Ivy Diamond

Last time I was in LA I met up with some New Yorkers who were in town for the Support, Therapy & Instability LA book release and one of them grabbed me and said “This is Ivy. She used to live in NYC. Get her naked.” Within five minutes of talking to her we had planned to take some naked photos. These are the friends I like to have.

The next day I went over to the Superchief LA headquarters to check out their space. I had some photos in their first LA art show and they were still up. I was shooting the shit with them when I realized I didn’t have a place to shoot Ivy yet. Fortunately Superchief was down to let me shoot there and we all had a bunch of fun watching Ivy skateboard topless and climb ladders and stuff.

Later we went out on the roof to shoot some more but the sun was setting and it was setting in the wrong direction. I decided I needed to shoot there at sunrise so two days later I photographed Raven Rockette up there but sadly it was so overcast we didn’t even get to take advantage of the great light.

Whatever the case these shots of Ivy are a lot of fun. She has done some nude modeling but not a ton so it’s fun to shoot people who haven’t been broken by a million shitty photographers. She also has a weirdly devoted fan base and very little content out there so I am sure they are going to really dig these photos.

It should be pointed out that Ivy is kinda awesome as a human, so much so that I actually brought her to my shoot with Alex Chance (coming soon!) later in the day. Alex loved her too and I took a few photos of them together for my Tumblr. I can’t wait to get back to LA and shoot Ivy again and get into weird adventures.

Lastly, I am only posting the stuff we shot inside Superchief on this site. All the rooftop stuff I uploaded to the Girls of Driven By Boredom app yesterday and it’s going to be exclusive there. So you can get both sets in high resolution if you have my app… Just saying…

Now click here to see the photos I shot of Ivy Diamond at Superchief LA!

Ivy Diamond

Ivy Diamond

Ivy Diamond

Ivy Diamond

Ivy Diamond

 

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Motley Crüe – 10.28.14

Yesterday started off all wrong.

I slept at my lady friends place and right before I went to bed I saw a mosquito and realized I had been bitten several times. I got out of bed and killed it and then I killed two others. I figured that was all of them but I was sadly mistaken. I woke up the next morning with 15 mosquito bites all over me including three on my face.

I only had two things on my calendar yesterday… My Kickstarter for the Dinner With Igor book was ending and I had to shoot Motely Crüe’s last show in NYC later that evening. It seemed like it would be a pretty good day. I was mistaken.

Before I went back to my place I decided to walk my friends dog so I took the puppy out and managed to lock myself out of the apartment. I also left my cell phone in her apartment so I had to find a pay phone. Amazingly there was one a block away but it took all my quarters. There were two cops watching me fail and actually let me use their phone to call my friend. It’s probably the first time in my life that a cop has helped me with anything, so thanks for that NYPD! I got her on the phone but she was in meetings all day so she didn’t know if she could get me her keys.

I went back to my place and got on my old, barely functional, computer (my MacBook was also locked in her apartment) and Facebook messaged her until we came up with a plan. In exactly 30 minutes one of her co-workers would be out front and hand me the keys.

Thankfully Car2Go Brooklyn suddenly exists and my Car2Go Austin account works with them so I was able to get in a tiny Smart Car parked just down the street and drive myself (and a small dog) to my friends job in Manhattan at 4pm and manage to get there right in time, grab the keys and turnaround and drive back to Brooklyn in rush hour traffic.

I did all of this with all my camera gear on my back because I knew I had to shoot Motley Crüe later, but since I had to go all over the place I decided to only take this cheap plastic long range lens that I might have used once in the last 15 years. It’s really light and I figured it would be okay. It wasn’t.

When I finally got to Madison Square Garden I started shooting portraits of Crüe fans and then made my way to the media entrance so I could shoot Alice Cooper. I was a huge Cooper fan as a kid and I was psyched to shoot him. Unfortunately they didn’t know who I was at the media entrance. I checked my email and the publicist told me to go to will call to get my pass which seemed odd but I went. I went through the line and security and I got to will call and they told me to go back to the media entrance. When I got there they still didn’t know who I was and wouldn’t let me talk to anyone so I emailed and called the publicist twice and then texted my editor at the Voice and the woman writing the story. No one could help.

I finally got an email from the publicist and she told me to meet her back at will call… so I went through the line, and security and found her and she still didn’t have my pass. We waited around for about 25 minutes before they told me to go back to the media entrance for a third time. By now I had missed Alice Cooper’s entire set but I was finally in for Motley Crüe.

They put us so far away from stage that I knew I was in trouble. There were people standing in front of me so when the band started playing I had to climb up on a security wall and shoot from there. The stage was too dark for my shitty lens so I was shooting with a slow shutter speed and my photos were coming out blurry. I started “spraying and praying” as they say and just hopped that with the pyrotechnics and stage lights I would get lucky. I finally just switched to my real lens and got some decent wide shots. After ONE song all the photographers were kicked out and I walked away with 200 photos of the band with maybe 5 decent shots. It was probably one of my worst performances as a professional photographer and the perfect ending to a shitty day. I actually told the Village Voice that they didn’t have to pay me for the images.

But as bad as they day was, my Kickstarter made over $5700 and pretty much made the day a positive overall. I can’t wait to print this book. It should be pretty awesome.

Now click here to see 22 portraits of Motley Crüe fans and 9 mediocre photos from Motley Crüe’s last NYC show at Madison Square Garden.

Motley Crüe's Last NYC Show

motley-crue-8

Motley Crüe's Last NYC Show

Motley Crüe's Last NYC Show

Motley Crüe's Last NYC Show

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The Dinner With Igor Kickstarter Is Ending

I wanted to do one final post about the Dinner With Igor Kickstarter before it ends! I have been bugging people for the last four weeks about this thing but it ends tomorrow so you can refollow me on all the social networks that I have been harassing you on.

Yesterday Vice ran an article about the project and a few hours later I had hit $4000. That’s four times the original goal I set! That’s not to say I don’t need more of your money… every thing I raise helps make this book better and goes towards the next book (juggalos perhaps!?) So I figured I would give you guys one more pitch and try to explain why you should donate to my Kickstarter now instead of waiting until the book comes out.

1) If you donate now the book is cheaper. You can get a book for $20 now, plus free US shipping. That will save you about $10 rather than buying it later.

2) You will 100% get a copy of the book. I think I am only going to make 200 of these things and my last book sold out in a month. I saved five copies of that book for the Kickstarter and put them for sale at $75 and they sold out in a day.

3) You will get free stuff! Everyone who buys a book via Kickstarter gets a free signed 5″x7″ print, a post card AND a very awesome surprise that I will announce once it’s in my hand.

So I guess that’s all I got. Pretty excited about moving forward on this project. Thanks to everyone who donated!

Here are a few links to articles about the project:

Vice Magazine
First We Feast (Complex Mag’s food blog)
Nerve.com
RVA Magazine
Porn For Women

Update: Cosmopolitan!?

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2014 Brooklyn Vegan CMJ Parties

CMJ festival happened again and I shot the two Brooklyn Vegan day parties at Baby’s All Right. I want to get these up now even though it’s Sunday night because tomorrow I want to do the last post about my new book Kickstarter before it ends on Tuesday. There are a TON of photos and a ton of bands but I want to make it quick so let’s break this down.

I was shooting the parties for my favorite client Sailor Jerry (with the Iggy Pop party in Miami I worked for them on four straight days). They were doing another free tattoo and free booze event with free SJ drinks all day and a free tattoo raffle. Instead of doing a ton of small tattoos they did some big nicer tattoos but only did about a half dozen each day. Matt Marcus from Three Kings was doing them and he’s a boss.

Here’s the line up from both days.

Highlights from Friday included King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Single Mothers who both killed it. I dug most of the bands that played on Friday actually. It was a pretty serious show.

On Saturday I was glad to get to see Fat White Family again and Bo Ningen were really intense. I was really into Girlpool when they started but they got a little slow for me after that. I would love to see a full set of their uptempo stuff. Residual Kid were pretty fun. They were a bunch of skate boarding teenagers playing grunge which I didn’t hate at all. Beverly were pretty rad too and I feel like there are a lot of really good female fronted rock bands that exist right now which rules.

So go look at all the photos and then donate to my Kickstarter before it’s too late! Less than 48 hours to go!

Click here to see all the photos from the 2014 Brooklyn Vegan CMJ day parties at Baby’s All Right.

Fat White Family

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Bo Ningen

Brooklyn Vegan CMJ Parties

Girlpool

Matt Marcus Of Three Kings

Titus Andronicus

Brooklyn Vegan CMJ Parties

Single Mothers

Drew Citron Of Beverly

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Iggy Pop Flash Collection Release – 10.22.14

Sometimes this job is really great. On Wednesday I flew down to Miami to photograph the release party for the Iggy Pop/ Sailor Jerry collaboration “The Flash Collection”. The Flash Collection started last year when Sailor Jerry worked together with the Clash’s Paul Simonon to create a very limited leather jacket, two t-shirts and a bandana. This year they teamed up with Iggy Pop to bring you a denim vest and a belt limited to 50 pieces each! The vests are signed on the inside by Iggy Pop and come with a bunch of patches that are based on old Sailor Jerry tattoos.

The party took place at the Garrett in Miami and I was one of the only two photographers allowed to photograph Iggy in the vip upstairs. The party featured free rum, free BBQ and everyone who came walked out with a grab bag of swag. They also had two women sewing on patches all night. I was working too hard to get my vest patched but I grabbed one for the road. Miami natives the Jacuzzi Boys were the main attraction and they played a fantastic set after Iggy introduced them. I have seen them a few times during SXSW but it was great to see them play in front of their home crowd. I took a bunch of photos, met a bunch of babes and hung out with near Iggy Pop all night. It was a pretty great experience.

After that a bunch of the journalists covering the launch were invited by Sailor Jerry to a small after party at the Broken Shaker cocktail bar. The bar designed some sort of insane Sailor Jerry drink that had beef jerky in it. Now that is intense. There also were a bunch of kittens running around which is not a terrible way to end an awesome night. The only bad part was after the party I walked to David’s Cafe to get a Cuban sandwich and found out they closed months ago and no one told me. Tragic.

Now click here to look at all the photos from Iggy Pop and Sailor Jerry’s The Flash Collection release party in Miami!

Iggy Pop & The Jacuzzi Boys

Iggy Pop The Flash Collection

The Jacuzzi Boys

Iggy Pop The Flash Collection

The Jacuzzi Boys

Iggy Pop The Flash Collection

Iggy Pop The Flash Collection

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Introducing Igor 35

I have spent an unreasonable amount of time organizing every photo I have ever taken. The ideas is to create a series of portfolio sites that I can gain new clients with and keep being able to pay for food to go in my face. The problem is I still have more than three years of digital photos to go through still. But fortunately (or unfortunately for my career) I have already finished organizing my 35mm photos and I have launched my first portfolio site: Igor 35.

The site is a very small selection of my 35mm photography. Primarily snap shot work taken over the last 7 years, it contains a dozen small galleries of work, each representing a project or body of work. It is still a work in progress but I figured I would finally show it off to more than the people who follow me on Twitter.

The main problem with the site is that it’s incredibly bi-polar and features everything from soft black and white work to some of the most graphic and horrifying  images I have ever posted. That brings me to the second problem with the site… no one who sees this site will ever hire me for anything. It’s extremely fucked up and very NSFW. You have been warned.

Igor 35 has a ton of unpublished work on it, as well as shots from my first book, Get Your Kicks, my new book Dinner With Igor and my infamous unpublished book Drink Fight Fuck. I hope you dig it.

Click here to visit Igor 35! 

Igor 35

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Road Strip With Coco Velvett

The penultimate episode of my Route 66 web series Road Strip came out yesterday almost exactly a year after I released my Route 66 book Get Your Kicks. It stars Coco Velvett and Angel Beau. After the last episode I had to drop Ash Hollywood off in Vegas, which isn’t on Route 66 but only a few hours north. I had been staying in terrible motels for the last two weeks so I decided I would take a quick break at a nice hotel in Vegas and hang out in the pool for two days.

I hit up my pal Angel and she happened to be hanging out with Coco who I had been trying to photograph for years but shit kept not working out. I shot both of them in my hotel room and then we hung out at the pool all night. It was a pretty good time. I didn’t have a model planned for my last leg of Route 66 and Coco needed a ride to LA so it worked out and I took her with me.

The drive to LA is only four hours from Vegas but once we hit Barstow and got back on Route 66 the trip took a lot longer than that. We hit some cool spots like the Bottle Tree Ranch and the Wigwam Motel in San Bernardino and I also shot her at the World’s Tallest Thermometer in Baker which while not on Route 66 is still one of my favorite roadside attractions.

The shoot I did with Coco I decided to make exclusively available on the Girls of Driven By Boredom app. It’s a small set to begin with and some of the images are a bit graphic for this site, so I just uploaded everything in high resolution to the app. So you need it if you want to see the pictures. Also, there are a bunch of unpublished photos of Coco and Angel in the super limited What Happens in Vegas photo album print series I did.

Lastly, I should mention that my Kickstarter hit $2500 yesterday passing its second stretch goal. That means everyone who orders a copy of Dinner With Igor will get a free 5″x7″ print from the book! I still have a long way to go before I make money on this book, so please get your preorders in! Both Angel and Coco are in the book!

Now go look at the second to last episode of Road Strip starring Coco Velvett! NSFW!

Coco Velvett

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Hannibal Buress @ Madison Square Garden

Last week I got a text from Hannibal Buress. He was opening up for Aziz Ansari at fucking Madison Square Garden and asked me if I could come hang out and shoot some photos of the occasion. I was on my way to watch hockey at a bar a few blocks from MSG anyway, I had to miss overtime but it seemed worth it.

I didn’t shoot a ton but I think I got some cool shots of Hannibal throughout the night. The worst photos are the shots of him on stage because I didn’t bring my 70mm-200mm with me and I was shooting from behind the stage. Still, I think the shots reasonably capture the enormity of the situation. The backstage stuff and after party shots are more fun anyway.

I am not one for being star struck but it was pretty insane to have Chris Rock just hanging out all night. A lot of comedians aren’t funny in normal conversation but that dude is apparently hilarious at every moment. Just listening to him talk to Hannibal for a few minutes made my night.

Before I get to the photos I just want to say how amazing it is that Aziz and Hannibal got to play not one, but two shows at Madison Square Garden. Aziz has come so far from the funny dude I’d bring to random dance parties in the LES and Hannibal is doing such big things since I met him at the Gathering of the Juggalos where he was performing because they couldn’t get Rob Schneider. Hannibal and Aziz are both so fucking funny and very solid dudes. Watching them kill at one of the most legendary venues on Earth was pretty special.

Now click here to see my shots of Hannibal Buress at Madison Square Garden.

Aziz Ansari & Hannibal Buress

Hannibal Buress @ Madison Square Garden

Hannibal Buress & Chris Rock

Hannibal Buress & The League

Hannibal Buress

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2014 NYC Zombie Crawl – 10.11.14

Once again I photographed another zombie crawl. I keep telling myself that I am going to stop taking photos of zombies, yet I keep going to these things. I mean how many photos of zombies can you possibly take? But they again they are always fun to look at…

NYC Zombie Crawl does two crawls a year, on in Brooklyn during the summer and one in Manhattan around Halloween. This year the Manhattan version happened around the NY Comic Con. It was a bit rainy and Comic Con stuff was still going on so when I got to Twins Pub the crawl seemed under attended but as the zombies walked up 8th avenue new zombies kept joining the hoard.

The zombies headed to Times Scare for some zombie burlesque from the Peek-A-Boo Review but right outside the bar NYC Zombie Crawl leader Doug Sakmann got detained by police after he climbed a sign post directly above a police check point. Fortunately he only got a ticket and the crawl was just mildly delayed.

After the burlesque a ton of zombies had joined up and they headed through Times Square and over to Bowlmor Lanes for the after party. A bunch of bands played and Disgraceland Hook Squad & Family Sideshow did horrible things that you might not want to look at if you are squeamish. The sound sucked at the venue which was a bummer because I was pretty excited for Murder One and Girls Girls Girls who are Motorhead and Motley Crue tribute bands. I am a pretty huge Motorhead fan and Motley Crue was probably my favorite band when I was 11. Luckily I have seen Motorhead a half dozen times and I think I am shooting Motley Crue’s last NYC show later this month.

Danse De Sade, Gash and The Deafening played as well. Danse De Sade were super creepy and featured a half naked lady which I appreciate. She got my card and we talked about taking photos at some point and I wouldn’t hate that. Gash were pretty punk rock which I enjoy and their front lady was badass. The Deafening also feature a badass front woman, Lena Hall, who won a Tony Award for her roll in Hedwig & The Angry Inch on Broadway. She was awesome and sang on the bar, made out with audience members and poured beer all over everything which is pretty much exactly what I do when I front a band except that she can sign her ass off as well.

That’s enough rambling. Go look at the massive gallery of photos. There are about 300 of them and they are reasonably NSFW.

Click here to see all the photos from the 2014 NYC Zombie Crawl.

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

Lena Hall Deafening

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

Girls Girl Girls Motley Crue Tribute Band

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

2014 NYC Zombie Crawl

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