Matsemela Zazu Moloi

Arc Two

02

Tour photography. Machine Gun Kelly and others.

2018–2023
A zebra-striped helicopter hangs over the arena with its searchlight on and ladder down while pink confetti storms over the crowd, Mainstream Sellout tour.
A zebra-striped helicopter hangs over the arena with its searchlight on and ladder down while pink confetti storms over the crowd, Mainstream Sellout tour.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2018, trading a biomedical engineering career for a creative one.

Machine Gun Kelly with guitar in front of columns of stage fire, Mainstream Sellout tour.
Machine Gun Kelly with guitar in front of columns of stage fire, Mainstream Sellout tour.

The break was a Polaroid. I barely made it to Machine Gun Kelly's Cleveland XXmas show in December 2019, got to the pit, and shot one frame. He posted it on his Instagram.

A fireball erupts center stage over the checkerboard floor, band flanking, Mainstream Sellout tour.
A fireball erupts center stage over the checkerboard floor, band flanking, Mainstream Sellout tour.

When he came through Arizona we connected, and after a weekend of partying into the New Year celebrating Ryan Sheckler, he told me to have my passport ready. By February 2020 I was in Dubai.

Shot from inside the crowd: Machine Gun Kelly on a raised platform under green light as flame pillars fire, phones and horns raised, Mainstream Sellout tour.
Shot from inside the crowd: Machine Gun Kelly on a raised platform under green light as flame pillars fire, phones and horns raised, Mainstream Sellout tour.

From there I shot the tail end of the Hotel Diablo tour, then Tickets to My Downfall, then Mainstream Sellout. Then fashion took the lens.

Head thrown back, a plume of red mist rising from his lips into the black, Mainstream Sellout tour.
Head thrown back, a plume of red mist rising from his lips into the black, Mainstream Sellout tour.