Interview: Photographer Jenny Anderson and Her Backstage Pass to Broadway

For nearly two decades, photographer Jenny Anderson has captured the electric energy and quiet intimacy of Broadway—though not in the way audiences are used to seeing it. With her new book, The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars, Anderson opens the door to the spaces where magic is made but rarely witnessed: backstage, behind the scenes, and in those fleeting moments before and after the spotlight. A deeply personal project, The In-Between is the culmination of 18 years of work—shot entirely in black and white—featuring raw, reflective portraits of the artists who bring theater to life.

Raised in a home steeped in art, music, and performance, Anderson brings a documentarian’s eye and a storyteller’s soul to her work. She’s built a career not just on skill, but on connection—earning the trust of performers amid high-octane environments. We spoke with Anderson about the origins of her book, the women who paved the way for her, and why documenting Broadway is her life’s passion.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Tell me about your book.
It’s called The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars. In-Between has a couple of meanings for me. We’re in-between the moments you see on stage, moments that no one ever gets to see. The other in-between is in between me and that person. Most of the time, we’re in an intimate space. Sometimes there are dressers and crew around, but a lot of the time, it’s just me and the performer in a quiet retrospective moment. This is the past 18 years of my career, all backstage or behind-the-scenes, in black and white. The photos are taking you somewhere that you never get to go, and there may even be shows that you didn’t get to experience at all. You’re getting a small glimpse into the world.

Did you grow up in an artistic household?
Oh, yeah. I’m very steeped in the arts. My mom’s a theater teacher and a performer, and my dad is an artist and an art teacher, and he’s also a bluegrass musician. I would do the theater thing with my mom. I auditioned and performed as much as I could, but I wasn’t very good, and I didn’t have the confidence. My favorite part was the community and people and running around backstage.

How did you get into photography?
At a young age, my dad gave me books by female photographers from the Depression era, like Margaret Burke White and Dorothea Lange. I would start taking photos of the life that I was living. I took photos of my granddad on the tractor and my mimi in the garden, and my dad sitting on the porch with his guitar, and my little brothers growing up. I was the documentarian of our family.

When I got to college, I realized I could marry these two worlds, documenting the theater space. I looked to other photographers who were doing the same thing, like Martha Swope and Joan Marcus.

Did you gravitate towards female photographers?
For sure. I also just have had very strong female relationships in my life. My mother and grandmother and I were the only women in our family, because I have two brothers. I’m always trying to follow the steps of the women before me. It’s more purposeful now. All I want to do is support women and make sure other female photographers are seen. When I got here, I was one of the very few female photographers on a red carpet.

Are you now a mentor to other young female photographers?
I certainly try to be. I have a hard time saying I’m a mentor because I still feel like I’m 25, but I turned 40 last summer, and I’ve been in the city doing this for 18 years.

I’ve only really had female assistants. I’ve had a lot of female photographers reach out to me and just want to get a coffee. I let a lot of them come on set just to be there. There’s a photographer named Isla, and when I first met her on a red carpet, she’s this little peanut in a purple suit and I was like “Who are you?” She’s just emailing and DMing press agents asking if she can be on the carpet. She’s become a little mentee of mine, and I see her when she’s in the city.

How did you develop the access and trust you have? Did it just come with years of experience and relationship building?
It’s a couple of things. I’m lucky that my first job was at an established website, so I could get access and have a platform for it. But even post-leaving there, I feel like I’m good. I try not to say it anymore because people get mad at me, but I never really thought I was a good technical photographer. I am good at being personable and connecting with a person, but the photography part is second. I’m self-taught. The only photography class I took in college was photojournalism. So those first six years at Broadway.com were pivotal in laying the foundations of friendship. Also, I was like 22 or 23, and so were a lot of the subjects that I’m now close with, people like Caissie Levy and Ashley Park and Ariana DeBose and Jonathan Groff. We all grew up in this industry.

Who are your own mentors? Who do you look up to?
I worked with Kathy Henderson at Broadway.com, and she was like a southern mother to me. She’s from Alabama, I’m from Mississippi, and I gravitated towards her in that I needed the connection to home. She was a big part of my early days, for sure.

I’ve looked up to Joan Marcus since college, maybe even high school, and when I first met her, I was like “Oh, my gosh, you’re a real person. You’ve been a name underneath a photograph for so long.” I was on one of her sets shooting behind the scenes and she introduced herself and said “I’m a big fan of your work,” and I was blown over by that. I was like “What are you talking about?” That was a pivotal moment for me.

In college, had this mentor ­— I still do — Ellen Meacham. She’s in journalism and she’s a brilliant human to be around. She’s the reason I got a photo exhibition, and that exhibition is what got me to this book.

Ellen Meacham and Gavin Creel were the people in my ears constantly telling me to do a book. I’m proud that she gets to see it, and I’m sad that he doesn’t. But I did get to tell him. He was one of the first people that I texted, and he sent me back “I couldn’t be prouder of you. I always knew this since the beginning.”