How did you first discover photography? Was there a special moment or? What did you want to be as a child?
I was more interested in drawing and painting when I was younger. I always wanted to make things when I got older, but it took me quite a long time to figure out what. My Mom was a home-photo fanatic AND I grew up in LA with a Dad in the film business, so photography and films were both things I repelled from.
Serious photography came later as I started to use it in my early graphic design and mixed-media animation work. As I became more and more interested in humans interaction characters, film/video and photo made the most sense for me to intimately and directly explore. It was filmmaking that really brought me to pursue photography as a secondary path.
Your pictures always have this rough feeling to them, like a wasteland-wonderland. Where do all these images come from? What has influenced you?
So much of what I shoot is a way to revisit my youth in LA. I’m able to channel the confusion, aggression and suffocation of my time as a teen through the more evolved, adjusted and more balanced souls of modern youth (primarily in Berlin).
Punk Rock, Skate, Skinhead, Mexican Gang, Drug and Porn sub-cultures were all intimate and personal parts of the aesthetic tapestry and soul of growing up. Homopunk and Transgressive Queer cultures came later as direct influences and necessary extensions of the former. It’s all these worlds with their distinct forms of energy, expression and aggression that influence nuances of the characters I try to create in some of my film work.
Would you consider shooting a self portrait series? What would it look like?
I sometimes make cameos in my films. I’m either a masked figure or hand — as an aggressor or extension of the viewer’s subconscious reaching out to shake a scene. I’m not sure I’d ever go further than this. If there ever was interest, the repulsive indulgence of the #selfie generation has killed it.
What is your dream project you never had the chance to work on yet?
This changes each month as I meet new people, am constantly exposed to more and try to become more honest. I’m slowing exploring my first feature film project. I want to get stuck into something longer term and be able to involve and collaborate with as many of the talented and amazing people I have in my life.
Is there a picture that you have shot that is your personal favourite? Why or why not?
There aren’t images that are my favorite, but there have been some I’ve shot that have allowed me to move forward and rethink my working process. Most of these images occur during a staged shoot – usually a film – and photographic moments happen somewhere in between takes. These moments that sit between the reality of people half in and out of character and with one foot between the real world and the one I’ve created is a sweet spot I’m trying to hit in all my shoots lately.
If you could choose a decade/era/country/ etc to live and work in what would you choose?
I’d love to be around in NYC (and some LA) from the early 80s to early 90s and be stuck between the hardcore punk, transgressive cinema/art and xxx underground scenes.
Interview by Amanda M. Jansson