does this look like a storm to you?

it shouldn't because it isn't but it does have OMINOUS borders... its been raining for about 15 hours non stop. normally, i like that sort of thing but its just caused so much havoc. i wonder if i will be able to get out of town and to the airport and on the plane and make to to ny for my show.

going lo-fi

this photo of billy idol is actually one of the few of my punk rock images that i would call a fine art photo. there are so many fine art photography elements in it... the various reflections, the composition, the unguarded moment in which the subject was captured... and my favorite of all juxtapositional elements...a beautiful subject in gritty surroundings... the print itself is gorgeous... such beautiful tones, etc...

but when between susan arosteguy (the genius graphic designer who created the look of my tour materials) got a hold of the pix i would be using for posters, postcards and handbills, she took the pictures to even grittier levels... and when i sent this already deconstructed image to rosa guerrero, who organized the exhibit at sound exchange, she added to the vintage punk rock of it all by handwriting the show info on it....

and yet... i think the image of billy retains all its fine art qualities and i love seeing it juxtaposed with the hand written gig info and presented in a most high contrast, over-xeroxed way...

yes... punk rock imagery changed our visual palette for sure...

black & white is better. i already KNEW that...

i have been tweaking these photos i took last year of jack yarber for about the whole year.

jack was trying on different hats - it was in the evening - already dark outside, and he was doing his hat tricks in an interior hallway in his apartment...dimly lit, and of course, reflecting all the greens and yellows in the place, casting a pall on skin tones as if the lights were the deadly fluorescent variety. i have battled with those tones...and today, it hit me like 16 tons...that which i have known all my life...PICTURES ARE BETTER IN BLACK & WHITE.

with a little help from photoshop, i just eliminated the color, and instantly, i now love the pictures.

i hope jack does....

the hat trick set is posted on my portraits page, the female gaze.

open all night stuff

i wish the prius wasn't parked in front of canter's and also the car behind it. then this image would have been timeless... with the neon lights totally sending the colors off into the land of 1970s kodak chemical tones...

but because of the hybrid car and the "they all look alike" model behind it, this photo is wearing the scarlet letter of being 21st century. too bad.

what i like about photos and certain photographers and cinematographers is when you can't tell when the photo was taken, and it doesn't matter. like tim burton's edward scissorhands.

punk rock's inner circle?

i don't get out much anymore. really. i'll bet you think i jest, but seriously, i stay home plugged into my telephone (literally - with the headset!) and computer, talking to clients and also planning and organizing my upcoming photo tour.

however, last week, i ventured out in the hot hot heat to see my old, dear friends, the legendary british punk rock band, sham 69.

i don't go in too much for the live action photos anymore. i've shot at least 100,000 frames of guys with guitars. not that there's anything wrong with it - but anyone with a camera and some stamina can do it.

i prefer to capture a moment that resonates for me on a very intimate level.

portraits.


dave parsons looking like alain delon or jean-paul belmondo

not your standard portrait.


steve and ames, road crew guys for the dickies

i don't think i could actually do one.

but as the reviewer for the nashville scene wrote a couple years ago when my first punk turns 30 exhibit traveled, Kereakes' photographs, which are often (uncharacteristically) in color, have the informality of family photos - that is, if your family includes Dee Dee Ramone and Stiv Bators.

i liked that review.

punk rockers ARE my family....

the details and informal family photos of my day with sham 69 are at punkturns.30.com