"Splitting his time between photographic subjects with equal vibrancy, Jamie Wdziekonski can usually be found photographing bands, or protest rallies. Feeling a connection to the two for their “strength in community and collaboration,” Jamie finds that, when embedded amongst these groups, “it’s like it is said, we’re stronger united than we are divided.”

Following a long winding career and consistent fascination with photography – as a kid Jamie often thought “people lived in black and white back in the old days” – a teacher praised his knack with a camera all the way back as a teen – it’s surprising to hear that his very first foot in the door was at a production agency, mainly working in advertising. “That job taught me heaps,” Jamie recalls now, “but it also taught me that I didn’t want to shoot for the advertising industry.” Later moving onto photographing at fashion labels “when fashion blogs were still big”, he soon realised that, “dealing with agents and large crews wasn’t something I was into.”This realisation, coupled with the beginnings of his experimentation with psychedelics, he began to change his outlook, and in turn, what he wanted to shoot.

“It’s a real personal process and it’s tough to try and break it down into a paragraph or two,” Jamie elaborates, “but the experiences I had on psychedelics changed my attitude and outlooks in a lot of positive ways.” One of these positives was an eye opening experience listening to a certain slice of music, namely rock and psych bands like The Black Angels, The 13th Floor Elevators, and Brain Jonestown Massacre.Naturally pairing his love of photography with an eye-opening music experience, Jamie headed out to his first gig with a camera in 2013 to see The Murlochs play in Melbourne. Sending through the results to Ambrose, the lead in the band – as well as part of the cohort of Australian musicians that is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – the decision turned out to be a formative experience: “I’ve been doing this pretty much ever since.”