MY FAVORITE MOMENT OF OUR DEAD CENTURY

NYC photographer and gig staple Jackie Roman started shooting shows in a city recovering from the long shadow of 9/11, decades before Manhattan was blanketed by 7-Elevens. Roman cut her teeth, as most her age did, hovering around the post-hardcore/pop-punk scenes of the late ’90s/early ’00s, obsessed with Thursday, My Chemical Romance, and friends Easy Way Out while growing up in Hamilton, N.J., as an Army brat. Photography was an early love, and she’d document as many shows as she could, taking pride in capturing that single moment when a subject opened up either backstage or during a performance.

A child of the Williamsburg music scene of the early ’00s, Roman witnessed NYC during indie rock’s last creative peak—in all its American Apparel-heavy glory, proud of its asymmetrical haircuts and worshipping at the altar of bands like Jonathan Fire*Eater, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, and others who took center stage in the now-classic book Meet Me in the Bathroom. Her work is characterized by her loving eye and passion for her subjects, documented with a world-curious, wide-eyed sense of wonder.