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Susan Moss, the queen of Montreal rock photographers who shot for prestigious publications such as Rolling Stone magazine, died on Sept. 4.Tim Snow/Supplied
Shortly after the indie rock band Pavement took the stage at Montreal’s Osheaga music festival in 2010, a full cup of beer arced through the sky in an impossible, slow-moving lob and hit singer-guitarist Stephen Malkmus squarely in the face. The crowd gasped. The band stopped playing. Mr. Malkmus paused, wiped his face, then deadpanned, “Was that Molson or Labatt’s?”
Somehow, the exact moment was captured on film. The photo was an instant classic. And the person who took it was Susan Moss.
Ms. Moss, queen of Montreal rock photographers, wild-haired master of gruff repartee, was a punk-souled, do-it-yourself workhorse and feisty, much-loved woman-about-town. Late on Sept. 4, news spread on social media that she had died at the age of 58. Few people had known that she was ill.
“Susan just knew how to put herself in the right spot,” said singer and guitarist Brad Barr of the Barr Brothers, who met her shortly after he moved to Montreal in 2005. “She was good at being invisible but then coming out with these amazing shots. She always represented a certain kind of Montreal cool to me – humble, unpretentious, never schmaltzy, always on the level.”
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Captured on film, Ms. Moss’s photo of the band Pavement at Osheaga in 2010 became an instant classic.Susan Moss/Supplied
Diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer only a month earlier, the affable, no-nonsense fixture of Montreal’s cultural scene was independent to the end, opting for medical assistance in dying (MAID). She was initially told she had three months to live but the disease progressed faster than expected, to which she responded with characteristic grit. She died at home surrounded by family.
“When she found out she only had two weeks left, she just said ‘WHAAT?! I need more time!!’ It was a classic Susan reaction,” said her brother David Moss, who was Susan’s primary caregiver in her final month. “But she was lucid, she was serene, she was funny. She always said what was on her mind and not always nicely, but she had a heart of gold. That was the dichotomy of her character.
“Until the end, she was seeing people, gifting them things as they came to visit, old cameras and whatnot,” he continued. “She gave people different aspects of her life. She was saying goodbye, and she wanted to do as much of that in person as possible. She really cherished that.”
Talented and driven, Ms. Moss was also sassy, pugnacious, and rebellious – utterly herself. She had an acerbic wit and a gravelly exterior, like a character out of a Mordecai Richler novel, but was always warm and approachable, and famously helpful to the city’s younger music photographers. This, as much as her impressive legacy of photographs, was the essence of much of the commentary on social media in the days after her death.
“Whenever I did a show, I’d get offstage to go for a smoke and Susan would be there first,” singer-songwriter Patrick Watson said. “Our friendship grew from there. You do music in a city and you work with all these lovely people and you feel like you’re all doing it together. Sometimes people are just part of the spirit of something, y’know?
“She would always make fun of me, because when I started I was just this jackass who played piano, and she thought it was hilarious that I ended up having a career,” he laughed. “A music scene can only happen when all these different parts come together, and she was part of the magic. She was grumpy and gritty, but in a good way. It’s a huge loss for everybody.”
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Musician Patrick Watson says Ms. Moss’s death is ‘a huge loss for everybody.’Pierre Bourgault/Supplied
Born in Montreal on May 29, 1968 and raised in Côte Saint-Luc, Susan Beth Moss was as local as local can be. She spent her life in and around the city.
Her parents divorced when she was 1, but both filled their homes with folk and classic rock – everything from Bob Dylan to the Beach Boys and Gordon Lightfoot – instilling in her a lifelong love of music. Though she was a punk at heart, David Bowie and Prince were favourites.
Her childhood was loving but not always easy, according to her brother. Like their mother, she was strong-headed, stubborn and resilient. They were two peas in a pod, Mr. Moss said, two sides of the same coin.
“She was born into conflict,” he added, referring to the turbulence of his parents’ divorce. “School didn’t resonate with her. My mother took Susan to a psychologist when she was 5, and he said ‘Don’t give this kid paper with lines to colour in, give her blank pages. She needs to swim and be free.’”
In the 1980s, she gravitated toward the city’s postpunk and new wave countercultures, and became part of a tight-knit group of artists and musicians on the city’s lower Saint-Laurent Boulevard strip. She was known to anyone who spent time in dive bars such as Station 10 and Le Bifteck, where she tended bar for 19 years.
In the 1990s, she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Melissa Auf der Maur before her Hole and Smashing Pumpkins days, and at Le Bifteck drank and hung out with everyone from Dave Grohl and members of R.E.M. and the Breeders, to local acts such as the Dears, the Doughboys, Men Without Hats and the Wainwright siblings.
“Susan was on a mission to find herself,” Mr. Moss continued. “She was tough. We know how hard she fought to create herself and be so good at what she did – all the trials and tribulations, the blood, sweat and tears. But still she treated everyone the same way, and everyone loved her for the same reasons. She was completely authentic.”
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Iggy Pop at Osheaga in 2008. Three years later, Ms. Moss had her first exhibition of Osheaga concert photos.Susan Moss/Supplied
After taking a photography course at Dawson College, she began documenting an impressive number of concerts. She continued until her diagnosis, shooting her final show, the British rock band Bloc Party, on July 16 at the Corona Theatre. She was instantly recognizable to multiple generations of Montrealers, who saw her crouching in front of stages big and small year after year.
Her work ethic and growing reputation led to a job as the in-house photographer for Montreal concert promoter Evenko starting in the mid-2000s; and in 2008 she released Roller Girls, a book documenting the Montreal Roller Derby League. She had her first exhibition of Osheaga concert photos in 2011.
In 2015, she got a call that made her realize just how far she had come: Rolling Stone magazine contacted her to shoot the Rolling Stones at the Festival d’été in Quebec City.
“The art director from Rolling Stone had messaged colleagues at other music magazines like Spin and NME, asking if they know a photographer in the vicinity,” Mr. Moss recalled, “and they all said ‘Susan Moss.’ Needless to say, this was a major milestone for Susan and the family. She had broken into the big leagues.”
“Everyone has the same image, I think, of Susan, with her cameras slung over her, and just being this quiet force,” said Evelyne Côté, senior director of booking at Evenko. “She just did her thing. The way she carried herself was impressive. I always admired her.”
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Nick Cave at Osheaga in 2014. Ms. Moss leaves an archive of nearly 200,000 photos, which has been donated to ARCMTL.Supplied
A dedicated vegetarian, she liked to say she was just a nice Jewish girl from Côte Saint-Luc, but because of her lifestyle, “she made me look like a rabbi,” her brother said.
Through it all, she never lost her impish grin, capacity for in-your-face banter and down-to-earth vibe. “I lived such a fun life,” she told The Montreal Gazette a few days before her death. “My life and job surpassed my dreams. Not many people can say that.”
Ms. Moss leaves an archive of nearly 200,000 photos, which has been donated to ARCMTL, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of Montreal’s cultural heritage.
Her final moments, accompanied by the music of her old friend Mr. Watson, were “singular and super beautiful,” Mr. Moss said. “We whispered goodbye in her ear, and then at the last moment, she opened her eyes, smiled at us and gave us all the finger. It was like a movie. It’s this crazy combination of respect, sadness and beauty … She went out on her own terms.”
Ms. Moss leaves her mother, Rhona Brenner; father, Fred Moss; brother, David Moss; half-sister, Tamara Moss; and three nephews.
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