Celebrating Ed Ackerson
When I was in college in Duluth and my musical soul mate (and eventual Live Letters partner), Steve, was in school in North Dakota we spent countless sleepless nights driving to Minneapolis after a long day of classes to meet up at a show only to turn around and drive all the way back to our colleges to make it to our classes in the morning.
Those first shows were my introduction to the Minneapolis music scene and they had Ed’s imprint all over them. Whether he was fronting the bands, standing in for the night or was the mastermind behind the scenes.
Those shows were so pivotal for me that I moved to Minneapolis and then spent the next decade of my life jumping from venue to venue, photographing shows and building this photography career that has been my entire life for the last 20 years.
Along the way I was lucky enough to meet Ashley and then when they brought little Annika into the world it was the sweetest honor for me to be able to photograph their transition into being parents and to watch as they fell head over heels in love with that little girl.
During those photo shoots there were always little moments where I jumped out of my current photographer brain and into my 19-year-old music head brain where I, very uncool, let myself have a mini freak out that I was standing in Flowers again (admittedly, on multiple occasions I snapped quick photos to send to Steve of the board or masters sitting in the corner or the row of epic guitars) and then I got to pop back into real time and have great conversations about how proud Ed was that Annika was starting to really understand rhythm or that she was intentionally playing melodies on her xylophone instead of just slamming the mallet onto the bars.
Ed’s thoughtfulness and the way he lived his life full of intention is part of what made this diagnosis seem so unfair and why it seems unfathomable now that he’s gone.
Sometimes it’s easy for me to get caught up in the details of creating images and running a business that I can momentarily lose sight of that initial drive that brought me to photography in the first place. Getting to witness Ed’s drive to make art until the end and the unwavering way he was so intentional about it is the biggest gift of a lesson that I could have ever asked for and it’s extra poignant that it was delivered by someone who’s shows I documented for years just for the pure love of photography and music.
Having this image on this cover documenting this exact moment in time for Ed + Ashley + Annika is truly an honor for me and I’m so grateful to have witnessed, and photographed, so many beautiful moments with all of them.
Links + More:
Celebration of Life: On Saturday, February 15th there’s a celebration of life at First Avenue to honor Ed.
GoFundMe: Friends have setup a campaign for Ashley + Annika to ease some of the financial burden so they can just focus on healing.
Capricorn One: Ed’s final album, which is being released at the Celebration of Life.
City Pages Article: The full cover story, celebrating the life of Ed Ackerson, by Erik Thompson.
