The Rest Of South By Southwest

And finally two weeks after SXSW ended I am finally getting up the last images from my ninth straight year. This gallery contains a bunch of photos from various parties I hit up during the music part of the festival.  There are a couple shots from a Wavves show and then I shot a day party that Ayad from Passion Pit put together and then rolled over to Hotel Vegan the Brooklyn Vegan party. That night I was sent to a party that had already ended so I just hung out at the bar and took a handful of photos. Thursday night I hit up the Spider House to shoot a little bit of Psych Fest the highlight being getting a waitress’ phone number and then Friday I went to see the Gories at Emo’s East but I didn’t shoot much because I didn’t have a photo pass and I wasn’t trying to fight mother fuckers to get shots of bands. And finally on Saturday night I put my camera down and just enjoyed the Off! show and then made it over to the Vice party. I was going to shoot Trash Talk but after I took three photos someone kicked my flash and the door that holds the batteries in flew into the mosh pit and was never seen again.  I had planned on going back later to search for it but then ASAP Rocky started a fight when someone threw a beer at him and chaos erupted and the cops broke up the party. I ended up that night at a house party where pretty much everyone I met that week just happened to be hanging out. I decided not to take photos but instead got a bunch of hot girls in my friend Mike’s van and we suddenly had a moving party.

Okay, this is going nowhere and I don’t have photos of half that shit so I am gonna put the keyboard down and just show you some of the damn photos.

Click here to see the photos from rest of my SXSW trip.

Ps. Shout out to Bleached and JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound the two best bands in this gallery.

JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound

SXSW

Bleached @ Hotel Vegan

Franki Chan @ SXSW

Haim @ SXSW

Hotel Vegan

Wavves @ SXSW

 

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MtvU Woodie Awards – 3.15.12

So it appears that my site is working again… at least a little bit. Evidently some huge website was hot linking a bunch of zombie photos of mine and just ruining my bandwidth. I just deleted all the photos. No more zombies for you bro. Anyway, we got two more Austin galleries to go and first up is the MtvU Woodie Awards.

The Woodie Awards are some sort of awards that MTVU gives out during SXSW every year. I am sure a quick google search would explain their exact premise but I am not the sort of journalist that cares about anything. Instead I will just tell you the story of how I ended up at the Woodie Awards.

When I was in Austin I ran into a flyer for the Woodie Awards. The headlining acts were Steve Aoki, Santigold and Childish Gambino. I’ve known Aoki for ages and I have been trying to shoot Santigold for a minute since we have a bunch of mutual friends. Childish aka Donald Glover I met when the Village Voice was doing a cover story on him at last years SXSW and he and I have hung out a few times since then. So when I saw the flyer I was like, this is a thing I should be at. It just so happened I had a break in my Sailor Jerry schedule during the awards so I applied for a press pass. Unfortunately Childish Gambino broke his leg and couldn’t make it, but they had Mac Miller fill in for him.

When I got to the awards I went to look for the press area but all there was was a riser that was about 100 yards away from the stage so that we could shoot the bands. I tried to go back stage with my press pass to no avail. I ran into the Wire Image guy trying to get back there too so I grabbed a press guy and talked him into letting us backstage to get some shots. They weren’t doing an official red carpet but they had a mini one set up for MTV to film on. They told the Wire guy and I that we could shoot on it. Since there were only two still photographers I asked them if instead I could pull them off the carpet so they let me do some quick portraits of people like Skrillex, Dillion Francis, Zedd and A-Trak.

I had seen Aoki backstage before I talked my way in but he was no where to be found. The Wire guy asked one of the PR people if he could get shots of Steve and she walked him over to the trailer. I went with them and the Wire guy got all in my face about it so when he came out of Steve’s trailer I got the PR person’s attention and introduced myself. Turns out we have had many exchanges over email and she let me in. I said hey to Steve and took a few shots of him and Lil Jon and the other DJ’s in there with him and then I mentioned to Lil Jon that I had photographed him at the Gathering of the Juggalos. As soon as I said that everyone in the room just looked at us like “Why the fuck were you at the Gathering of the Juggalos?”  So in what was pretty much the highlight of my SXSW trip I got to talk to Lil Jon about juggalos for like 20 minutes. Lil Jon also was hilarious congratulating Skrillex on his Grammy Awards “Welcome to the club. I only got one of ’em.”

At some point I tried to shoot Santigold but we were so far away from the stage I didn’t see the point so I just took about 10 photos and then headed back stage. I got a few more red carpet type shots of Machine Gun Kelly and Mac Miller with their awards and then I peaced the fuck out. The whole thing was a pretty fun diversion from all the branding work I did all week… now if only I could find out what the hell a Woodie Awards is…

Click here to see all my photos from backstage at the 2012 MTV Woodie Awards.

Lil Jon, Dillion Francis, Flux Pavilion, Zedd, Porter Robinson & Steve Aoki

Skrillex @ SXSW

Lil Jon @ SXSW

Mac Miller @ MTVU Woodie Awards

A-Trak Does MtvU Interviews

Skrillex & Steve Aoki

Machine Gun Kelly With His Woodie Award

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My Site Is Fucked

If you are reading this you got pretty lucky. Yesterday my host decided it would be a good idea to limit the amount of connections to my site because I am getting too much traffic. Then they decided not to get back to my emails, so as I search for a new hosting solution my site is scrambled. I don’t want to do new posts since it’s impossible to fucking view anything on here so I am gonna wait until I get this sorted to update but since the galeries are already uploaded here are links to the last two SXSW updates I have planned for you:

Backstage at the MtvU Woodie Awards

The Rest Of SXSW AKA Everything Else I Shot

And just because I hate to see my updates without some media in them, here is a video by the fantastic JC Brooks & The Uptown sound who I discovered at the Brooklyn Vegan party.

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2012 SXSW Film Fest

So everyone I know only cares about SXSW Music and over the last few years everyone in the tech community is raving over SXSW Interactive but as someone who has done nine South by Southwests I will tell you that by far my favorite part is SXSW Film.  I work my ass off during music week so I use the film fest as a mini vacation. I still work and cover the red carpets and things but I also get to see a bunch of movies. This year I think I saw 8 films and as with every other year they were all at least interesting if not fantastic. I also set up a few mini shoots with actors/directors from movies in the festival so I got some shots of something other than people standing on a yellow back drop.  Here are some highlights…

My favorite film of the festival was Safety Not Guaranteed. It’s a “quirky” film about a three journalists trying to do a story on a guy who posted a classified ad looking for a partner to travel back in time with him. It stars Mark Duplass and my biggest celebrity crush Aubrey Plaza. The film is absolutely hilarious, has fantastic performances from all the main rolls and ends with a bang. I got five minutes with Plaza, Duplass and Jake Johnson to do mini photo shoots which would have been awesome except about 30 seconds before I met the cast I stuck my hand in my pocket and when I pulled out a pack of gum I ripped open a cut on my hand and just started bleeding everywhere. It was really awesome meeting one of my favorite actresses with “I would shake your hand but it’s covered with blood.”

The most fucked up film of the festival was far and away was William Fridkin’s Killer Joe based of the Tracy Letts play of the same name. Matthew McConaughey stars as lawman turned hitman who has been hired by Emile Hirsch to kill his drug addicted mother so he can collect on her life insurance policy and pay back some scary people that he owes money. The also features Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church and Gina Gershon in secondary rolls that they knock out of the park. Haden Church gives a really dark film moments of much needed hilarity with his dead pan delivery. Another one of my all time celebrity crushes, Gershon is involved in one of the most fucked up scenes ever put on film which I cannot even mention without ruining it but it involves fried chicken.

The most suprizing film was 21 Jump Street.  Every year at SXSW Film there seem to be one or two big blockbusters that premiere there and you aren’t exactly sure why. Festival curator Janet Pierson defended the Hollywood film before it’s introduction as saying they just like good movies and 21 Jump Street is hilarious.  She was right. I loved 21 Jump Street as a kid so I wanted to see it but I had very low expectations but the film ended up being one of the funniest movies I have seen this year. (I know it’s only March but I watch a lot of movies…) Jonah Hill was his normal funny self but he also produced the film and brought Channing Tatum on board. Tatum was unbelievably good in it and you have to give a lot of credit to Hill for believing that Tatum could actually be funny. If you aren’t aware, the 80’s TV show 21 Jump Street was not a comedy and instead of doing a remake the movie just takes the basic premise of the show (young looking cops going undercover in high schools) and making a really funny movie at it. Unlike other TV show film remakes they only took a few shots at the original show and instead focused on making a solid comedy that didn’t feel like a remake.

Lastly I wanted to talk about the premiere of HBO’s TV show Girls. I am gonna probably get into this show a lot more soon since it is written, directed and starring my friend Lena Dunham (and I even have a line in episode 7) but I wanted to at least mention it. Lena came to SXSW two years ago with her film Tiny Furniture and I was standing a few feet away from her when it won Best Naritive Feature and I was super proud of her and knew she was going to do big things.  I had no idea that she would blow up as quickly as she did. She showed the first three episodes of her Judd Apatow produced HBO comedy and they were even better than I imagined. Two Showtime execs were sitting next to me in the crowd and even they had to begrudgingly admit that the show was going to be a hit. Just be in front of a TV April 14th and you will see what I am talking about.

So yeah, SXSW Film was fucking awesome. I saw a bunch more stuff too so I just wanted to give quick nods to Mike Birbiglia’s Sleep Walk With me and Fat Kid Rules the World. Both were fantastic films that are well worth seeking out when they are released. And I also should mention that I shot photos of the stars/directors of Sun Don’t Shine, Beauty Is Embarrassing, Compliance and Small Apartments. I did’t get a chance to see any of the films but they all looked great and I hope to get a chance to see them soon.

Now click here to see all the photos I took during the 2012 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX.

Aubrey Plaza

Judd Apatow

Channing Tatum

Mike Birbiglia

Lena Dunham

Mark Duplass

Matthew McConaughey

Kate Lyn Sheil

Wayne White

Nick Offerman

 

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Hold Fast SXSW Pop Up Tattoo Shop

Sailor Jerry upped the ante on giving away free tattoos at South By Southwest this year. Not only did they have Oliver Peck doing free tattoos for bands and VIPs but they also had my homie Terry Brown tattooing at the Great Wave Tattoo shop with one of the locals Ben Sibert doing Sailor Jerry flash on anyone who could get an appointment. They did a ton of tattoos working pretty much all day for three straight tattoos.  I even got Terry to touch up a tattoo he did on me way back at Voodoo Fest.

Aside from tattoos it was just a fun place to hang out. They were selling Sailor Jerry swag as well and I managed to make it out of Austin with a new belt buckle and the documentary about Sailor Jerry (the person, not the rum). Also when Oliver got booked up I brought Sara Jean from Bleached over to get tattooed by Terry. Bleached is pretty much my favorite new band right now and Sara had a bunch of Sailor Jerry flash already so I knew we had to get her hooked up.

Anyway, I am just getting back into the swing of living a normal life again so I gotta go respond to 40 emails that I didn’t have time to get to when I was in LA & Austin. I will catch you guys soon with the rest of my SXSW stuff and probably a naked girl or two… See you Monday.

Click here to see all the photos from the Sailor Jerry SXSW pop up tattoo shop at Great Wave Tattoo.

Hold Fast SXSW

Terry Brown

Bleached

Hold Fast SXSW

Hold Fast SXSW

Sara Jean From Bleached

Hold Fast SXSW

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SXSW Interactive

Since South By Southwest is over and I am almost back in NYC (I decided to bail on Miami this week and get some much needed rest) I think it’s time to start getting up the rest of these photos in rapid succession. I think I have 5 galleries from SXSW left which is pretty much the least amount of stuff I have ever shot there but I had some fun and made some money so I am not too worried about it.

Anyway, SXSW Interactive is getting bigger and bigger ever year and it’s becoming a must attend event in the tech world. I met a man from India on the plane that explained that SXSW was the place to be these days.  I am sure the event is amazing, unfortunately as much time as I spent on my computer I am not really a geek and tech people are really boring to photograph so this SXSW Interactive gallery is going to be pretty small.  That being said there are some really awesome costumes that tech people use to get attention so that is fun to look at.  Enjoy the weirdness my g33ky friends.

Click here to see my gallery from SXSW Interactive.

SXSW Interactive

SXSW Interactive

SXSW Interactive

SXSW Interactive

Foursquare SXSW

SXSW Interactive

SXSW Interactive

 

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Mess With Texas

Mess With Texas is a three day event that happens during South By Southwest. I was there the whole time and it was the bulk of the stuff I shot during South By Southwest. Normally if I had so many pictures from one event I would break it down into several posts but I am on the road and I don’t have time for such things so this is going to be one MASSIVE gallery.

The event was sponsored by Sailor Jerry so they brought in one of the best old school tattoo artists in the world, Oliver Peck, to do Sailor Jerry tattoos on people. He tattooed a bunch of musicians during the three days including Theophilus London, Stalley, members of White Mystery, Fidlar, The Crocodiles, Dum Dum Girls, Skindred, Passion Pit and a bunch more that I am sure I would have remembered if I had slept more than 4 hours any day in the last two weeks.  Oliver even tattooed a little bunny on me.

I don’t have time to get into the whole fest, but you can see the line up and I will hip you to my favorite acts.  I had seen Fidlar before but they were awesome again. This other punk band Ceremony was fucking awesome as well. I thought Saturday’s headliner A$AP Rocky lived up to the hype and Dinosaur Feathers are a New York band I am looking to see again when I get back home.

Anyway, I gotta figure out where I am gonna sleep today so I will leave you with this MASSIVE gallery MWTX.

Click here to see all 500+ pictures from Mess With Texas.

Dee Dee Of The Dum Dum Girls Gets Tattooed By Oliver Peck

Theolphilus London Neck Tattoo

Girls

Alexa Chung

A$AP Rocky

Feathers

Stalley

Fildar Vs Oliver Peck

Alysha Nett

Ceremony

Growlers

Chill Black Guys

White Mystery

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Panache SXSW Pre-Party – 3.13.12

I just wanted to get a few photos from South By Southwest up really quickly. This week has been so insane and is going to keep getting more insane. On Tuesday night, the night before SXSW Music kicked off Panache threw a party at the Scoot Inn. I was only there for a few hours and I don’t have time for a long update but I really was digging on this band Natural Child even though I only took a couple of shots of them and Thee Oh Sees were awesome as always. I gotta go take more photos of bands and rum branding.

Click here to see all the pictures from the Panache SXSW Pre Party at the Scoot Inn in Austin, TX.

Thee Oh Sees

Institutional Prostitution

Panashe SXSW Pre-Party

Panashe SXSW Pre-Party

Panashe SXSW Pre-Party

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Kory Minx

When I was in Orange County shooting Musink I had a pretty nice hotel suite and I really wanted to find a girl to shoot in it.  Earlier in the week I had shot my friend Jenna Valentine and she told me about a new Gods Girl named Kory Minx who lived out in the OC. I hit her up about shooting and she said she was down if we could find the time but when it all came down to it it looked like the only way we were going to be able to do it is in the morning right before I checked out.  Unfortunately Kory was running late and she didn’t show up until 5 minutes AFTER I had to check out.

I was sort of freaking out because I had to be at Musink in 25 minutes and I didn’t think we were going to get to shoot. I didn’t think we would have time to do a real shoot but I wanted to kill a roll of black and white film and I figured maybe I could get a shot or two for Tumblr. I had her get naked the very second she walked in the door and I shot a couple black and white shots and a few color 35mm shots as well and then I pulled out my digital camera.  We ended up shooting about 100 photos in five minutes and somehow we managed to get some great shots really quickly.  That’s not to say we didn’t miss a ton of shots, but we ended up with a small set that I think we can both be proud of.

Usually when I shoot someone I like to hang out with them for at least 30 minutes or something before we shoot. I think people need to be comfortable with each other if you are going to get good shots, especially nude ones. I barely said two words to Kory before she was naked and my camera was in her face. Honestly she was gone in under 10 minutes and we didn’t have time to say much. In fact I didn’t find out until later that this was Kory’s first time doing a real photo shoot.  All her Gods Girls sets she shot her self!

Anyway this is getting long but Kory is amazing, the light in the hotel was lovely and I cannot wait to get a chance to spend an hour or two with her. I think her body is pretty perfect and she is stunning. The feed back I have gotten from the previews I have posted on Tumblr and Instagram have been fantastic. So expect to see more of Kory on here again as soon as possible and expect to see a bunch of my photographer friends trying to shot her in the very near future. In the mean time you can check her out on Gods Girls or click the link below!

Click here to see all my NSFW shots of Kory Minx.

Ps. Sorry about the lack of updates but I am at SXSW and busy as hell! Follow me on Tumblr for lots of little updates!

Kory Minx

Kory Minx

Kory Minx

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