G E N E R I C A N I F E S T OVolumeThree : Spring | Summer 2013

02

CONTENT

04 Greg Chapman Pho t o s + t ex t by Dus t i n A . Bea t t y

08 I nnova t i ve Le i s u re Tex t by Dus t i n A . Bea t t y

12 B rad E l t e r man Tex t by Dus t i n A . Bea t t y

26 The A l l ah - l a s V i sua l Tou r D ia r y Pho t o s The A l lah - l a s

34 The Gener ic Man for Comme des Garçons Shir t Pho t o s Fe l i pe L ima

38 Shad i Dav id Pe rez Tex t N ik Merce r

44 GNRC Eye12

I n se t : Debb ie Har r y , Lo s Ange le s , C A . Pho t o by Brad Elterman

Cover : Joan Je t t , Lo s Ange le s , C A . Pho t o by Brad Elterman

Camo P r i n t Suede F lo ren t i ne

Ava i lab le Exc l u s i ve l y a t Se l f r i dges 400 Ox fo rd S t ree t London

Exclusive To

WE’D LIKE YOU TO MEET

GREG CHAPMAN

GREG C HAPMAN GREG C HAPMAN

GREG CHAPMAN IS THE NEWLY APPOINTED CREAT IVE DIRECTOR OF GENERIC SURPLUS + GENERIC MAN.

Hai l ing f rom one of t he best -dressed towns in the UK, i t ’ s easy to see why Manchester -born Greg Chap -man has made menswear a focus for over 25 years. He spent t he bet ter par t of t he n ine t ies buying rare, dead s tock sneakers for shops in the UK and Japan; in fact , Chapman has worked in al l aspects of t he bus iness f rom re tai l , buying, sourc ing, des igning and product ion. He has a vast knowledge of Amer icana c lo th ing and al l aspects of footwear that led h im to launch the Fred Per r y col lec t ion back in 2002 when the footwear div is ion of t he brand had been dead for over 30 years.

Chapman has contr ibuted to GNRC s ince i t ’ s incep -t ion 6 1/2 years ago, and worked on a s ignature des ign that eventual ly led to a capsule col lect ion for The Gener ic Man launched las t Fal l exclus ively for Sel f r idges in London. The recent fu l l - t ime involve -ment f inds h im hard at work on the Spr ing/Summer 2014 col lect ions and whi le we can’ t g ive away too many detai l s expect to see “more color, new fabr ics and some addi t ional s i lhouet tes” to the expanding range. F inding the r ight f i t for your fee t i s l ike f ind -ing the r ight pair of jeans,” adds Chapman. Read on to f ind out what makes th is man t ic k .

Many know you by your iconic s ty le: How would you descr ibe what you wear and how you look?

I ’m real ly in f luenced by h is tor y, her i tage and a lo t of Amer icana; in fact , I ’ve been in to v in tage Amer i -cana s ince the mid -80s in England. Amer ican denim and workwear f rom the 40s and 50s has always fas -c inated me. I t ’ s real ly qui te common for Br i t i sh guys to wear a lo t of s tu f f f rom th is era. I guess I ’m one of those k inds of guys.

With so many brands looking to the pas t for inspira -t ion what do you th ink i t takes to be or iginal?

I t h ink i t ’ s a l l about f inding those unique pieces f rom whatever era you have nostalg ia for and his tor y does repeat i t se l f f rom decade to decade. I t a lways seems we’re looking back and borrowing

detai l s but to l i teral ly t rans late that to new garments i s somet imes patroniz ing. I l ike to take e lements f rom the past and mix them in wi th a modern aesthe t ic to make shoes or c lo thes look qui te unique.

Simi lar to how a DJ would dig through old records, I would imagine you come across some real ly in teres t -ing fabr ics or mater ials that are unique to a speci f ic era.

I ’ve had a pass ion for th is as long as I can remem -ber—probably s ince I was s ix years old. I t ’ s real ly impor tant to get in to the depth of t he garment wheth -er i t ’ s shoes, an outer wear piece, sh i r t s or denim. I have a real pass ion for c lo th ing, s t i tch ing and fabr ic but a lso the h is tor y. S imi lar to how a speci f ic hook or a bar might s tay wi th a music ian, t here are cer ta in garments t hat have s tayed wi th me for l i fe .

Outs ide of the obvious ut i l i ty, what would you say the fundamental di f ference is between des igning what you wear on your body versus what you wear on your feet?

I t h ink you real ly need to cons ider durabi l i ty when you’re des igning footwear. I walk a lo t so on a per -sonal level I cons ider the f i rs t factor to be comfor t and the second to be durabi l i ty. F inding the r ight f i t for your fee t i s l ike f inding the r ight pair of jeans. That ’s why I ’ve always appreciated Gener ic Sur -plus because there’s enough des ign on i t to make i t unique.

Tel l me more about the Sel f r idges des igns. Where did you train your eye for the look and feel of those s ty les?

I l ike the idea of team colors as a sor t of badge that ident i f ies you. We saw a lo t of t hat in the s t ree twear of t he 80s and 90s where brands looked to Amer i -can and Br i t i sh spor ts . People who fol low spor ts can always associate wi th a color. I wanted to t rans late that to a dress shoe and I d id that wi th the des igns for Sel f r idges.

Being from the UK, I have to imagine that the appl i -cat ion of spor ts - re lated colors looks a l i t t le di f ferent to an Amer ican consumer.

I t ’ s ver y di f ferent . A lo t of t rends in the UK real ly do s tem from the footbal l her i tage. There’s so much pass ion for t hat in the European market , especial ly in England. In my day people were always checking out what you were

wear ing before or at the footbal l match. We always wanted to look our best—not in our Sunday’s best but in your casual wear. This is very big in the UK and a lot of my passion and obsession with apparel comes from this but even that has i ts l imi ts. I t ’s impor tant to also consider the consumer who might just buy something because they l ike i t .

I s i t poss ible to lead the conversat ion—to dic tate t rends—versus des igning s tr ic t ly for the consumer based on market pressures?

Back in my day my exci tement came from individual s ty le and how you had to go hunt for things whether i t was a pair of sneakers, denim or something someone else had. I got to do that a lot whi le l iv ing in the UK and even travel -ing the lengths of Amer ica to f ind dead stock sneakers of shoes that were never released in Europe. To get something that no one else has got was the ul t imate goal.

These days most everything is ac-cessible with the cl ick of a button. The chal lenge becomes to think outs ide of the l i t t le crowd and ap-peal to a global market. You nev -er know where something might get picked up

So how do you avoid homog-eny?

That ’s a tough one. I think by l imit ing how much product you release so once something is gone i t ’s gone.

I f creativi ty is your business what ’s your creative out -let?

People! I travel a lot and gather so much inspirat ion from those I meet. History. Walks in the streets. Going to f lea markets or some random place I’ve never been before. I ab -solutely love f lea markets and have ever s ince I can remem-ber; in fact, I grew up around ant ique dealers in my family

Do you f ind a personal responsibi l i ty to be an archivis t with warehouses of sneakers, c lothes and wares?

Yeah, I have a big archive here in the US and one back in the UK. I t can get out of hand and real ly hard to manage. When i t gets r idiculous I turn around and sel l s tuf f .

06 07

I used to buy and col lect a lo t of sneakers; in fact , at one point I had c lose to a thousand pair. I look to a lo t of t hat to inspire my des ign. For example, t here might be something in my wardrobe that I could see t rans lat -ing to footwear. That could be something as smal l as a c l ip or snap that I could pic ture on a shoe.

I ’m su re t he re a re a lo t o f peop le who wou ld l i ke t o see you r co l l e c t i on i n i t s en t i re t y one day. Do you have any p lan s t o do t ha t ?

I t ’ s a pos s ib i l i t y, yeah . I f anyone wan t s t o see my c razy c rap t hen I ’ l l s how i t t o t hem! [ l aughs ] .

What ’ s l i f e l i ke i n New Yor k ou t s ide o f de s ign?

I l ove New Yor k and I a lways have ; I ’ ve been com -i ng he re f o r ove r twen ty yea r s . I t ’ s a c i t y so i t can be c razy l i ke anywhere e l se bu t I l i ve i n W i l l i ams -burg and t he re ’ s a l o t go ing on he re r i gh t now. I ’m happy t o be a pa r t o f t ha t . No one does c lo t h i ng l i ke Amer i ca rang ing f rom ou t e r wear t o wor kwear. I s ee a l o t o f t ha t i n f l uence i n New Yor k even i n t he a rc h i t e c t u re .

What k i nds o f t h i ngs can we expec t f rom you r new ro le a t GNRC?

Wi t hou t g i v i ng up t oo muc h de ta i l we ’ re go ing t o f o cu s on add ing more co lo r, new f ab r i c s and some add i t i ona l s i l houe t t e s .

TEXT : DUS T IN A . BEATT Y

out h is f i rs t 45 and the f i rs t t ime I heard i t I was impressed. In fact , I ’d never heard someone do a take on 50s rock ‘n’ ro l l and R & B. There’s a popcorn R & B scene that ’s b ig in Europe. We s igned him and booked Nick’s f i rs t LA show at t h is speakeasy in Venice.

Things were pret ty successfu l for Innovat ive Leisure out of the gates.

JAMIE: Wel l , we al l decided in May of 2011 that i f we were going to make th is happen we al l needed to focus on i t . I le f t Stone’s Throw and Hanni le f t Huf to work on ar t and music fu l l t ime.

I f someone jus t looks at the Al -lah Las, Nick Waterhouse and Hanni together they might say that the ar t i s t s on the label have a speci f ic sound. Is that a goal?

NATE NELSON: No, we l ike ev -er yth ing and we want the label to ref lec t t hat . When we al l jo ined forces we never made an ef for t to s tay wi th in any parameters .

JAMIE: I t jus t so happened that a few ar t i s t s had a common sound. We have Nosa j Th ing, Rhye, Class ix and a bunch of o thers who sound radical ly di f ferent f rom one another.

H ow a re yo u d e f i n i n g h ow a l a b e l o p e ra t e s t h e s e d a y s ?

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INNOVAT IVE LE ISUREINNOVAT IVE LE ISURE

Q & A WITH INNOVATIVE LEISURE

Someone somewhere said the only constant is change and since we embarked on an expected journey into this new century we’ve cer tainly seen a lot go down with the music industr y. As a response to the changing t ides, LA -based Inno-vat ive Leisure Records has not only s igned some of the most ground-breaking acts but also keeps things interest ing with eye-popping design and distr ibut ion channels br inging their genre-bend-ing roster to the masses. I t ’s a business model that gives fans a l i t t le legroom to enjoy some modern classics as Innovative Leisure cont inues to be harbingers of good taste and an ent i ty al l their own. Welcome to the future.

Can you walk me through the chain of events that led up to you s tar t -ing Innovat ive Leisure?

JAMIE STRONG: Nate was at Stone’s Throw for about s ix or sev -en years. He s tar ted a publ ish ing and l icens ing company wi th Peanut But ter Wolf and Egon. Eventual ly, he lef t t he label to focus on the l icens ing and publ ish ing company that p i tched the var ious ar t i s t s on the label to T V, f i lm, adver t i s ing e tc. Innovat ive Leisure was an out -le t for us to put out re leases that didn’ t necessar i ly fa l l in l ine wi th what S tone’s Throw was put t ing out .

About two years ago I was in San Francisco and I s topped by the Huf s tore where I ran in to Hanni [E l Kat ib] . I knew one of t he manag -ers t here and happened to run in to Hanni a few t imes in the past at Magic. He gave me a demo that I p layed in my rental car and was comple te ly blown away by i t ! I t was so unique and real ly resonat -ed wi th me.

I shared the music wi th Nate and suggested that i t might be a good f i t for l icens ing. He was also blown away by i t and asked me i f I want -ed to put i t out together as par t of Innovat ive Leisure. We did the deal wi th Hann i who t hen ended up on t he cove r o f L A Reco rd . Ch r i s Z i eg le r ove r t he re a sked me i f I knew any t h i ng abou t N i c k Water -house and I hadn’ t . He had jus t put

NATE: We take the new model in to cons iderat ion, especial ly focus ing on th i rd par ty l icens ing.

JAMIE: I t jus t so happens that a l l of our s t rengths compl iment one another. I t ’ s a lso impor tant to have great des ign and Hanni i s per fect for t hat ro le. My exper i -ence is more wi th sales and mar-ket ing whi le Nate’s exper t i se i s with digi ta l and l icens ing. No one i s s tepping on one another ’s toes.

LA is popping of f these days wi th a lot of crossover happening in the music scene. I bet i t ’s exci t ing to be a par t of that .

JAMIE: We come from that wor ld and i t makes comple te sense to us. We’re carefu l about what we’re going af ter and hope that we can create a fami ly environment where we can al l grow together.

NATE: What I imagined for us f rom day one is not only having a cool label but something that would de-velop beyond the music.

JAMIE: We’re in teres ted in some -t h ing that has longevi ty so we’ l l be s t i l l hear ing about t hem ten to f i f -teen years f rom now.

NATE: Al l t he ar t i s t s are tak ing a chance on their craf t and we love having the oppor tuni ty to connect wi th them.

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INNOVAT IVE LE ISURE INNOVAT IVE LE ISURE

Hann i , can you t e l l me abou t you r bac kg round a s an a r t i s t and how you came t o be i nvo l ved w i t h I nnova t i ve Le i su re?

I s tar ted out as a designer/ar t director in SF about twelve years ago now. I worked at a bunch of di f fer-ent agencies and freelanced a ton. The commercial work began to feel a bi t soul crushing, so I found myself doing s ide work for fr iend’s bands and skate -board companies just to keep myself sane. I quickly star ted working with Huf, which at the t ime was a new company and began designing t -shir ts and graphics pret ty regular ly.

Af ter about a year of that, I jumped on board with HUF and star ted to help them develop a ful l c loth-ing l ine to suppor t their shops/brand. I became cre-at ive director and cont inued that for about s ix years. About two and a half years ago I ended up hooking up with Jamie and Nate because they were interested in s igning me as a musician and wanted to put my ful l length out. As he says, I met Jamie through some mutual fr iends and i t just seemed l ike a good f i t and the r ight thing for me.

From there, I became real ly involved with my own ar t and packaging and star ted to express interest in helping out with some of the other ar t is ts on the la -bel. I guess that sor t of natural ly evolved into the idea of par tner ing up and becoming the ar t director of the label.

Are there any ar t directors or ar t i s t s direct ly associ -ate wi th music whose careers you admire?

I real ly l ike the work of S torm Thorgerson and his design col lect ive, Hipgnosis. Individual ly and as a group they designed some of the most inf luent ial and classic albums to have ever come out. I also real ly admire the work of Blue Note records. That is the best example of the power of s taying true to one s ingular visual aesthet ic.

What l imi tat ions do you put on yoursel f as a cre -at ive director, especial ly wi th regard to the label?

I t r y not to l imi t myself to anything I do creat ively. I think that keeping an open mind is what makes peo-ple successful . However, I always run al l the work we put out through the Innovate Leisure f i l ter to see i f i t holds up against our aesthet ic as a brand and label.

How do you approach each project you work on for the label? Is i t more of a col laborat ive ef for t wi th you s teer ing the ship?

Every ar t is t is di f ferent and I tr y to approach each project with that in mind. I normally l ike to s i t with the band/ar t is t and simply just brainstorm ideas to-gether. Once we get to a place where we al l feel good, that ’s when i t ’s t ime to explore al l the possi -b i l i t ies. There are t imes where I feel there is a per fect ar t is t or designer that ’ l l f i t the project and I’ l l just act as the l iason between them and the band.

Other t imes I feel l ike I’ l l be able to help real ize the vis ion or concept of the ar t is t myself . Ei ther way, I l ike to be involved every step of the way. I ’m here here to help the ar t is t at tach the r ight visual element to their music. I t ’s so crucial that both, the ar t and music, makes sense together.

Can you give us some back s tor y on some of the album ar t you’ve designed?

NICK WATERHOUSE ( “T ime’s Al l Gone” Ful l - length)

This was one of those t imes where the music i tsel f dictated the visual aesthet ic. The ar t had to give a nod to the past and reference the types of things that inspired and inf luenced the music.

HANNI EL KHATIB (“Dead Wrong” 7”, “Bui ld. Destroy. Rebui ld”. 7”, “Wil l The Guns Come Out” Ful l -Length)

The visual concept al l came from an old ‘zine I or igi -nal ly made for the album. I t was f i l led with old pho-tos of car wrecks, bondage gir ls, burning houses and other tragic and weird images. I decided to take the idea of crashed cars and span that over a few record covers. In the end I fel t the imagery was the per fect match to the overal l idea of my music on this album.

RHYE (“Open” 12”)

The idea was to give the ar twork a del icate and an-drogynous look and feel. We went with a very photo dr iven cover that focuses on the body and por trays i t as somewhat of a landscape.

TEXT : DUS T IN A . BEATT Y

BRAD ELTERMAN

“YOU AND EYE”

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In many circles, photographer Brad Elterman is as

integral to the old Sunset Strip scene as Joan Jett,

The Runaways and even 80s hair metal bands. For years,

he was the conduit between the private and public eyes

with a bright smile, signature hair and a disarming

personality that created a kinship between he and his

subjects. Chances are, if you flipped through the pag-

es of music, pop-culture and even gossip mags in the

70s and 80s you were sure to land on one of Brad’s

signature snaps. After a long hiatus, he dusted off

his cameras and hit the streets with an enthusiasm

just as infectious now as it was back then.

TEXT: DUSTIN A. BEATTY

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BRAD ELTERMAN BRAD ELTERMAN

Where a re you t ra i n i ng you r eyes t he se days? I s ee you j u s t abou t eve r ywhere .

I go to a lot of par t ies but there’s no money in i t . I love to get out and get the content especial ly when my shots end up on Purple Diary. I ’d rather be on there than in T ime Magazine. I am doing photos ses -s ions again too. My photos and cameras were in s tor-age for about two decades.

You can’t bui ld a brand si t t ing at home in front of the computer. You’ve got to meet people and have your shots on the Internet where your fans wi l l re -blog them. I’m very act ive on Tumblr and that helps me get a lot of my work out there but I ’d love to even shoot for Urban Outf i t ters.

I see a lot of these hipster kids who look so cool and have this quiet elegance to them. I feel l ike those are the people romantic izing the 70s.

Are you no t i c i ng any para l l e l s be tween 1970s L A and 2012 L A?

Pop-cul ture wise, no. Lana Del Rey is pret ty cool but there aren’t any paral lels between her and Joan Jet. In the 70s there was a scene, a vibe. You could go out and know everybody. I k ind of feel the same way now because we have this cable that goes into our house. “Anything is possible,” as Fi tzgerald would say.

I get the feel ing that everyone involved in pop-cul ture today has a nine to f ive day job or they l ive with their parents.

You said something that was interest ing when we bonded at Coachel la. I think you mentioned that cor-porate Amer ica is real ly paying at tent ion to what we’re doing, especial ly i f you’re a good photogra -pher or a popular blogger. They al l want a piece of you. That ’s why they embrace al l these fest ivals and youth-or iented events

Why do you c hoose t o ca l l Lo s Ange le s home?

LA is the best place in the wor ld to l ive. I grew up here but I ’ve traveled extensively al l over the wor ld. I t ’s so comfor table here.

You ’ ve men t ioned Pu rp le a s be ing one o f t he bes t brands on t he I n t e r ne t . How d id you r re la t i on sh ip w i t h O l i v i e r Zahm s t a r t ?

When the proofs for my book were going back and for th between LA and Asia I had an extra set I want -ed to send to a magazine. I was tr ying to f igure out who I should send them to: French Vogue, I tal ian Vogue, Amer ican Vogue, Popular Photography. I just love the Purple brand so much that sending them to Olivier was the obvious choice. He’s l ike the modern day Hugh Hefner and when I was growing up we al l wanted to be l ike Hef. Now, we al l want to be l ike Olivier!

I feel l ike young people today l ive their l ives vicar-iously through the Purple Diary. He’s travel ing al l over the wor ld meeting these incredibly fascinat ing people—sl ipping in and out of these ci t ies.

He ended up putt ing the photos in the Night sect ion of the magazine. I then traveled to New York to go to this incredible par ty at The S tandard where I was hoping to meet him but things were just crazy. So on

my last night I was dining up on 82nd and in walks Olivier. We met, he kissed my hand and now we’re very good fr iends.

You no t on l y have t h i s ou t - and -abou t way o f l i f e abou t you i n common bu t t he way t ha t you pub l i -ca l l y d i sp lay t ha t exper i ence on t he web .

Well, one of the main things Olivier and I have in common is the way we embrace the Internet. I always wanted people to see my work as a mini Associated Press. The agency I ran in 1980 was very expensive and labor ious to run; in fact, I had my own process -ing machines to crank out al l these photos.

I t h i nk bac k a t 1977, 1978 when I f i r s t wen t t o Eu rope w i t h a su i t ca se o f t ran sparenc ie s t o t r y t o se l l my work t o a l l t he se magaz ine s . The r umor was t ha t t he re was a lo t o f money t o be made i n Eu rope . Even tua l l y I go t connec t i on s w i t h B ravo magaz ine i n Germany, ano t he r i n Aus t ra l i a , Po s t -e r magaz ine i n S t oc kho lm and Pop Pho t o Maga -z i ne i n Ho l land . Eve r yone pa id a lo t o f money f o r my work and I had t o make f i f t een se t s o f eve r y t h i ng .

Fo r me , i t was no t on l y abou t my love o f t he s t ree t bu t abou t mak ing money. I saw on Jenny Len s Facebook t he o t he r day a pos t t ha t read : “B rad E l t e rman a lways t o ld me t o d re s s r i gh t and t ake pho t o s o f bands t ha t were commerc ia l .” She wou ld on l y t ake pho t o s o f punk bands and mus i -c i an s whose s t u f f s he was i n t o . I had a beau t i f u l , o s t en t a t i ou s l i f e s t y l e f o r a n i ne t een year -o ld k id . I l oved i t !

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BRAD ELTERMAN

You loved eve r y t h i ng you were shoo t i ng t hough .

Yeah, but when the whole music thing petered out I was forced to shoot the Osmonds, the Bay City Rol l -ers, Sean Cassidy. When that petered out I was tak-ing pictures of Dick Van Patten, Bi l ly Crystal and al l these TV stars for Amer ican and European maga-zines. Shooting them was how I sur vived but hose photos didn’t make my book.

The i ndus t r y was c hang ing r igh t i n f ron t o f you .

All of this happened r ight in front of my eyes. I watched al l these enormous companies disappeared over night. Now with the Internet you don’t wait for a s ixteen page story about the Oscars to come out. By the t ime you see the photos in pr int they’re old news.

I also feel l ike there aren’t any icons anymore. Icons are now created in an at torney’s of f ice in Bever ly Hi l ls and they’re al l par t of this old boy network. There aren’t anymore Bob Dylans, no more Elvis’s, none of i t . What abou t Buzz Fo t o? Wha t a re you r f ee l i ng s abou t t he agency i ndus t r y?

I s t i l l love the process, i t ’s just the bozos in that in -dustr y are annoying and their contr ibut ion to the de-mise of a once great photo business. I s tar ted Buzz Foto with a business par tner seven years ago with a dream of “Paparazzi As An Ar t Form”. We did an ex-hibi t ion on Melrose and got tons of press. We turned down 90 percent of the photographers who wanted to work for us because they did not understand the “ar t form”. They were al l dr iven by the fast buck , which has the potent ial for disaster in that industr y. At the end of the day, Buzz Foto got tons of press, but no one else gave a shi t about our vis ion. The business cont inues and is prof i table, but for me personal ly, what keeps me going is taking my own photographs, the way I want to take them and with the subjects of my choice. I think my fol lowers appreciate that and I ’m having a blast doing my own thing.

What ’ s i t l i ke be ing ou t and abou t now ve r su s how t h i ngs were i n t he 70s?

I ’m having a blast! Young people wi l l see me at a par ty and ask , “Are you Brad? I love your photos.” I love that. Also, i t ’s cool to go speak at Ar t Center, UCLA and places in Tokyo and London

I i n t e r v i ewed pho t og rapher, Pau l Ja sm in once and he men t ioned t he idea t ha t we’re l i v i ng i n a cu l t u re o f t he ‘whore ’ where peop le w i l l do j u s t abou t any t h i ng f o r a t t en t i on .

I feel l ike the women I shoot have to have one thing in common and i t ’s this essence of coolness. Also, rap -por t is al l about trust—no one is coming on to anyone.

You were suc h a par t o f t he cu l t u ra l f ab r i c bac k t hen and a re s t i l l t o t h i s day so I imag ine i t ’ s a l l abou t t r u s t t o ge t t he acce s s you wan t .

Back then i t was al l about trust because people were shoving so much shi t up their noses. My l ips are sealed!

Joa

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Val ley Gir ls

BRAD ELTERMAN BRAD ELTERMAN

S ty l i s t i ca l l y , I a s sume you were shoo t i ng Kodac h rome and Tr i - X bac k i n t he 70s bu t re cen t l y I ’ ve seen some Po la ro id and o t he r f o r -ma t s i n you r wor k . A re you exper i -men t i ng more w i t h wha t you shoo t because you r wor k i s so sub jec t -spec i f i c ?

Most of the stuf f I send to Purple Di -ary is al l black and white; I ’m just so drawn to i t . I love the Impossible Proj -ect black and white f i lm. I ’m keeping my opt ions open but I ’ve had fr iends te l l me to keep everything the way I did i t in the 70s.

So you ’ l l ma in t a i n t he spon t ane -ou s , B rad E l t e rman s t y l e?

Yeah but I admire how photographers l ike Helmut Newton work I was watch-ing these old videos of him and he’s direct ing everything so much that i t ’s almost l ike he was molding a piece of clay. “Do this. Put your butt up. Hold the cigaret te l ike this.” He would just take one or two frames and he had his shot.

I a lways unders tood that you were on the ins ide and someone l ike Ron Gal le la was on the per ipher y.

Ron was always on the outs ide; in fact, I have a famous photo of him with a tape measure next to Jackie O. She had a restraining order against him. We’d go to these par t ies, eat, dr ink and have a great t ime and we’d go outs ide and there was Ron on the s idewalk with his camera. Nine t imes out of ten the picture People magazine would run was Ron’s. He was so al ive.

What is your al l - t ime favor i te photo?

Mee t i ng Bob Dy lan . I was so shy and ne r vous .

Do you have a reverence for a specif ic t ime per iod you wish you could have photographed?

Not rea l l y. I was t he re i n 1977. I t was t he peak o f a l l o f wha t I was i n t o . Thank god I had a camera w i t h me .

For more of Brad’s images vis i t

BradElterman.com

BradElterman.tumblr.com

The re ’ s p robab l y no t yp i ca l day - i n -t he - l i f e o f B rad E l t e rman i s t he re?

No, not real ly. I spend a l i t t le bi t of t ime on Buzz Foto but i t k ind of runs i tsel f . Most of my days are spend tr ying to f ind out what to shoot and staying on top of news so I can f ig -ure out what par ty to shoot. I ’m very dedicated to gett ing my photos out fast .

I ’ve been prepar ing for this exhibi -t ion in Basel, which has been a long t ime in the making. I also have an exhibi t ent i t led Factory 77 opening June 21 at Kana Manglapus in Ven-ice. I t runs al l summer.

You a l so wor k w i t h Jona t han ove r a t Lead Apron , r i gh t ?

Yeah, Jonathan is an incredible deal -er! He’s amazing. He sel ls to some heavy -duty people

Any good recen t s t o r i e s ?

I recent ly spoke with Bryan Ferr y. I never photographed Roxy Music but I saw them ear ly on and I photo-graphed him ear ly in 1975 at a Rod Stewar t par ty. He and I got to talking at an ar t show he was having for the album covers and I asked him about ‘Countr y L i fe’ and i f i t was shot in a studio. He told me i t was shot in some back yard! I asked him i f he fel t l ike images l ike that inspire people l ike Juergen Tel ler. He said, “Maybe but I feel l ike i t inspired everybody!” [ laughter] He is so cool—the ul t imate pop star.

Who i s you r cu r ren t Che r i e Cu r r i e?

Probably Haley Dahl from the band Sloppy Jane. She’s a teenage gir l who sent me some messages asking me to photograph her band. I went to downtown LA and shot her and her band. They blew me away. There is no doubt in my mind that this gir l is going to make i t

You ’re a l so know f o r no t i c i ng id io -s ync ra s i e s abou t you r sub jec t s and cap t ion ing t he i r coo lne s s .

I feel l ike you ei ther have i t or you don’t . No one can go to “cool school.”

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THE ALLAH-LAS VISUAL TOUR DIARY

THE ALLAH-LAS

VISUAL TOUR DIARY

These days, you can’t really go anywhere without catch-

ing a nod to the past and for good reason, classic

is cool. It makes perfect sense that the guys in the

Allah-Las tip their hats to 60s and 70s surf culture

when all elements of the sport distilled down to a look

that amplified the lifestyle. To call them a throwback

band wouldn’t be fair, as they have a style and sound

all their own modernized for the current culture of

cool cats who might look to the past for inspiration

but who are always living in the present. Keep an eye

for these guys as they breeze through your town in

support of new music out on Innovative Leisure.

ALL PHOTOS: The Allah-las

THE ALLAH-LAS VISUAL TOUR DIARY THE ALLAH-LAS VISUAL TOUR DIARY

THE ALLAH-LAS VISUAL TOUR DIARY THE ALLAH-LAS VISUAL TOUR DIARY

THE ALLAH-LAS VISUAL TOUR DIARY THE ALLAH-LAS VISUAL TOUR DIARY

THE GENERIC MAN

FOR

COMME DES GARÇONS SHIRT

SPRING 2013

Q&A WITH SHADI DAVID PEREZ

Born and raised in the Bronx, Shadi David Perez has long

been a fixture in the New York City scene, particular-

ly in the downtown Manhattan neighborhoods. He cut his

teeth as a motivated photographer’s assistant, bounc-

ing around the metropolis and the globe on big-budget

shoots. Thanks in part to his deep-rooted connections to

the city, Shadi found himself story-boarding, directing,

and producing music videos for bands like Cypress Hill,

the Beastie Boys, and House of Pain in the 90s. Simulta-

neously, he began working for the legendary streetwear

company, Supreme, which helped him establish himself as

an on-demand editorial photographer. Here, we talk with

the man about growing up, finding photography, and ar-

riving at where he is now.

TEXT: NIK MERCER

PHOTOS: SHADI DAVID PEREZ

Where were you born and ra i sed?

Spent the f irs t par t of my chi ldhood in the Bronx. The second par t of my chi ldhood I spent in L i t t le I taly, on Mott S treet and Pr ince. That was my Manhattan upbr inging... 17 and higher. I ’m sadly just a New Yorker and I get a lot of shi t for i t . I haven’t found a place that I l ike more than New York yet. I ’ve never lef t New York for longer than three weeks. I ’ve been to a lot of places, but I ’ve never been gone that long.

What k i nd o f s t u f f d id you ge t i n t o when you were g row ing up?

What ’s funny is DJ’ ing was a big par t of my chi ld -hood from ‘79 to ‘83, ‘84. I was par t of a DJ crew

cal led Force of Four. We used to steal our parents’ turntables and ampli f iers and speakers and scrounge up a system. We were al l t r ying to DJ and scratch, but we didn’t have good turntables -we had these Pioneer SLB-1s, and the “B” was for “bel t -dr ive.” I f you weren’t careful, the bel t would fal l of f , which was frustrat ing to DJ with. You couldn’t backspin or scratch. We used to do sweet 16s [and that sor t of thing]. We had, l ike, the sweatshir ts with the gothic i ron-on le t ters. That was a big par t of my chi ldhood, knowing al l the breakbeats and hanging out with the older guys. But I lef t that for a long t ime... but s tar t -ed DJ’ ing again over the past few years.

My teenage years were in the ear ly 80s, and the biggest things were rol ler skat ing and hip-hop. There were a lot of rol ler r inks [ in the Bronx]. The kids went in the morning, the teenagers in the af ternoon, and the adults at night, because they ser ved l iquor. There weren’t a lot of discos- that was more of a Manhat -tan thing- but rol ler skat ing r inks were everywhere. I t had a big impact on New York City night l i fe! Some of the toughest guys I knew in the Bronx were bad-ass rol lerskaters.

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How’d you s t a r t ge t t i ng i n t o pho t og raphy?

I t came about dur ing the last year of high school. I got kicked out of Cathol ic School and [transferred to] Adlai S tevenson. So, dur ing that last year of high school, I got a lot more creat ive.. . i t was l ike, Oh, I can take an archi tecture class and an ar t class. At Cathol ic School, I wasn’t moti -vated to do anything but play spor ts. At publ ic school, for that one year, I s tar ted taking pictures. I mean, my dad had a Lei -ca, and I remember him always taking pic -tures.. . but what I discovered is that gir ls l ike being photographed. I t was very easy to break the ice [with my camera]. “Hey, can I take your por trai t” was l ike saying, “Hey, can we meet up again?” That said, these were people whose por trai ts I actu -al ly wanted to take. I f ind a lot of peo-ple and I’m l ike, Hey, I want to document [you]. Or they’re famous and I’m l ike, Hey, can I take your por trai t?

I t h i nk you show t he t r ue t e s t o f t ime when you ’re ab le t o t ran s la t e a hob -by i s t i n t e re s t i n t o some th i ng t ha t ’ s a c -t ua l l y a j ob , wh i c h you ’ ve done w i t h f l y i ng co lo r s .

Yeah, i t ’s l ike James Murphy said: “Why did we star t making records? Because nobody was making records we l iked. Why did we star t throwing par t ies? Because there weren’t any we wanted to go to, so we made our own.” There was a void, so i t was l ike, Well , i f i t ’s not being f i l led, why don’t we do i t?

I wanted to be creat ive, but I wasn’t that good of a painter.. . I t r ied doing graf f i t i , but I sucked. I was good at copying other people, but [ that was i t ] . I remember using my gir l -fr iend as a guinea pig [once]. I wanted to do blackl ight photos, so I spray -painted my gir l with DayGlo paint, and [the photos] looked amazing. Except we woke up in the morning, and she was completely covered in this yel low and orange paint, and she [couldn’t] wash i t of f. I had a motorcycle and a can of gasol ine, so I s tar ted using that to get the paint of f . I remeber thinking, Oh my god, this gir l ’s going to have skin cancer in 10 years.

How did photography become more a ser ious pursui t of yours?

Well, I didn’t real ize you could make money with photography. I tr ied working at an ad agency, in the account ing depar tment, and

then I was at restaurants and bike messenger ing... and then I s tar ted dat ing [ the woman who became] my son’s mother. She was studying photography at NYU, which I’d never done. She worked for a few people here and there. Then this French photographer named Randall Mesdon moved to New York , and I had always considered myself a downtown f ixture, I knew al l the locat ions and al l these people. He needed some-one who could be his assis tant, so I s tar ted working with him. I was also working with a guy named Ken Nahoum. One of those stor ies where, l ike, you star t by sweeping the f loor, then you become four th pho-to assis tant, then third, then second, then f irs t . So, these two photographers, I came up learning by doing with them.

What kind of s tuf f did you do with them?

Celebr i ty por trai ts. . . Ken Na-houm was l ike that. The kind of guy who walked into a room with sunglasses on and is l ike, Where the fuck’s my cof fee, Shadi? Hanging out with, l ike, Howard S tern, smoking cigars. He was dat ing that gir l from Betty Blue, [Béatr ice Dal le]. He was al l about celebr i t ies.. . l ike, I want the same motor-cycle as Mickey Rourke. I was his l i t t le hi tman. We’d do jobs for, l ike, Mer i t Cigaret tes or Folgers Cof fee or Piz Buin sun-tan lot ion. We’d do real ly cool shoots. Once, we were in New Orleans, and we had this vi l la with a pool in the center. He’d give us four or f ive hundred dol lars a night and tel l us to go buy crawf ish and champagne so we could throw a par ty af -ter the shoot.

Do you think those exper iences predisposed you to per-ceive photography -as -work in a cer tain l ight?

The l i festy le appealed to me because i t was a job where I ’d go of f on ten-day - long tr ips and not spend any money in New York. Go to Miami or the south of France or some-thing. Come back , get a nice, big check , and not spend any of that in New York. Al l of a sudden, I had... saved al l this money and was l ike, Fuck.. . this is pret ty cool! I l iked the idea of 10 days on, 10 days of f . To this day, I have t rouble with the not ion of a “real” job. I haven’t had one s ince the late 80s. The idea that I could work real ly hard for shor t per iods of t ime and then have some to myself re -al ly appealed to me.

What was your f irs t gig on your own? Professionally, that is.

When I was a photo assis tant, I found myself in Par is, and I caught a Cypress Hi l l show. I had been working as a PA -I ’d star ted working on video jobs, [which brought me] to Par is. I was a director ’s assis tant and personal assis tant. . . so I had the idea of director in my mind. So, when I saw Cypress Hi l l , I s tar ted drawing my ideas for a video for “How I Could Just Ki l l A Man.” When I got back to New York , I [wanted to get i t made]. I knew somebody at Co -lumbia Records.. . I knew somebody at the product ion com-pany I worked with.. . I knew a gir l who was dat ing one of the members of Cypress Hi l l . I s tar ted pi tching the idea to everyone. Barely had a photo por t fol io, didn’t have a video por tfol io.. . but I had a real ly s trong concept, and the video product ion company I worked for told me they’d

make i t i f I got i t . Somehow, I was able to convince Columbia Records and Cypress Hi l l to give me $10,000 to make “How I Could Just Ki l l A Man.” They weren’t even going to make a video for the song- they didn’t think MTV would run a video for a song [with that t i t le]. I actual ly got a job for another director at the company because they saw some of his work... so he got a Cypress Hi l l v ideo, too. They kind of gave me my $10,000 as an exper iment. Af ter that, I [s tar ted doing music videos], l ike House of Pain’s “Jump Around,” Beast ie Boys’ “Grat i tude,” Brand Nubian... I just s tar ted doing them, one af ter another.

Did you have any personal connections to other groups, l ike the Beastie Boys?

No, I didn’t know them. A lot of my downtown fr iends knew them... or a gir l had slept with one or whatever. Everybody had a connect ion, but. . . when I was l iv ing in the Bronx, I hated the Beast ie Boys. I resented the fact that somebody would com-pare me to one of them. They used to cal l me White Boy David because nobody thought I was Puer to Rican. And i f I dressed l ike someone who didn’t l ive in the Bronx, they’d be l ike, Oh, you look l ike one of the Beast ie Boys. I met them al l for the f irs t t ime in New Zealand, which is where we did the video. They thought I was some groupie [at f i rs t] .

So you were also really involved with the whole skate thing, with Supreme and SSUR and all.

Yeah, I knew James Jebbia from my ear ly days of l iv ing down-town. I knew him before he even had Union, his f i rs t s tore. I t was on Spr ing S treet, between W. Broadway and Thomp-son, on the southside. I t was the f irs t s treetwear apparel s tore in downtown... they had, l ike, S tüssy and The Duf fer Of S t. George and a lot of hard- to-get brands. You wanted to wear everything that was in that s tore. From there, he bought into S tüssy and eventual ly opened up Supreme. When he opened [Supreme], one of the f irs t things he asked me to do was pho -tograph the store. I became a f ixture at the store- i t was on Lafayette and I l ived on Mott. I s tar ted doing the ads, and then James gave me a studio in the basement s ince i t was empty. I t was kind of l ike trading pictures for a studio. A lot of people

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came in and out of there- there’s re -a l ly ear ly pictures of a skinny Jay -Z in a wife-beater, before he became a household name. I got a lot of por-trai ts there. I t was a place to get away and to have late-night dr ink-ing par t ies.

Did the Supreme stuf f lead to other work?

Just being involved with them got me a lot of at tent ion. A lot of Japanese brands l iked the stuf f I was doing. I did a lot of Supreme stuf f in Ja-pan, and that helped me establ ish a relat ionship with Bedwin in Tokyo, and that ’s been a big brand I’ve been t ight with. I ’m forgett ing a lot of brands.. . but, yeah, people have always been l ike, Oh, Shadi did a lo t of ear ly ads for Supreme, [which people f ind to be cool].

What drew you to Japan?

Well, i t was the one place I was go-ing to more than any other in the wor ld, more than L.A . or Par is. I had a real ly good foundation there, great fr iends, I knew the ci ty. Actu-al ly, the New York T imes hired me because they needed to do inter-views with [Nobuyoshi] Araki, [Ta -kashi] Murakami, and Rinko Kikuchi, and they needed someone who real -ly knew how to do product ion there. I was l ike, Well , I ’m your guy!

I t ’s interesting how tight the Japa -nese scene has been with New York City, especially in terms of music and streetwear culture.

Yeah, I feel l ike, for a long t ime, Ja-pan was sor t of copying the U.S., and then the scale t ipped. Now, every Amer ican kid is looking for what ’s coming out of there.

Oh! Bi l l ionaire Boys Club! How could I forget that? I ’ve done so many shoots with BBC/Ice Cream, in Tokyo and here. I did a couple shoots in Japan, with Nigo and Phar-rel l and the Ter iyaki Boys, and that was another brand that I did a shi t -load of work with. I knew the people from A Bathing Ape and the Pharrel l people.. . and that was kind of cool; not feel ing l ike an outs ider in Japan, but an insider, l ike I was Japanese already.

I went back [ to Japan] in October. I hadn’t been in two years, and i t was kind of weird. A lot of things had changed in [ that span of t ime]. Also, at that t ime, people were just s tar t ing to come back out af ter the tsunami and ear thquake, so I came to tr y and get a f inger on the pulse of the ci ty. I also went to the Sendai area, and that was a bi t of a wake-up cal l . I t was very reminiscent to how New York was af ter 9/11. I was a bi t blown away. I found a guide who took me [nor th to Sendai], and we stopped in Fukushima, about 60 miles away from [the nuclear reac -tors that melted down].

What else are you working on?

I don’t want to say I s topped di -rect ing, but I s topped aggressively direct ing music videos and f i lms. Now I’m pushing my way back in. I did this shor t f i lm with Casio’s Baby -G and Leah McSweeney [ the founder and owner of Marr ied to the Mob]. We took the whole bud -get and went to Par is to make a wild fashion video out there. I also star ted working with Nike+ on the FuelBand campaign. And I’m tr ying to f inish wr i t ing my movie this sum-mer.

Woah, you’re working on a feature-length f i lm?

Yeah, about my youth in the Bronx, in the ear ly days. I t ’s one of those things that I ’ve been futzing around with for so long. I ’m giving myself unt i l September to have a real ly strong screenplay. That ’s my baby.

What was one of your favorite projects you’ve worked on over the past two, three years?

Everything’s such a blur. Go -ing to Sendai and documenting everything coming back to nor-mal.. . being there and feel ing the environment [was reward -ing]. I fel t l ike a photojournal is t or documentar ian. Doing fash-ion and al l this tr iv ial bul lshi t is one thing, but exper iencing the loss that Japan did [was anoth -er]. Going out there, taking that l i t t le tr ip, i t made me feel l ike a photojournal is t , and I want to do more projects l ike that ; I want to do more stuf f that has more meaning than clothing and sneakers and blogs. I t put a lot of things in perspect ive.

I got a random email from a professor in New Zealand who had come across one of the photos [ I ’d shot in Sendai]. She wanted to know i f she could use i t for a publ icat ion that had to do with archi tecture and natural disasters, and educat ion on that level. I was l ike, Yeah I’d be more than honored to submit my photo for educat ional reasons! I t ’s going to do some good!

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THE GNRC EYE

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Made i n Japan - Japan Exc l u s i ve