Today I met Jaqueline de Jong, she is a Dutch artist and was the editor of ‘The Situationist Times’ 1962-67. The Situationists were a huge influence on the likes of Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Ried and according to the ‘Professor of Punk’ Vivien Goldman the whole Sex Pistols phenomenon was a ‘Situationist’ prank.
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May 15th, 2012
RIP Adam Yauch aka MCA, one of the founders of the Beastie Boys. The group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just two weeks ago.
I shot this photo of the Beastie Boys for Rolling Stone in 1985 – they arrived with their producer Rick Rubin who had signed them to his label Def Jam. Their songs like “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)” and “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” changed the world of hip hop.
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May 4th, 2012
Ricky Powell invited me to photograph him in his natural habitat in the West Village – I call him the ‘Lenny Bruce of hip hop’ The legendary photographer and ‘Professor of the Rickford Institute’ is an original- born in New York City 50 years ago, he lives the life. His apartment is crazy, stuff spilling off the shelves, sports memorabilia, jazz records, old magazines, well thumbed books, graffiti on the walls, an empty wine bottle covered in photos from Ron Galella, girlie pics, empty champagne bottles, beer bottles, sneakers, photos and film canisters.
Ricky interviewed me last year for Frank Magazine – we were sitting on a park bench in Washington Square Park, that he called ‘his office’ one afternoon, He seemed to know everyone in the park ‘Oh Shit there goes ..’ jumps up and takes their photo with his trusty Minolta AF2 Hi-Matic camera, stops to yell “Shut up!” at some loud teenage girls and comes back to the bench to ask me some more crucial questions. He said he wanted to ‘peep my shit’ which he did in Frank 151 Chapter 43.
Legend has it that he ditched a job selling Frozade ices to go on the ‘Raising Hell’ tour with the Beastie Boys and Run DMC, he acted like a ‘rascal’ and was immortalized in rhyme with the line, “Homeboy, throw in the towel/Your girl got dicked by Ricky Powell.”
Ricky is the man ! and a pretty good photographer too.
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May 4th, 2012
I am teaching a workshop on Youth Culture, documentary and street photography at the International Center of Photography in NYC this July. Everyone is welcome – film and digital
I’ve been documenting street style and youth culture ever since I first spotted the ‘Islington Twins’ in the school yard of the college I was teaching at in London back in 1977. My blog is the Archive of Attitude and to my mind street style and youth culture express just that – it is about the style and attitude (see my photo of ‘Mod Girl London 1976’ above)
Youth culture and street styles are important in the history of photography – photographer’s have been documenting them since August Sander first took photos of the working population in Germany in the late 19th Century, Danny Lyon shot bikers in America in the 1960’s and Jamel Shabazz shot the hip hop kids he saw on the street in New York in the 1980’s. Today photographers like Bill Cunningham at the NY Times and the Satorialist document current fashion on the street.
These days when every face on magazine covers looks ‘perfect’ – not a hair out of place, not a wrinkle – it is even more important to document and appreciate the amazing people we see everyday on the streets.
I shot this photograph of Run DMC and posse on the street where they lived in Queens in 1984.
Occupy Wall Street demonstration 2011
Claude Serieux in Paris 2012.
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April 21st, 2012
The new ‘Jocks and Nerds’ magazine is out in London. One of the portraits I shot for this issue is Chris Horsfield. We decided to do a mug shot – he has a strong look and it works.
The mug shot was invented by Allan Pinkerton of the ‘Pinkerton National Detective Agency’ fame in the 19th century. They used them on on ‘Wanted’ posters in the Wild West. By the 1870s Pinkerton had amassed the largest collection of mug shots in the United States.
Chris Horsfield : “A Rocker since 13, I saw my first Teddy boy in Southend-on-Sea- I was hooked. Had my first first Drape at 14, black with red velvet. Always bought my George Cox ( the only real ) creepers from Victoria Shoes, Southend-on-Sea …. ”
He studied fashion at the Royal College of Art, his college cat-walk show was a Blade Runner inspired collection, he made 3 outfits for Rat Scabies, and has worked for everyone: Ecko, Gas Jeans Northpeak to present day Schott. His fashion icons were always, and remain, Anthony Price, Thierry Mugler, Kid Creole, Hank Williams and Zodiac Mindwarp !
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April 20th, 2012
Photographing classical musicians is just as challenging as photographing any other genre of musicians.
For instance, I went to shoot So Percussion at their studio in Brooklyn. The place was literally packed from floor to ceiling with things to make noise with as well as slide projectors, computers, paintings by friends, balloons, wires everywhere snaking around my feet. A truly amazing place but difficult to light and move around in. Then they played me their new composition – so brilliant it brought tears to my eyes. And I had to shoot them as they rehearsed – a very intense day. That is my third or maybe fourth photo shoot for them and each time they pull another surprising idea out of their heads . I mean they play the electric toothbrush! amongst other noise making things.
A couple of weeks later I went to shoot the brilliant pianist Michael Brown at Julliard. We were shown to a truly enormous rehearsal space empty except for one piano in a far corner. How to express the passion of the man’s playing? Yes he plays piano like no one I have ever heard. Michael was wearing a great suit, he’s handsome, his hands are beautiful and the pattern on the sound walls somehow makes the photo look very modern and yet almost retro cool. The image we shot is on the poster for his concert at Carnegie Hall on April 10th, he will be playing one of his own compositions as well as some Beethoven Debussy et al.
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April 3rd, 2012
News today of yet more innocent people killed in a shooting at a college in CA, seven dead. Trayvon Martin, an innocent student, was shot in FLA on his way home from the deli (still no arrest of the self confessed shooter). A Toulouse gunman opened fire at a children’s school last month and admitted to killing seven people. Lat year in Norway a gunman shot more than eighty people at a summer camp. Shootings are an everyday thing these days, look at these school shooting numbers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting#2010s_-_Present
Andre Charles painted this mural on Houston Street the day that Tupac was shot in 1996 ‘Live By The Gun – Die By The Gun’. If people are permitted to have lethal weapons they will use them.
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April 2nd, 2012
The murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin in Sanford Florida has brought up the ugly face of racism in America. Yesterday I went to the Million Hoodie demonstration in Union Square.
The day he was killed, Trayvon Martin had been watching the NBA All-Star game at his father’s house and had stepped out to buy a bag of Skittles.
Today, more than 3 weeks later, the confessed shooter 28 year old George Zimmerman has not been arrested. Zimmerman a ‘neighborhood watch captain’ in the gated community, was following Martin when he called 911 saying: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about. These @!$%#s. They always get away.”
I have been to Sanford Florida it is typical small town America, the Amtrak railroad runs though it. It does not surprise me that racism is present there. The present police chief, Chief Lee, has been on the job for 10 months. The previous chief was forced out after an outcry over the beating of a black man in downtown Sanford by a white man who is a police officer’s son. The police did not arrest the man, even though the beating was captured on video.
The police apparently could not arrest Zimmerman because of Florida’s controversial 2005 Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to shoot anyone they believe is threatening them.
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March 22nd, 2012
In 1985 I was working for the New York Daily News Magazine. I got the job to photograph one of my favorite artists Keith Haring whose work I had admired on NYC subway and neighborhood walls. I went over to his downtown studio one afternoon.
Every bit of the studio was covered in art, cutouts, paintings, drawings, graffiti – it was an amazing place. And there was Keith, a lovely friendly man who happily posed for me for a couple of hours. He gave me a huge signed Free South Africa poster which has pride of place in my studio to this day. Look out for the retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum opening March 16.
“The East Village …was just exploding. All kinds of new things were starting. In music, it was the punk and New Wave scenes. There was a migration of artists from all over America to New York. It was completely wild. And we controlled it ourselves” KH in Rolling Stone interview 1989
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February 28th, 2012
I was in Paris in February for an exhibition of my hip hop photographs at La Bellevilloise in the 20th Arrondissement. The city looks beautiful, it does not seem to have changed much since I first went there in the 1960’s.
Aurouze’s rat trap store. In its window hang 21 dead rats, their necks crushed by steel traps. They’ve been there since 1925.
Lovely street market by my metro station in the 20th
The local Communist Party headquarters around the corner.
Rendezvous with great friends Geoff and Linda Halpin.
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February 21st, 2012