Lloyd Kaufman Village Voice Cover Shoot

One of the highlights of my photo career is in little red boxes all over New York City right now. After close to four years of working for the web version of the Village Voice I finally got to shoot a print cover, and not just any cover, I got to shoot Lloyd Kaufman. If you don’t know, Lloyd Kaufman is the co-founder of Troma Studios the world’s longest running independent film studio in the world. Lloyd and his crew have been making and distributing some of the worst best films known to man. When I was 14 or 15 a friend who worked at a video store introduced me to the sick world of Troma and I have been hooked ever since. Lloyd Kaufman is one of my heroes and to be able to shoot him for my first Voice cover is a huge honor.

The story was written by my juggalo anthropologist partner in crime Camille Dodero. We traveled to the Gathering of the Juggalos, not once, but twice and we will be forever bonded in Faygo.  I was so psyched she brought me along on her Tromatic journey. You need to read her article on Lloyd!

When the Voice’s photo editor started talking to me about the shoot all I could think about was putting Lloyd in a tutu and having him pose as the Toxic Avenger. Toxie, as he is lovingly called, was the first Troma superhero and The Toxic Avenger was Troma’s first big hit in 1984 and pretty much the basis for everything that has come since. Toxie fights crime with a broom dressed in a tutu and luckily for me the 66 year old Lloyd was ready to take off his pants and put on the pink skirt. The issue was due to come out on July 4th and the original poster for the Toxic Avenger featured Toxie standing in front of an American flag. Troma already had a green screen set up in their office so we just remade the poster with Lloyd as Toxie. It was perfect.

I shot a ton of other photos of Lloyd as well and I was also given a tour of Troma’s Long Island City office. There is so much weird stuff in there and I got to take photos of it all.  After the photo shoot there was a casting for Troma’s newest film, a remake of their classic “Class of Nuke ’em High”. My friend Zac was actually the first person to audition and he ended up getting completely naked and vomiting fake green puke all over the place. Zac is not a skinny man and the whole thing was quite horrific in the best possible way. I decided you need to see all of these out takes so I am providing a wonderful gallery of pictures of Lloyd, the Troma offices and a naked fat man puking. Be warned it is very not safe for work.

So yeah, read Camille’s article and then click right here to see all my outtakes from the Lloyd Kaufman Village Voice shoot and my tour of Troma Studios!

Lloyd Kaufman Village Voice Cover

Lloyd Kaufman

Lloyd Kaufman In His Office

The Troma Vault

Lloyd And The Troma IT Department

Troma Film Archives

Lloyd Getting Murdered

Welcome To Tromaville, NJ

Lloyd Kaufman & Toxie Dodero

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4th Of July Hot Dog Eating After Party – 7.4.12

Now as a hater of all Boston sports teams I would never intentionally walk into a sports bar dedicated to Beantown, unfortunately Crazy Legs Conti is not only a a legendary competitive eater but he is also a fan of the Boston Celtics and threw his annual 4th of July Hot Dog eating after party at Professor Thomas in the East Village. Despite being surrounded by vomit inducing New England Patriot memorabilia I had a great time. My lady Kimberly Kane is still in town so I dragged her out and a couple of High Life’s later she was having a great time too. I ran into my friend Doug Sakmann there too and weirdness follows him everywhere.

I didn’t really shoot any photos until ESPN rebroadcast the hot dog eating contest and I had to pull out my camera to get shots of professional eaters watching themselves eat. Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog champion and #1 ranked eater in the world Joey Chestnut walked me through the last minute of the contest and how he ate something like 8 hotdogs in the last minute cause he wanted to get to 68 again. It was pretty much like Michael Jordan explaining to you what it was like to hit a play off buzzer beater fadeaway jumper as he watched it for the first time.

I didn’t shoot a lot of pictures at Professor Thom’s but I dig all the shots so you should look at em real quick cause professional eaters are really fun when they get together and get really drunk.

Click here to see the pictures from the 4th of July Hot Dog Eating After Party at Professor Thoms.

Bonus Links: If you haven’t already make sure you check out my pictures from the actual Nathan’s Famous hot dog eat off and check the pictures from the 2010 Crazy Legs hosted hot dog eating after party!

Eat All You Can Eat!

New Yorks Fullest: Crazy Legs & Eater X

Deep Dish & Maria Edible

Joey Chestnut Watching Himself Eat Hot Dogs

Deep Dish Getting Patriotic

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Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest – 7.4.12

Although I missed it last year because of my epic road trip, I have been to 8 of the last 9 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contests. 4th of July to me is hot dog eating at Coney Island. In that time I have become friends with some of the contestants and now have a pretty good hook up to Major League Eating events so I got my press pass and headed down to shoot the madness.  I took A LOT of photos and the media riser is so far away that all the shots sort of look the same but you should flip through them anyway. There are also a bunch of nice shots at the end of contestants after the event. So let’s get to the important stuff.

The women’s competition was won by Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas a 100lb woman who has been dominating all other women and most of the men in competitive eating events for as long as I can remember. She is turning 45 this year and was determined to eat her age. She succeeded and in the process beat her own female world record by 4 hot dogs. She is amazing and she also happens to be from my hometown of Alexandria, VA so there are a LOT of pictures of her in the gallery.

The men’s competition was won by Joey Chestnut of course. The American champion has now won six years in a row and won by nearly 20 dogs. He ate 68 in ten minutes to tie his own world record that he set in 2009.  The only other eater in the world that could touch him, Takeru Kobayashi, has not competed the last three years after a contract dispute with the MLE. Kobayashi staged his own event at the exact same time and ate 58.5 hot dogs. Even if he had beaten Chestnut it wouldn’t have mattered since it was unsanctioned and done in different weather with different hot dogs. America wins again!

New York hero Tim “Eater X” Janus and Chicago favorite Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti came in second and third, as they almost always, do but it was Matt Stonie who impressed the most eating 46 hot dogs at only 19 years old. The long haired, skinny jean wearing Californian came in 4th and is set to become a super star in the world’s most important non-football sport.

After the eating at Coney Island “Crazy Legs” Conti threw an after party in the East Village. I showed up and took some pictures which I am going to post about twenty minutes from now so come back for that…

Now click here to see all the pictures from Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island.

And click here if you want to see my pictures from older contests!

Joey Chestnut & Sonya Thomas

Sonya Thomas Breaks Her World Record

Sonya Thomas - American Hero

IFOCE Founder George Shea

Joey Chestnut Ties His Own World Record

Deep Dish Shows Off His Hot Dog

The Next Great Eater Matt Stonie

Joey Chestnut - American Hero

Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas Eats 45 Hot Dogs

 

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These New York Streets – 6.29.12

Last Friday I had my first solo NYC photo show at Mishka’s flagship store 350 Broadway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I showed a bunch of 35mm New York street photography under the name “These New York Streets”.  The opening party was a lot of fun and packed all night, partly because of my amazing work, but probably mostly because there was 10 bottles of Sailor Jerry rum and 10 cases of PBR. I have learned that free booze is the only way you can get people to look at art which is why MOMA always has big lines for their “Keg Stand Thursdays” events.

I showed 11 20″x30″ photos at the event and you can see them all by clicking right here. The first 11 photos were in the show, the next two were outtakes that I printed but didn’t show and the rest of the images are street photos that didn’t make the cut. If you are interested in buying any of the (first 13) photos they are available in an open edition at 20″x30″ for $250 and a limited edition (#’d out of 10) at 11″x14″ for $100. There is also a super limited print done with artist Lamour Supreme that is only $25.  All of this stuff is available by contacting me or going over to 350 Broadway and picking it up there. The exhibit is up for the next six weeks if you want to check it out for yourself.

Normally I am the media but with this event I got reported on so I figured I would share a couple links for you. The New York Observer wrote a nice article on the show (although there were some errors in it), Mishka posted a bunch of pictures from the show on their blog (although oddly none of me) and the Village Voice ran a slide show of my street photography pictures.

I also should thank everyone for coming out, thanks to Mishka for letting me put some photos on their walls and thanks to Sailor Jerry and PBR for providing a lot of free booze. Also thanks to Lamour Supreme for painting on one of my photos. We also had an after party at The Flat after the show so I should thank them and Sailor Jerry again for the open bar and DJ Furoshe for DJing the event for pretty much free. Thanks everyone! Now go look at some pictures.

Click here to see all the pictures from the opening of These New York Streets at Mishka’s 350 Broadway.

And click here to see a bunch of my New York City street photography.

Ps. I did an amazingly half assed job taking these photos cause it was my own damn event. Also there are some NSFW shots in here cause… well… it’s my own damn event.

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

These New York Streets

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Stagg Street 100th Model Party – 6.28.12

As a rule I don’t like shooting burlesque. A lot of it is terrible, I have to deal with awful stage lighting, a dozen photographers are shooting the same thing and I take so many pictures it takes forever to edit. As someone who shoots nightlife and naked girls for a living you befriend a lot of burlesque performers and shoot a lot of events that feature burlesque. So I end up shooting a it a lot more than I want to. But on Thursday night I actually wanted to shoot a burlesque show.

My photographer friend Ellen Stagg threw a party for her site Stagg Street. As on Thursday night there are now 100 different nude models on Stagg Street and Ellen decided to do a party to celebrate the occasion. She partnered up with Wasabassco Burlesque who do weekly events at The Bellhouse and they do not fuck around. Doc Wasabassco hosted the event and brought out some of the best burlesque performers in NYC including my friends Stormy Leather, Madame Rosebud, Justine Joli and Marlo Marquise. Plus my old friend Amanda Whip was the stage hand and she crawled around the floor picking up bras like a champ.

The whole thing was a good time with some great performances and it ended with Justine and Stormy blowing a double ended dildo which I was probably not expecting. Plus I got to bring my lady Kimberly Kane who was one of Ellen’s 100 models. Good times!

Click here to see all the mildly NSFW pictures from The Stagg Street 100th Model Party featuring Wasabassco Burlesque at The Bellhouse.

Ps. Check out Stagg Street already!

Ellen Stagg's Wasabassco Burlesque 100th Model Party

Ellen Stagg's Wasabassco Burlesque 100th Model Party

Ellen Stagg's Wasabassco Burlesque 100th Model Party

Ellen Stagg's Wasabassco Burlesque 100th Model Party

Ellen Stagg's Wasabassco Burlesque 100th Model Party

Ellen Stagg's Wasabassco Burlesque 100th Model Party

Ellen Stagg's Wasabassco Burlesque 100th Model Party

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