How Concert Photographers Keep Their Photo Passes

Concert photographers love their photo passes. Not only are photography credentials for live music hard won — but photo passes serve as prized keepsakes that nearly all music photographers collect as souvenirs beyond the images they make at concerts.

I'm sure that every single music photographer has been asked “what are you going to do with that?” by a fan pointing to their photo pass. While a fan would prize a pass from their favorite band or artist, just about every concert photographer I know collects their passes. Here are a few ways that music photographers collect and display their hard earned passes.

This post was inspired by a simple question put to me in this first Tweet:

From there, I asked how concert photographers organized their photo passes. Here's how you responded.

Sticking Around

I love this idea of just plastering your computer or road case with photo passes.

Keeping Photo Passes in Binders

Organizing photo passes in binders is a popular option as well. If you've been shooting for year, it's not only a great way to organize your passes, but it ends up as an extremely impressive way of cataloging the shows you've shot as well.

Keeping Photo Passes on Bulletin Boards

A lot of photographers keep their passes pin to bulletin boards as well, which creates a cool visual effect in showing a wall of passes.

Piles of Passes

I love this idea of including passes as home decor and lowkey displaying them in a container like this.

Hanging Around

A lot of photographers, particularly those shooting festivals or other concerts that give out credentials on lanyards, may have a glory wall like this with all of their credentials.

Passes on the Wall

Passes framed or otherwise mounted is another popular way music photographers showcase their passes. I love the idea that some people have photos of their families framed and on the wall, while music photographers have their favorite passes up.

Totally Unorganized

I would bet that a lot of music photographers simply keep them like this. As a music photographer since 2006, I've accumulated what must be hundreds and hundreds of sticky passes and laminates

Personally, I don't do anything fancy with mine, though after seeing all the great responses here, I feel like I'm slacking. For now, I honestly just have a box filled with all the credentials I've received since 2006. It's a bit of a mess, but going through it every once in a while brings back a lot of memories for me.

I know that for me, as a concert photographer, collecting photo passes is a way of looking back at all the shows I've covered and worked. While each artist might not be in my portfolio, it's special to be able to look back at all the all the shows like this, each represented by a credential — whether it's a photo pass, an AAA laminate, or just a flimsy paper wristband.