#Rick just looks like he’s from mid 80s goth band…so cool

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I’m always thinking about my Slider’s music taste…like, is it ooc if he liked The Cars? New Order? Bauhaus?

Then I look at this picture of Rick Rossovich and be like nvm he looks like someone from new wave/goth bands

I mean look at how gorgeous

[houseofvans]

Art School | Edward Colver | Interview Part II

We spoke to photographer Edward Colver, the man behind some of the most iconic photographs from the 1978 to mid-1984 punk movement in Los Angeles, before his upcoming exhibition ‘Idol Worship II’ at Lethal Amounts Gallery in our Part 1 interview with Edward Colver for Art School.  We finish up that same interview in this Art School Part II with Edward Colver, where Ed talks about his latest exhibition “Idle Worship II,” what inspires him, and how he was able to capture his iconic “Wasted Youth Flip” photograph.  ‘Idol Worship II’ is viewable till the end of June. 

Photographs courtesy of Lethal Amounts gallery For gallery hours, contact Info@Lethalamounts.com Recorded and transcribed by Michael C. Hsiung

Tell us about the collection of unpublished works and how this exhibition came about for ‘Idle Worship II’?   There is at least 40, maybe 50 photographs that no one’s seen, but I have TOOONNNNSSS more.  There’s actually one of Rozz that was a performance at the Brave Dog down by the Atomic Cafe. It’s got Ron Athey and Rozz with his hair all spiked out and Clare Gidden and Patrice from GOBSCHEIT and a couple other Goth girls in the photo.

You’ve probably got quit a bit of unpublished works still? I have so much stuff and never printed most of it. I’d shoot a band in like five locations and print one set up, and that’s what people would see. It’s like I got all these others. I found there’s some stuff on The Lords of the New Church that I FORGOT entirely that I shot. I was like “Oh Fuck I do those?” I know I did a couple photo shoots with them or two. I’ve got one of Stiv Bators on a Sphinx statue, riding it all, you know, he’s in leather and stuff … The outtakes aren’t bad at all and stuff. It’s just what I choose and stuff usually. 

What are some of the photographs in the upcoming exhibition that people you check out? There’s a really nice one of the pit at the Black Flag in 83, but I have one that I shot where there’s this guy sideways with his plaid pants and stuff.  But this one’s available light of the crowd and you can see all the way to the back to the back wall. And a whole bunch of faces are recognizable. Oh and I printed one from when I did the Circle Jerks “Group Sex” cover I have a picture of the Adolescents playing down in the Punch Bowl at night and you can see Tony, Hokey and Frank and Rikk and Casey all visible in the photo.

So the entire band is in the shot? Rad. That was a big thing about shooting bands I wanted EVERYBODY to show. You know, somebody posted a pictures of Rick and Scott from The Mau-Mau’s and I said, “That’s the Mau’s” That’s half the band, you know, Rick and Scott of “The Mau’s” –that’s applicable, but that’s NOT The Mau-Mau’s.

Your photographs have inspired generations of kids, photographers, skaters, musicians and artists.  Where and who do and did you look to for inspiration now and then?  Well, when I started photography, I didn’t know much about many photographers at all. I was art school background, applied art, but never studied art history.  I just paid attention to the art I liked that spoke to me and that I cared about. All the rest is like I don’t care. I don’t give a damn… I didn’t even want to take those classes.  I kind of like art after the advent of photography because it replaced all the portrait painters and landscape painters with realism and stuff.  Then it sort of inspired abstraction and stuff like that.  The last hundred and fifty years is basically when I like art, which is kind of funny, and it was changed because of photography. Put all these people out of business. It did– the camera did it better.  

What kind of photographs do you personally own? I have a collection of antique post-mortem photographs–they’re really cool!  People laid out on coffins and stuff. I was collecting those in the early ‘80s and it’s like I actually inspired a book about them. And the one photo of mine that was going to get used didn’t get used, which sort of bummed me out because it INSPIRED the book.   

What are your thoughts on photography today? Well I love this expressions there’s a lot of “faux” tographers. .  Ha That’s a great word. In that whole ’83 Black Flag thing you could not see any other photographers taking other pictures.

Were there any other photographers at the shows? Some around, some times.  

Where were you usually shooting from during the live shows? For Wasted Flip Youth photo – the fact that made it so good was I was on stage. You don’t see all the guitar players and lights and all that garbage–he’s floating in this void, which really makes it. That was because I was ON STAGE! When I was standing at the gallery “I was like I shot that from on stage, I shot that one from on stage, and that one from on stage. It was actually kinda of weird. It was a whole bunch of them. Like that pit one from that Black Flag, I’m in the middle of the front of the stage. I’m taking that picture. That’s the kind of access I had back then because I was PART of IT… Robert Hill –he’s a photographer and I got him into like 300 hundred shows because he was with me. Hah.

Where was that Wasted Youth Flip photo taken? Tell us a little about it. I shot those three miles from here at the Perkin’s Palace in Pasadena July 4, 1981. I found out the actual date I probably would have found out now, but originally found out from Bev Davies, DOA’s photographer. She actually has an airborne picture of him, but he actually out in the crowd. She’s actually in my photo! We did a rescan of that photo which was AMAZINGLY BETTER that the “hi-res” scan that I had done. It was totally DIFFERENT. Nobody’s really seen this one yet. I think Vans used it.  It’s totally different it’s not as contrasty [sic], you can see stuff in the background, and you can see way more people’s faces and everything. It’s REALLY cool.

Did that guy land? He’s landing. He was landing on his feet. It’s Chuck Burke– is his name. He’s a skateboarder. We made each other famous. Hah!

It’s an amazing photo –the timing of that flip in the darkness with the faces in the crowd. People call it a “back flip.” He was doing a “forward flip.” He’s rolling his head under that’s a forward flip. It’s like; no it’s actually not.  It was during the Adolescents.  He kept doing it, and he was landing on his feet.  He did it, I don’t know, at least three or four times. I know I got at least two different. 

Did you have any idea that that photograph was going to be so perfect? I was hoping, you know. Hey, that’s in focus –and it was the perfect millisecond to shoot it. He had the perfect form. The only thing I regret about that photo is I wish it was THAT (motioning with hands) … a little less headroom and a little more crowd faces. But hey, it’s in focus and I framed it!  Because I mean he ran diagonally … choo-choo- BAM. And that was quick, and no autofocus, no telephoto, no motor drive.  People think that the vertical one and the horizontal one are shot with the motor drive–same jump. It’s like nnnooo–the bouncer has a jacket on in one. And with a motor drive you can’t shoot a horizontal and immediately a vertical picture either. It’s like WHAT? It’s really funny.

How were you able to capture these moments at shows with so many things happening at once? It’s chaos. It was a skill I like to say, you know. You know what’s really weird–I watched all these punk shows like through a keyhole, like all of them.  I was losing my peripheral in everything. I was just watching and waiting. I’d have the shutter down and like duh-duh-duh-duh Oh there’s something BAM.  My little cheesy flash would take like 8 or 10 seconds to recycle. I’d see these guys come in with a press packet and just baddda-badddaa !!  It’s like FUCK what concept! I just timed my stuff. I wasn’t rich like I was burning through film, I had money for gas and coffee and stuff like that, you know.  

Besides photography, what other forms of art do you experiment with? I started doing socio-political assemblage sculptures in ’84 when I got my studio. I pretty much did those up till 2002 –and when I moved out of my studio space it all became you know boxed up and packed away. Gone. So…

Other medium you wanna try? Uh no not really. I like doing the socio-political assemblage sculptures with found antique objects and I don’t like to force them together. They just like to go together I think. I like to address things and talk about kind of how long it has been a problem.  . . If you’re not addressing an overall problem in a timeless manner– it’s just like a trendy movement.

What’s coming up for the rest of the year? I don’t have any plans on anything I hope to do another book!

Follow Edward Colver Website: http://edwardcolver.com Instagram: @edwardcolver