Finland and finally Norway. Do you think Slayer have many more shows left in them? I saw them play earlier this year and they were amazing—stripped down thrash with good punk ethics. I look at bands that are huge like My Chemical Romance and Fallout Boy and I’m just confused. With Slayer, image isn’t an issue. It’s all about the music and that’s why they can still play packed houses and probably will for a few more years. Plus, Tom Araya has an amazing beard now that makes you want to grow old and feral and live in the woods with him and a pet elk. Everyone should see them play at least once. What is it about their fans that make them so good to photograph? Most Slayer fans aren’t very self-aware. That was something I really liked about it. What do you use to shoot on? I have a Mamiya 7II, which is a medium format range finder camera. I’ve had it for about eight years and it’s still the best camera I’ve used. I also use a little Olympus Muji. If you could photograph anyone in the world, who would it be? I would have loved to photograph the actor Oliver Read but he’s dead now so I guess it’d be Tom Araya. BRENDA WALSH
Vice and Insight present Sanna Charles’ exhibition, Slayer Rules, in Melbourne at Don’t Come gallery from 2nd to 23rd June and in Sydney at China Heights on the 14th and 15th July.