Ten years ago my friend Jamie Peck asked me to shoot her spooky Halloween party, Death Rights, at a spot called the Gateway. I didn’t think I remembered much about the party but between looking at the photos and digging through my old texts with Jamie I learned somethings. I had to do a little added research to find out the venue, but we did it and so now I am mildly informed about what I was doing exactly 10 years ago. Happy Halloween, let’s get into it.
First thing that comes to mind is that I met my friend Elyse (and her wonderful friend Lorraine) at this party. Elyse and I were really close for a while but we had the dumbest fallout possible. I assumed we would become friends again eventually but unfortunately she died before we ever got the chance to make up, so it’s a good reminder not to hold grudges, especially over stupid shit.
I also remember I was working on my book Instaxxx at the time (I seriously only have five copies left, please buy one). I shot nudes of (at least) six people at this party for that book including Jamie in the “Makeout Coffin” she set up for the party just a few weeks later. Speaking of photos, I remember I did a quick shoot with my friend Mel right before the party because she wanted some photos in her costume.
Speaking on costumes, this was the only time in my life I had a good costume. Negan was introduced to the Walking Dead a few days before Halloween and I just happened to have everything I needed for a perfect Negan costume including this insane spiked baseball bat I carved from two 2″x4″ in a sculpture class in college. Unfortunately when I got to the party they strangely enough wouldn’t let me in with a weapon, but the bouncer offered to hold it for me all night because he was a huge Walking Dead fan and loved the costume. He actually tried to talk the managed into letting me in with it, but he wouldn’t.
I don’t actually remember who the bands that played were but my old pal Lauren Flax was DJing and she’s just the best. Oh and also when I was looking back at my texts with Jamie it turns out this was the last thing I ever photographed for the Village Voice. I started there in 2008 so that’s absolutely crazy. Anyway, I think that’s all I have to say about all this. Happy Halloween and hopefully I will get another one of these throwback posts up soon. It’s been a while.
Check out the gallery below from Death Rights Halloween at The Gateway back in 2016!
