With all of the hype surrounding the NYPH09 and the emphasis on contemporary photography I must seem like a real dinosaur. My book of portraits from the 80’s was OLD SCHOOL in the 80’s. Oh well, they say classic never goes out of style. So its May and we are getting down to the wire. Abrams is sending the book to press at the end of this month and every detail is being finalized. A noisy wrenching hiccup burst out last week when I received some proofs that were on an uncoated paper stock and looked worse than my high school newspaper. The package arrived on a friday night and I had a bit of a meltdown over the weekend. We had already choosen a paper stock and even though I knew that it was a mistake, just seeing my photographs like that made me realize how complicated and out of my control the whole process is. Of course, all was resolved after a phone call with Jackie the production head put my fears to rest. I spent a day up at the office looking at paper selections, quadtone choices and tweaking the design with my designer Liam. This book is looking really good!
These are so fresh and relevant. I see kids emulating the punk uniform today entirely from an urban outfiters shopping trip. All of the styles here in your photographs are personal, authentic and a tactile, sculptural response of non conformity.
Considering we were both in Seattle when this was documented, I have a special bond to this body of work.
It was a an amazing time in my youth and I can not wait to see this in its entirety!!!
Love ya buddy and Please keep me posted with EVERYTHING!!!!
i like that picture of me
Keith, give me your address and I will send you a print.
Is that Ashby that I see….. I recognize others. Can’t wait to see the book in Oct.
JH
Hey Michael,
Rod from Swallow here. Just picked up your book, wow, lots of great memories of great people in there. Any chance I could get a print of the Swallow pic? If so, please send an e-mail to my e-mail so I can give you my snail mail. Hope all is good!
Thanks,
Rod Moody
This is like a yearbook for the High School I never attended, all my old friends some with us some not, some I am still in contact with too. I love the photo of me thank you so much for including it Michael
greetings fans, when i saw j.c. in the seattle weekly, i wondered if i was in the the stupidist named book in the world, and yes here i am in this fucked up blog too; the pic with chick is yours truly. all i can tell you is that it sucks when leaches have made their fame/money off people who never really got their due, because that’s just the way true art works. i almost went to the rock show, but i didn’t want to pay twelve bucks to see music that i don’t really like. that idiot journelist for the stranger claimed the first three mudhoney lps are on par with iggy’s first three. what a fucking joke! the only truly great and ground breaking band to come out of the whole “grunge” scene was nirvana and everybody knows it. the truth is, seattle of late, is in some serious need of a rocknroll revival. the journelism is pathetic and it seems as though very few care about the real shit on a local level. everything is so wimpy and safe and too hip i gotta go: a whole lot of wannabees with no substance and some of the worst band names known to man. so that’s why i’m pronouncing now is my big comeback/swan song, because life is too short to worry about being cool, (you either are or you aren’t), and fuck what people think. so ya’ll get ready… criss crass has declared war on mediocrate! to be countinued.
ok, now i know why i’ve never contributed to a blog before the rant above. first, the jounalist i mentioned, was from the seattle weekly. makes sence, ’cause they also have duff writing for them. anyway, just thought anybody who thinks they care about real rocknroll might want to check out my shit. criss crass is back again in 2010 and we’ll be plying our trade in clubs of the nw. ya’ll are welcome to see something substantial and hear some honest punk rocknroll. crisscrassband at myspace be fillin in the uninformed bout who the fuck i am. don’t be afraid to get in my face if you dare and we’ll see ya there. luvya hateya… cc
just thought anybody who never reads this might want know that one of cooleest pics in the book has a friend of ours in it who recently died from a premature stroke. his name is scott burroughs and he played bass in local band the thankless dogs. scott was a very special guy that i was only recently able to get to know better,and he will forver missed. he was known for his super cool green leather jacket and was taller than most. he was also one the few black punkers that used to hang out. in the picture, he’s in the middle of a group touble makers and he realy stands out because he’s also wearing some kinda military head wear. anyway, he looks cool as fuck and everybody should know it! r.i.p. scott we love you