New Orleans-based fine art music photographer Erika Molleck Goldring has developed her own unique style of performance portraiture. Her character-driven portfolio features such celebrated acts as Beyoncé, Fats Domino, B.B. King and Willie Nelson, as well as breaking new acts in genres as divergent as jam, jazz, blues, reggae, blue grass and alt-country.

Erika captures the energy in a live show—whether it’s the split second a beautiful stage light falls on her subject or the raw emotion emanating from the performer lost in the groove.  Simplicity and balance prevail in Erika’s images.  By eliminating all suggestion of environment, her work speaks of the sounds, vibrations and rhythmic idiosyncrasies distinct to each performer.

But for Erika the show doesn’t stop there.  Her technical talents are equally impressive in the darkroom.  All of her B/W images are purposefully printed on Bergger paper, a fiber-based gelatin silver paper of exceptional quality, and are toned for an archival finish.  Erika’s color images are printed using pigment inks on Hahnemuhle paper, a museum quality 100% cotton rag photo paper.

Erika has studied at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Art under the tutelage of critically acclaimed photographers Victoria Ryan and Richard Sexton.  Her work is featured in a number of music publications and newspapers, including Rolling Stone, Mojo, DownBeat, and OffBeat, as well as the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, and Times-Picayune newspapers.  Additionally, she is the house photographer at the legendary Tipitina’s and UNO Lakefront Arena.  Most recently, Erika has had works accepted into the Smithsonian’s Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.