Lance Mercer
Music Photographer · Seattle
"I was involved in the punk scene in Seattle and realized early on that if I had a camera, I could probably get into shows and up closer easier. The same kind of ethic that the Ramones had musically, I could apply photographically."
Born and raised in Seattle, Lance Mercer began documenting the city's punk scene in his early teens — photographing his friends and their bands long before the world knew their names. At the visual vanguard of chronicling the Pacific Northwest's most important musical movement, Mercer brought an instinctive, compassionate humanity to his work: earning the trust of wary artists and capturing groundbreaking visionaries — a number of whom are tragically no longer with us — in devastatingly honest, unpretentious shots.
After graduating with a degree in commercial photography, Mercer became a full-time freelance photographer in 1991. His subjects ranged from basement punks to the bands that defined an era: Malfunkshun, Mother Love Bone, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. He was invited to tour with Pearl Jam from 1992 to 1995 as their official photographer — an unparalleled level of access that produced some of the most intimate and intoxicating images ever taken of one of the world's most private bands.
He has published two books: Place/Date (1997), a retrospective with fellow Seattle photographer Charles Peterson, and 5X1: Pearl Jam Through the Eye of Lance Mercer (2007). His work continues to be published and exhibited locally and internationally.