MUDVAYNE — THROUGH THE YEARS
MUDVAYNE through the lens of Jason Crews — a growing archive centered on the band’s theatrical return to Dallas and the visual intensity of CHAD GRAY.
A DIFFERENT SIDE OF AN ARTIST I ALREADY KNEW
By the time MUDVAYNE came through Dallas in 2023, CHAD GRAY was not a new subject for me.
I had photographed him years earlier with HELLYEAH. What was new was everything surrounding him.
MUDVAYNE brought a completely different visual language to the stage: theatrical makeup, altered silhouettes, larger production and a performance that looked like it had been designed to live somewhere between music and character.
THE PSYCHOTHERAPY SESSIONS TOUR — DALLAS, 2023
Dos Equis Pavilion gave me the first fully restored MUDVAYNE chapter in this archive. The size of the stage changed the way I had to work. There was more room, more production and more visual information competing for the frame.
The goal was still the same: strip all of that down to the instant that mattered.
CHAD GRAY — FAMILIAR AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
The most interesting part for me was photographing someone familiar inside a completely different visual identity.
The eyes, makeup, microphone hardware and costume immediately separate the MUDVAYNE photographs from the HELLYEAH archive. But the physicality of Chad’s performance connects them. The intensity is the through-line.
WHY THE DETAILS MATTER
With a theatrical artist, the temptation is to photograph the costume instead of the person.
I try to do the opposite. The makeup and wardrobe create the visual world, but the photograph still needs an expression, a gesture or a piece of human behavior underneath it. Otherwise it is only documentation.
A GROWING MUDVAYNE ARCHIVE
This Through the Years story currently centers on the MUDVAYNE performance I have fully restored and connected to the new Jason Crews Photography archive. As older work is recovered and future shows come through my lens, this page is designed to grow with it.
That is the point of the archive: never pretend the story is finished just because one chapter is complete.
WHAT COMES NEXT
MUDVAYNE is high on the list of artists I want back in front of my camera.
The first restored chapter is here. The next one is waiting to happen.
MUDVAYNE
Explore the complete artist profile, journey timeline, featured photography and Infrared Magazine coverage.
