Brooklyn-based freelance photographer Eric Ryan Anderson photographed the US Air Guitar National Championships.

A few weeks ago, my fiance informed me that we were going to see the US Air Guitar Championships the following night.  I laughed nervously and hoped she might explain what on earth the air guitar championships might actually be, and why on earth we might be attending.  Well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what an air guitar championship is and after watching a few clips on Youtube, I was sure this was something I wanted to shoot.

It took a few minutes to get comfortable in a venue packed with apparent air guitar enthusiasts, and once I stepped backstage I knew we weren’t in for a normal night at Irving Plaza.  There were bear costumes, wedding dresses, light-up underpants and lace leggings.  Pregame treats consisted of anything from Cheetos to Jack Daniels, and Red Bull littered the room.  After chatting with a few contenders I quickly realized that this wasn’t just a weird crew of band castaways… it was a family of polite, engaging, relatively normal people (mostly from the South, for some reason).

Though the personalities weren’t as weathered as one might expect, the scene was still reminiscent of an old school, hair metal dressing room.  So I brought out the camera, cranked up the on-camera flash and decided to shoot these guys in a style that seemed to fit the occasion… simple, black and white rock-n-roll photography.  It turned out to be one of the most entertaining nights I’ve had in New York City… and I discovered a family culture I never knew existed.

Check out more photos on Eric’s blog.