Assholes Live Forever AVN Party – 1.24.24

If you aren’t familiar with Assholes Live Forever, you’ve still probably seen one of their t-shirts in some viral post. The “edgy” clothing company has blown up in the last few years and I see it everywhere. Normally I am probably a little too woke to be associating myself with a company that posts sexist memes as a marketing strategy but the company happens to be run by my buddy Kirill, the former party photographer Kirill Was Here, who I have known since our nightlife days in NYC fifteen years ago. Kirill took what we were doing in nightlife and turned it into a TV show, a Vegas residency and now a hugely successful fashion brand and I am proud as hell of the dude, even if I would probably hate his internet persona if I didn’t know him. 

When I knew I was heading to the AVN Awards I hit him up and he told me he was not only gonna be in town but he was throwing a party. When he sent the link it was being thrown by Jardin, a cannabis company in Vegas. Last time I went to one of their parties they had mermaids in the pool and super cars parked in the driveway and was like the cheesy mansion  party vibe you only really see in movies. That last party you could pay to get in, so it was like 20% hot girls and 80% rich bros so it was not where I wanted to be, but I knew and ALF party thrown by Kirill and adult film star Damon Dice would be a lot more fun and I was right. 

I took a party bus to the party with another edgelord friend of mine, Charlie Classic and when we got there it was already popping off. The party was as expected, mansion, pool, step and repeat, backyard yurt filled with pillows, you get the idea. They had a chef cooking up waffles that looked like dicks and Flava Flav was hanging out. The party was mostly porn stars and I had a bunch of friends there so it was a lot of fun, but maybe the best part was Kirill walking around introducing me to girls as the “photographer who inspired my career” which is only a little true but shows you what a good dude Kirill is, and of course it lead to way better pictures. 

Now speaking of pictures, about 1/3 of these photos are too NSFW for this site and are behind a paywall. That’s mostly Kirill’s fault so blame him, but between the girls flashing me, a mini photo shoot on a basketball court and Sabrina Nichole walking around mostly topless all night, I had to post a ton of this site exclusively to Girls of Driven By Boredom. But if you go over there, not only does it have the 20 extra NSFW photos, but they are in a slightly higher resolution AND you will have access to nearly every nude photo I have ever taken which is an absolutely enormous amount, hundreds of galleries, tens of thousands of photos. 

Anyway the party was fun, I took a lot of photos (can’t wait to see the 35mm stuff when it gets developed) and thanks a ton to Kirill for having me. So proud of you man.

Click here to see all the tame photos from the Assholes Live Forever AVN Slumber Party in Las Vegas.

Click here to see all the NSFW photos from the Assholes Live Forever AVN Slumber Party in Las Vegas.

Comments (0)

2023 Miami Art Week

Two weeks ago I went to Miami for Art Basel/ Miami Art Week and a Dolphins game on Monday Night Football and the entire thing was a disaster so let’s break that down, post a handful of pictures and then let’s never speak of it again. Honestly I wouldn’t normally post any of this but I didn’t spend a bunch of time and money on this trip and come back with zero content, so here we go. Enjoy.

There have been a bunch of times in my life where I have gone to Miami with no plans and ended up having a great time, coming back with a ton of great photos and ultimately making some money. It’s been so consistent in my life that when I saw that Basel was happening the same week as a Monday Night Football game I was ready to book the trip and then figure it out later. Problem is I didn’t exactly know my dates. Ideally I would show up Friday and leave Tuesday morning but I had a new client who didn’t know the details of their event yet and so I couldn’t book the trip quite yet. Meanwhile I had a meeting with a second possible client who seemed to want me for a several day event and the only details we needed to work out was how long I was going to work for how much money. That gig started on Thursday afternoon so I finally confirmed my other client for Friday so I booked the trip, Thursday to Tuesday and got a non refundable hotel pretty close to one of the jobs because I am an idiot.

Shortly after I booked the trip my first client, the one that had confirmed all the details pulled out. Fortunately they gave me a kill fee that still pretty much paid for the trip but it went from being a money making trip to a break even one real quick. As we got closer and closer to the week it became clear that the second client had just ghosted me. I have no idea why or what happened but suddenly I was in Miami for four days with no jobs and nothing planned. I also happened to be busy as hell with a trip to NC for my girlfriend’s birthday, the big Dolfans NYC event I was throwing and then a trip to DC to see my folks since I missed Thanksgiving. Suddenly the Miami trip was on top of me and I had nothing planned. 

A few days before I left I went into panic mode, sending emails to old clients, friends I hadn’t seen in years an a bunch of models in Miami. Figured if nothing else I could do some photo shoots. I managed to plan two shoots, but wouldn’t you believe it, they both flaked. There was a third model who was visiting that I was trying to work something out with but that never happened either. Perfect.

On Thursday my flight was super early so when I finally got to my hotel they didn’t have a room ready for me so I just sort of sat in the lobby for far too long. I had barely slept so I tried to take a nap and after failing at that I ordered some food and started texting some friends. I got invited to the job that I didn’t get hired for and to a nightclub and to a dinner way too far from my hotel room. It was great to see I had stuff to do, but I just didn’t want to do any of it, and I had a long week so I just stayed in and watched a terrible football game. 

The next day I had a bunch of things I wanted to do. The first one was my buddy Deeze’s party. He had released a toy and some clothes with a Web3 company called Goonz and they were throwing a party. I went down there and had a good time. I met a few people I knew just on the internet and met some new folks and took a few 35mm photos. It was a very chill couple of hours and I had no idea it was going to end up the highlight of the trip. From there I went over to the legendary dive bar Mac’s Club Deuce for a bit and hit the always fantastic Sandwicherie which I hadn’t been to in years. And that’s where the trip peaked. I got stuck in such bad traffic that I just sort of gave up and went back to my hotel and eventually took an Uber over to Wynwood. I figured I would check out the new Graffiti Museum but it was closing when I got there so I ran into my buddy Sean and walked around with him for a bit and then stopped by the job that I got the kill fee for. I have no idea why I went but they invited me and I figured I should try and say hi. I wasn’t there long before I went to the Fool’s Gold party which I was also only at briefly because I am old and tired. 

On Saturday I had a bunch of stuff to do, and I managed to do almost none of it. It was so god damn frustrating dealing with Miami traffic that is so much worse than it was even a couple of years ago. It is so much worse than LA which is everyone’s favorite traffic to complain about. The one thing I did do was go see my friend Noah who had a piece of art in a gallery not too far from my hotel. When I got there, there was a pop up custom Miami Dolphins t-shirt event where they had graffiti artists designing shirts for you which I thought was cool and they told me the wait was 30 minutes so I figured why not. I was gonna go see my buddy Buff Monster talk on a panel at the Museum of Graffiti at six but it was only 4 so I had plenty of time. Two hours later I was still waiting and the sunk cost fallacy had broken me and I wasn’t leaving without a t-shirt I will absolutely never wear. I tried to go back to Wynwood to meet up with Buff even if he was speaking but traffic broke me and looking for a parking spot was absolutely hell and after 45 minutes in the car I just completely gave up and went back to my hotel and for the second of my three nights in Miami I just hung out in my hotel room.

By this time Basel was pretty much over and I hadn’t taken a single photo with my digital camera. I wanted to give you guys content so I figured the easiest thing to do would just be to once again go back to Wynwood and just take some photos of the murals there. It’s not the first time I have done exactly that. I don’t know why anyone would give a fuck about these photos, but it’s something and you get to look at them. I also finally went to the Grafitti Museum which was cool but way too small. So many important artists barely got a mention if they did at all. Once I got enough stuff I drove up to Delray Beach where my Dolfans NYC co-founder lives and watched the 1pm football games until it was time to meet up with her at an ice skating rink where her beer league team had a game. I watched some bad hockey in a freezing rink in a t-shirt and then accidentally went on a toll road on the way back to her place which cost me $45 because car rental places love to rip you off. After having dinner with her and her family the two of us went to Target and bought $700 of toys for needy children with some of the money we raised for charity this season. That was so much fun and honestly that was the actual highlight of the trip. It was so rewarding seeing all those toys piled up in the back seat of Michelle’s car, knowing so many kids would have a better Christmas because of our little fan club.

The next day I just hung out at Michelle’s house and did some work and then it was time for me to watch one of the most disappointing football games I have ever witnessed, and I have been to some bad ones.  The night started out well because we delivered all the toys to the toy drive and the people who ran the toy drive rolled out the red carpet for us and showed us around and hooked us up with food and drinks and all that. They hooked us up with some incredible seats as well. It was a great VIP experience all the way up until the game started. The Dolphins had one injury after another and were barely keeping up with a team that is much worse than them. A guy behind me puked and when someone washed the vomit up, the vomit water rolled under my seat for the rest of the game. Eventually the Dolphins made some big plays and were up two touchdowns with about two minutes to go. They then managed to somehow lose the game in embarrassing, humiliating fashion. 

When I finally made it back to Brooklyn I realized I had left my iPad and ear buds on the plane and no one ever found them. Just an absolutely cursed trip, but wait, there’s more! I had this idea that would wait until I got my 35mm film developed from the trip to do this post. That’s why this post wasn’t up a week ago. I finally dropped off all my film and in absolutely incredible fashion I got six rolls back and it just happens that two of the three rolls with Miami stuff on it didn’t really come out. Turns out the auto focus on my point and shoot seems to have broken at some point and 75% of the photos on those two rolls were a blurry mess (including my 35mm juggalo boat photos from the other night).

TLDR: I went to Miami, made no money, had a miserable time and managed to lose and iPad and break a camera. But hey, I have a few mediocre photos for you. Merry Christmas, I should be back with a big update before the end of the year.

Click here to see some 35mm photos from my trip to Miami.

Click here to see some digital photos of street art in Wynwood. 

Miami Art Week

I Don't Know Who Any Of These People Are

Miami Art Week

Miami Art Week

Miami Art Week

Comments (0)

Ballas On A Boat – A Juggalo Cruise – 12.16.23

What could be more on brand for me than going to photograph a holiday Insane Clown Posse concert in international waters in the middle of the night? Okay, technically the boat was just circling the Statue of Liberty in the East River, but still, it was a weird time that I had to attend even though I wasn’t working for anyone. Just seemed like it was my journalistic duty. Did I mention it’s not the first time I have gone on an insane clown cruise?

Ballas on a Boat was a Christmas themed juggalo cruise put on by Rocks Off who specialize in doing shows on boats. The original event was scheduled for 7pm, but that one sold out so quickly that they added a second midnight cruise. When I saw the two options, it seemed like a no brainer to attend the late night one. Not only was the homie Ouija Macc playing, but I figured being on a boat with juggalos until 4am seemed like it had the potential for way more weirdness. 

When I arrived at the boat, juggalos from the first show were getting off and juggalos were set up selling nitrous balloons on a poorly lit dock which just felt really perfect. Reminded me of home, and by home I mean the Gathering of the Juggalos. I got on board and spent the first hour or so really just catching up with some juggalo friends I have made over the years including Ouija’s manager Kev Buc who I have gone to like a half dozen Gatherings with (who also got me on the boat) last minute. 

When we passed the Statue of Liberty so I had to go photograph juggalos photographing Lady Liberty and then Ouija played and the combination of my cold lens mixed with the heat of the show fogged my lens up. I also decided to bring my old camera and started messing around with dragging my shutter a little bit like in my old nightlife days so it made for some blurry but appropriately hectic Ouija photos. The lower level of the boat was so hot that the show felt more like a Bushwick basement show than it did a rock cruise.

Of course I made the same mistake after Ouija because it was so damn hot and I went on the deck again and almost immediately ICP started playing so I had to run downstairs and spend half the set wiping my lens. Fortunately there was a juggalo in front of me in a santa hat which was perfect for wiping my lens off. Eventually I got shoved to the front and was on my knees shooting the band which was a new experience for me shooting ICP. Usually it’s a huge production with a ton of Faygo flying everywhere, but this time I was almost too close to them in the hull of a sweaty boat. They played a short set with a bunch of Christmas songs, but it was fun to get to see them in a more intimate setting. 

After we docked I made it to land only to realize that I couldn’t get an Uber, but a juggalette offered to drive me home. I just had her drive me to a subway stop, but it’s the kindness of juggalos that makes me keep wanting to photograph them, even when any rational person would be done after 13 years documenting fans of a middle aged horrorcore rap group in clown makeup. 

A little housekeeping update, before we get to photos. I have an update from my recent trip from Miami ready to go, but I wanted develop the film first. I should have it back in a couple days so I will probably get it up towards the end of this week. You can sponsor one of those rolls and get cheap print of one of the photos on that roll (feel free to request the roll I shot on the juggalo boat). And while the sponsor a roll thing takes a while to get delivered, anything else ordered in my store by Wednesday will ship on Wednesday so you can maybe get it by Christmas. Just saying. And while we are here, I should plug my juggalo NFTs (and yes we are still trying to make NFTs happen. And fuck it, let’s plug Girl of DBB too. I will put some sort of NSFW juggalette content up there right now because I love you. Okay, now go look at clown boat photos. 

Click here to see all my photos from Ballas on A Boat, the Insane Clown Posse late night Christmas cruise. 

Juggalo Cruise

Juggalo Cruise

Juggalo Cruise

Juggalo Cruise

Juggalo Cruise

Juggalo Cruise

Juggalo Cruise

 

Comments (0)

Ellen Stagg Book Release Party – 11.30.23

Last week I went back to the Super Funland bar at the Museum of Sex to photograph my friend Ellen Stagg’s party to celebrate the release of her new book Free To Be Naked. I’ve known Ellen about 15 years and we’ve photographed so many of the same models despite having very different photographic styles and I am a big fan of her and her work. Fortunately Ellen must be a fan of my photography too because she keeps hiring me to photograph her parties (and used one of my photos of her for her author photo in the book). I photographed her last book release in the basement of the Museum of Sex, and just recently I photographed a signing she did for a Hustler Magazine cover, also at Super Funland. 

Super Funland is a great place for a party, at least from a photography standpoint because it’s insane looking. There’s a slide that starts upstairs in the museum and comes out a giant butt in the bar, which means randomly throughout the party museum goers just end up in the bar. There are also a few carnival games including a Zoltar that has been replaced with Rupaul, a very cool looking bar and of course a stripper pole. Ellen had two dancers going throughout the night, Ruby Quinn, who I met at Ellen’s last party, and Tess Artiste. They both absolutely killed it.

Also important to mention is that my friend Sucklord made a bootleg Ellen action figure! It was the release party for that thing as well and it’s pretty hilarious. Sucklord and started to work on a toy once but I kinda dropped the ball on it. I do still have the prototype and it’s a prized possession. I keep it on a shelf in my office. 

But yeah, it was a great time, met some rad people, saw some old friends and took a bunch of cool pictures. Thanks a ton to Ellen for having me out, and congrats on the new book! 

PS. While these photos are mostly safe for work, there are six images that I felt were gonna get me in trouble with Flickr if I uploaded them, so if you want to see every photo in this gallery the full set is available on Girls of Driven By Boredom. It is absolutely not worth paying for Girls of DBB for these six images, but there are tens of thousands of nudes on there for very little money. Just saying. 

Now click here to see (almost) all the photos from Ellen Stagg’s Free To Be Naked book release party at Super Funland at the Museum of Sex.

Ellen Stagg Free To Be Naked Book Release Party

Ellen Stagg Free To Be Naked Book Release Party

Ellen Stagg Free To Be Naked Book Release Party

Ellen Stagg Free To Be Naked Book Release Party

Ellen Stagg Free To Be Naked Book Release Party

 

Comments (0)

2023 Sturgis Buffalo Chip Part One

For years my favorite client was Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. We did so many events together and in the early 2010s it felt like I was going to some music festival or tattoo convention for them every other weekend. Times and budgets changed and that stuff slowed down but I was still working with them semi regularly until the pandemic canceled events and then I had my back injury and couldn’t really do any big events. A few months ago I reached back out to them and let them know my back was doing better and was down to work again and it wasn’t long before they reached out with the idea of me going to the infamous Sturgis Bike Week. That’s been on my bucket list for a long time so of course I said yes. 

Sturgis is both a city in South Dakota and a shorthand for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which is now in its 83rd year. It is synonymous for absolute chaos as hundreds of thousands of bikers descend on the area for ten days of scenic rides and total mayhem. Sailor Jerry was sponsoring the events at the Buffalo Chip campground who has been hosting thousands of bikers every year since 1981. They offer a place to camp, several bars, a swimming hole and live music every night. I got to spend three days in an RV right behind the amphitheater, mostly taking photos of Sailor Jerry related stuff, but I got to roam a bit too and I got some pretty fun pictures in the process. 

I have over 400 photos to share with you guys so I broke my three days into two halves. I didn’t shoot a ton on day one, so Part One is days one and two and then Part Two is the final day which was honestly my favorite, but mostly because I got to fly in a helicopter which is something I’ve never done before. More on that later… 

I booked my flight super last minute and so it would have been $2000 to fly in on Sunday  and the flight would leave at 6am which means I would have to wake up at 3am and since I usually go to bed around 2 that didn’t seem like an ideal situation. So I looked up flights the day before and they were significantly cheaper, but after getting a hotel and a far too expensive rental car, it was basically break even. But flying in a day early meant I would be well rested and I could check out Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood and some of that kinda stuff. I took the 6am Saturday flight and when I got to my layover they offered me $600 to stay. It was raining in SD and so my sightseeing options were limited so I accepted and spent six hours in the Minneapolis airport. I figured I could nap but I completely failed and by the time I got to my hotel I was absolutely broken. Still, the rain was breaking a little bit and I was only five minutes away from Mt. Rushmore so I went and spent $10 to look at some stone heads for about 5 minutes. Honestly it was far less impressive than the World’s Largest Wooden Bigfoot that happened to be across the street from my hotel. I went back to the hotel, walked around Keystone, SD for a few minutes, got some tacos, hit the pool and finally went to sleep well rested for Sturgis the next day.

The first day at Buffalo Chip was mostly getting settled. We got there a bit late because sadly there was an accident and the road getting in was backed up. Jason from Sailor Jerry picked me up and we did some grocery shopping and waited for the road to clear. Once we got there we had to get passes and deal with a few other things and then we got a tour of the place and checked out the Motorcycle As Art gallery. Buffalo Chip is huge and wasn’t really walkable but we had golf carts and mini bikes to use. Fortunately the stage and the Sailor Jerry sponsored bar was super close to our campsite so I mostly just walked everywhere. I spent an hour or two that day on my own. I walked past “Bikini Beach” where they were having an “air sex” competition which was pretty much like air guitar but for fucking. Apparently they had weird stuff like that all day there, which felt real Gathering of the Juggalos to me, but I was of course working for a corporate client so I just took a couple photos and moved on. That night the country singer Tommy Howell, formerly the actor C. Thomas Howell, performed and he was actually pretty good. I don’t really know why he changed his name though because he talked about how he was in the Outsiders between nearly every song. Finally the night ended with Lynyrd Skynyrd headlining. I mean the night didn’t actually end, there was a strip club afters thing and Bikini Beach and some of the bars were apparently popping, but I was off the clock so I went to bed. If I was covering this as a journalist I certainly would have stayed out a bit, but I had long days and I was happy to take it easy.

Day two we got to go out to Deadwood which I was psyched about because I didn’t get to go on Saturday. We brought with us four members of the International Bikini Team which is apparently a real thing. These girls basically served as promotional models for a bunch of different brands throughout the event so they would be working for Sailor Jerry one day and then Monster Energy the next or something like that. They also competed in a Miss Buffalo Chip contest every night and also bartened and did a bikini bike wash. I just hope they got paid well because those girls were hustling. I would honestly watch a documentary about them. 

Anyway, in Deadwood I mostly just photographed them handing out Sailor Jerry swag to people. Not the most exciting thing but it was fun to watch everyone’s reaction to them. We did a mini photoshoot on the stage they had set up for the Legend’s Ride and then a bunch of people came up and took photos with them since we had accidentally set up a photo booth. After that we got lunch and then made our way back to Buffalo Chip. We had planned on stopping in Sturgis on the way back but we were all exhausted. After a quick nap it was back to photographing bands. Leilani Kilgore opened and then Lita Ford played. I had such a crush on Lita Ford when I was like 14 and honestly she’s still kinda a babe in her 60s. 

The night was headlined by Limp Bizkit. Seriously. While Fred Durst is super goofy and I never liked their music back in the day, I actually really enjoyed their set. The combination of nostalgia mixed with the reactions from the crowd made it a lot of fun. Plus my strongest Limp Bizkit memory is their Woodstock 99 performance so I was just waiting for bikers to just start setting shit on fire. It didn’t happen, probably because the average age of the crowd was 65, but we still had a good time. 

So yeah, that’s the end of Part One. I will be back soon with the final day of the trip. I should also mention that while I didn’t really shoot any super NSFW photos, there are a few that I felt were a little to risque for Flicker so I threw them up on Girls of DBB. That site has thousands of my nude photos from over the years and is totally worth the money, but don’t sign up for it just to see the few NSFW shots from Sturgis because it’s not much. Just wanted to give you a heads up. Now go look at some photos. And thanks again to Sailor Jerry for having me out!

Click here to see all my photos from day one and two of my 2023 Sturgis Buffalo Chip adventure.

Sturgis Buffalo Chip

Limp Bizkit @ Sturgis Buffalo Chip

Sturgis Buffalo Chip

Sturgis Buffalo Chip

Lynyrd Skynyrd @ Sturgis Buffalo Chip

Sturgis Buffalo Chip

Sturgis Buffalo Chip

Comments (0)

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos – Part Two

After absolutely killing myself on day two of the Gathering I tried to take it easy a bit on day three. I went out to lunch with a friend who lives in Columbus, Ohio and got down there around 6pm. My back was killing me so I just sort of sat on a rock for a minute, chugged an energy drink and began the day. 

Most of the stuff I have to say about day three is about the bands that played, but we will get to all that in the next update. I will also talk later about the insane Queen of the Cheeks event aka the butthole contest, which absolutely broke me, but in the meantime I uploaded all that VERY NSFW content to Girls of Driven By Boredom. You have been warned. Other than that, I just did the normal thing, walked around and photographed juggalos. I did have a good conversation with April O’Neil’s boyfriend who was there working. April is one of my favorite humans and it was great to meet her partner. Also shout out to Wicked Clowns Harm Reduction who gave me Narcan to keep on me during the event and were helping people test their drugs. I did an article for Vice about harm reduction at the Gathering years ago, and it’s great to see a new group continue the practice. 

Day four was not a very productive day photographically, but I did a lot of work. I finally came up with an idea for my Daily Beast article and I interviewed Sean Barrett aka Uncle Juff and Psychopathic Record’s artist Ouija Macc for the article. After that I walked around and tried to look for young hip looking juggalos to interview for the article about Gen Z. It was a ton of work, but I hope people enjoyed the article. I was proud of it. 

The last day also featured a pretty tame Miss Juggalette Pageant which I will talk about later and of course a bunch of bands. I should at least mention ICP’s set because I got completely soaked and my Gathering ended when I had to run to the car when it started pouring rain. It cleaned the Faygo off me a bit, but had the potential to mess up my camera gear and I had already thrown away my poncho. 

Last thing I want to say, is that I minted five new Juggalo NFTs. My plan is to do 17 drops and this was drop number 14 so not too many to go. I know people don’t love NFTs but I thought it would be a good way to raise money for a future juggalo book. It hasn’t really ended up that way, but I still love putting out these things, and I think it’s a good record. Also I have been able to send some juggalos some money in the process which is always nice. In fact, while I was at the Gathering I saw someone who I had sold and NFT of and had no way of contacting. I ran over to him and just gave him all the cash that was in my wallet. He was psyched about it and it felt great to be able to do that. So if for some reason, you are still into NFTs and want to buy one you are supporting me and hopefully getting some juggalos paid. If nothing else, it is a good overview of my 14 years photographing juggalos… and you can always right click save. 

Now click here to see all the photos from day three and four of the 2023 Gathering of the Juggalos in Thornville, OH. 

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

Uncle Juff & Clownvis

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

Me.

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

 

 

Comments (0)

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos – Part One

Whoop whoop, motherfackos! Once again I journeyed to Ohio to photograph my favorite insane clowns at the Gathering of the Juggalos. I have been documenting this event every year since 2010 and I am afraid I can never stop. I was legitimately bummed to leave. Good news is that I returned with over 900 photos for you guys. 

We will be breaking this down into four posts, probably one a day. Today we are dropping Part One, which includes the first two days of the Gathering minus the bands and events. Part Two will feature days three and four, again, minus the bands and events. Then we will have an all music post and finally the NSFW events post which will mostly just be links to my paysite Girls of Driven By Boredom because we are living in a new era where I gotta make you pay incredibly reasonable prices to see naked juggalettes. Sorry but blame FOTA/SESTA and the cowardice of corporations who host images on the internet, not me. (Ps. There are already some juggalette wet t-shirt photos on there right now.)

But before we get to all that I gotta link some stuff for you guys. First is my article about Gen Z juggalos, who I decided to called Zuggalos even though Zuggalos are already a thing but no one outside of juggalos have ever heard of Zug Izland so like, I am still gonna try and make that a thing. Seriously though, I am super proud of this article. I did actual interviews including ones with Psychopathic Records artist Ouija Macc and comedian Sean Barrett. Please go check it out.

I also did, as I do every year, a HUGE gallery for Brooklyn Vegan. Seriously I think I sent them two hundred photos, including some NSFW ones. I even snuck in a photo of me wearing a clown nose because that seemed hilarious to me. Okay, now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about the first two days of the Gathering!

The day the Gathering started I woke up in North Carolina where my girlfriend was visiting friends for the 4th of July. I had a flight that put me in kinda late but there aren’t any direct flights from Wilmington to Columbus, OH. Problem is my first flight got delayed and I nearly missed my connecting flight. I had to sprint to the gate and made it just in time. I was worried my bag wouldn’t make it but fortunately that flight also got delayed and I made. I spent way too long getting my rental car because there was only one person working for four different rental companies because they are all one rental company because monopolies love giving us the illusion of choice. I finally got to my hotel around 8:30 and I got all my shit together as quickly as possible and ran out the door. When I got to the Gathering I wasn’t on the press list for some reason. Apparently I was on ICP’s publicist list, but not the Gathering list and the person working the night shift had no idea about the other list. I started emailing their publicist while also texting juggalos and about an hour later both the person who was in charge of the list showed up at the exact same time the person in charge of the media showed up and I got in.

At this point it is 10pm and I realize I left my camera battery in the hotel. I could run back and it would only take me about 30 min or I could say fuck it and just go look around, shoot a few photos with my 35mm camera and start again tomorrow. That’s what I decided to do, however I mentioned all this to my photographer friend Nik and he found another photographer who had a battery that worked with my camera and by 11pm I had a working camera. So shout out to both of those guys. I should have just gone home and rested up for the next day but I felt like I had to shoot something since I had my camera so I went over to the Juggalesque juggalette burlesque show and shot a few minutes of that and then walked around said hi to some old friends and then finally called it a night around 1am. I didn’t shoot much, but at least I got something. 

Day two was much more productive, in fact it was by far my most productive day. I got down there just in time to shoot the absolutely insane Juggalette Wet T-shirt contest (see all the NSFW pics here) but more on that later. I spent the next hour or so just shooting juggalo portraits and waiting for the bands to start (again, more on that later) and then shot a ton of portraits in between the bands. I shot more than 1500 pictures on just that one day. ICP played their first set that night so I ended up quite sticky and wet, but I am down with the clown and that gives me the powers to just ignore how gross everything is and have fun anyway. I ended up leaving around 1:30am which is about as late as I can handle as a middle aged man, but I was (kinda) ready to do it all over again the next day.

Click here to see all the photos from Day 1 and Day 2 of the 2023 Gathering of the Juggalos.

Ps. I know everyone thinks NFTs are dead but I still have juggalo NFTs and will be releasing 5 new ones this week!

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

2023 Gathering Of The Juggalos

 

 

Comments (0)

Fool’s Gold 15th Anniversary – 6.16.23

Back in 2008 I photographed Fool’s Gold Records 1st anniversary party at Webster Hall, 15 years later they asked me to come back to Webster for their 15th anniversary (no the math doesn’t add up, but don’t worry about it). As you probably notice, I don’t really shoot party photos anymore, and I haven’t been to Webster since it was sold but I couldn’t say no to this one. Ever since I started my throwback party photo Instagram account I’ve really wanted to get back to doing nightlife stuff again and this was the perfect chance.

Being at Webster again felt like a dream. I hadn’t been there since 2017 when I shot the “last” party there for Rolling Stone before it was sold. The building felt so familiar but different and that cognitive dissidence made it feel like I was tripping. The mix of seeing a ton of old friends while also partying with a bunch of kids who are wearing some of the same shit we wore back in the day really added to the head trip. I was also shooting with my old camera but with a slightly different set up and it took me a while to get into a groove but I think I got some decent shots in the end. I absolutely want to do it again. 

The party was on two floors, the top floor and then downstairs in what was previously The Studio, now a neon art installation from FAILE called Deluxx Fluxx which is an offshoot of a club in Detroit. Dwells was playing ending his set when I got there, followed by Treasure Fingers who I last saw at Webster back in 2009. Around midnight they opened the top floor and I went up to see Frost Children perform which was very fun. I saw Club Eat do their thing down in the basement before heading back upstairs to see Uffie which was awesome. She was such a big part of the culture back in the day and I never actually saw her perform, but I did actually meet her, once again at Webster Hall, back in early 2010 for an Ed Banger anniversary party. She came out with Doss and then brought on a drummer who was actually her lawyer and then Blu DeTiger came out and played bass for her. It was really fun.

Because of the Uffie show I think I missed the Hellp’s DJ set downstairs, but I did get down there for Naeem who is another person I have known for 15 years back when he was Spankrock. It was great to see him. After that I ran back upstairs to catch A-Trak headline. He’s the person who hired me for this and it’s so cool to see him and Fool’s Gold do their thing for all these years. He played a bunch of old indie sleaze stuff and I found myself dancing on stage to Justice while taking photos. Speaking of indie sleaze, a highlight of the night was meeting the mysterious person who runs the @indiesleaze Instagram account. She’s been so helpful with my @vintagedbb account and it was awesome to meet her in IRL and get to hang out with her a bit. I also got to hang with Uffie and a bit which was a good time. We even re-shot the photo I took of her ana a friend back in 2010 with her and another friend. Same Webster green room, 13 years apart. While I was doing that I managed to miss surprise DJ Laidback Luke, but fortunately I got shots of him with A-Trak and Uffie and then got a few shots of Bag Raiders before finally escaping around 4am. 

Sorry it took me a couple days to get this stuff up but these are the first party photos I have shot in ages and I didn’t want to dump them on Father’s Day where no one would see em. Huge thanks to A-Trak and Fool’s Gold for having me out. It’s so amazing what you and Nick have done over the last 16 15 years. And of course I gotta say something about one of the original FG founders, Dust LaRock. He was an absolutely brilliant artist, a great dude and it sucks so much that he couldn’t be there last night. We miss you Dust.

Click here to see all the photos from the 15th anniversary of Fool’s Gold Records at Webster Hall.

Ps. Go follow @VintageDBB

Fool's Gold 15th Anniversary

Fool's Gold 15th Anniversary

 Frost Children

A-Trak, Uffie & Laidback Luke

Fool's Gold 15th Anniversary

Three My Favorites: Telli, Star City & Johnny Nelson

Fool's Gold 15th Anniversary

 

Comments (0)

Ellen Stagg & Laura Desiree Magazine Party – 4.5.23

I haven’t photographed an party in ages and when my friend Ellen Stagg hit me up about shooting an event for her the day I came back from two weeks on the West Coast I was a little hesitant for a number of reasons. First one is of course my back injury and doing event work is really tough, the second was that I just don’t really shoot with a flash anymore and I  knew I would need to if I was going to shoot her party and the third was that the event was to celebrate her photo making the cover of a certain magazine that once threw me into a lawsuit that I had almost nothing to do with but still cost me tens of thousands of dollars to get out of. Still, I love Ellen and I wanted to support her and as I have been going through my archives for my Vintage Driven By Boredom instagram I have been really missing shooting parties which is not something I ever expected. So I said yes to the gig and broke out my old DSLR and shot the party like I would have a decade ago. I was worried the shots wouldn’t be great so I actually wouldn’t let Ellen pay me until the end of the night because I wanted to make sure I a) didn’t fuck up and b) was able to shoot the whole thing without my back falling apart, but an hour in I realized that I still kinda knew what I was doing and I was able to take enough breaks to make it through despite some pretty excruciating pain at times. Anyway, this whole paragraph is just me complaining about stuff so let’s get into the actual party!

The party was pretty much a book signing with Ellen and cover model Laura Desiree selling magazines and signing them all night. You’d think that would be a pretty boring thing to shoot, but I knew better than that. The party was at The Museum of Sex’s event area, Super Funland which is a mix between a carnival, an art exhibit and the Korova Milk Bar from A Clockwork Orange. There is a slide from upstairs that people can take that shoots them out of what is essentially a giant vagina into the middle of the party which was honestly delightful. There was also a dancer named Ruby Quinn who absolutely killed it doing killer pole tricks and giving me something to photograph all night. Also Ellen and Laura are tremendous babes and have a lot of fun to photograph friends which made for easy work on my end. Got to see some old friends and finally met Connie Perignon who I have known via the internets for a couple of years, but never actually ran into IRL. Someone did try and fight me for absolutely no reason in the middle of the party, but honestly I kinda miss that kinda thing too. A younger me would have done some stupid shit, but I am an adult now so I just went back to taking photos. 

Anyway, the whole thing was a blast and I really appreciate Ellen and Laura bringing me out and I hope I can shoot some more parties in the future. I didn’t realize I missed it. Also hopefully I met some people that I can photograph in the future, and I only mention this as an excuse to promote my OnlyFans. Listen, a man has gotta eat. I also should mention that this gallery is once again on Flickr because my website is just permanently broken and I haven’t really figured out a good solution for that, but hopefully I will in the not too distant future, especially if I get back into shooting nightlife a little bit. At least the photos are in higher resolution over there… 

Now click here to see all the photos from Ellen Stagg & Laura Desiree magazine signing at the Museum of Sex!

Ellen Stagg & Laura Desiree

Ruby Quinn

Connie Perignon

Ellen Stagg & Laura Desiree Magazine Signing

Ellen Stagg & Laura Desiree Magazine Signing

Ellen Stagg & Laura Desiree Magazine Signing

Ruby Quinn

Comments (0)

Next Page »