"I was that new wave kid who spent all her time in the darkroom. My parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses, so I was already the outcast ‘cuz I couldn’t do anything after school with anyone. Extracurricular activities were against the religion, so
"I was that new wave kid who spent all her time in the darkroom. My parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses, so I was already the outcast ‘cuz I couldn’t do anything after school with anyone. Extracurricular activities were against the religion, so photography became the only thing I could legally do," says Ami Sioux, the American photographer and musician with an ultimate rock moniker. "I became the darkroom monitor for most of my high school experience, built a darkroom in my bathroom at home and basically hung out between the two until I left home at 16."
"Photography was everything to me. I left my family and their religion to seek an education as a photographer. This choice has been the force behind everything I have done."
"I grew up listening to The Cure, Japan, Warsaw and The Creatures along with a lot of punk, like Suicidal Tendencies and Black Flag. Music was the thing that pushed me along towards my own freedom"
Music was Sioux's primary influence: "I grew up listening to The Cure, Japan, Warsaw and The Creatures along with a lot of punk, like Suicidal Tendencies and Black Flag. Music was the thing that pushed me along towards my own freedom."
Growing up in California, it was a move to the East Coast that accelerated further her journey. "I lived in the Lower East Side, in the days of 'Lower East Side Royalty'. Ludlow Street was a dive still and Downtown was rough, you still had to prove yourself a lot. I hung out with the cats from AsFour and A.R.E Weapons and worked tons of different jobs and learned a lot. In America, in the mid 90s, if you wanted to become or do anything you went to NY. There was a zeitgeist there and I wanted to be a part of it."
"I remember dancing in the street to a boombox under the rain in Chinatown just when the sun was coming up one amazing night. And that’s still one of my most pristine memories," she recalls. "New York formed me, made me tough, made me fight for everything I ever believed in. It wasn’t easy, there wasn’t the internet as it is now to be able to reference everything, and people weren’t focused on being famous or self-promoting. Everyone was doing something incredible and you were challenged to stand up and show something that had value. People were strong, it was really important and a great time to be in NY – the early 90s were a formidable era for me as well as a lot of other people."
Days after 9/11, Sioux became a volunteer at Ground Zero. She then moved to Paris and then onto Berlin – "an important period" – before settling in the French capital. "My manifesto setting out to be a photographer was to never be put into a position, move up because I dated someone," she tells frankly. "I wanted to become a photographer in my own right – I grew up with a DIY culture, which has informed everything I stand for. It has been harder this way, but that means a lot to me. I’ve always tried to do work that I could stand behind myself. I aim to show my subject unobjectified, capture and present them strong….to show women sexy and empowered and to become a woman myself that emplifies these qualities. I think sometimes the reason I stay in Paris is because I have a lot of respect for French women – they're very tough!"
Sioux has photographed everyone from Marianne Faithfull to Alejandro Jodorowsky. Recently she has been focusing more and more on personal work. "I will hopefully soon do a show and be able to print my images large. I see them like paintings," she muses.
In 2006 Ami began performing as a musician, "just after I released my first handmade album. Being on stage is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It’s definitely helped me see the pressure that is put upon people in the spotlight and respect their energy and show them better. I was always the nerdy photographer – my friends were the ones who were musicians, with the light on them."
Her heartfelt music and photography share equality. "They are two forces that have formed me entirely," Sioux tells. She plays guitar – sometimes an electric Silvertone, sometimes an Aria Dreadnought acoustic – and sings, performing all over Paris: at friends’ flats, at jazz bars, in galleries, at La Féline, at Agnès B, at Colette.
She will release a new EP on December 15 and play again that night at Colette, fitting in a handful of gigs before xmas. "In the future I want to work with other musicians and definitely shoot more books," she pinpoints. "As well as continue travelling. I'm happiest when I’m on the road... it makes me more courageous. I'll always be searching for the next place where the zeitgeist is."
