Last month in celebration of Henry Rollins 50th birthday, artist Shepard Fairey and photographer Glen E. Friedman teamed up with the musician for a special collaborative poster print. Based off of Friedman's 1981 classic photograph of an early Black Flag era Henry Rollins, Fairey created a limited run poster print that every Rollins/Friedman fan would be proud to have hanging on their wall, including yours truly.
I was one of the lucky 450 to get one and for now at least, it's closest thing I'll have to a Glen E. Friedman print. Friedman has long been one of my photographic heroes. In all honesty, longer than I thought. A couple of years ago I was working in a camera shop and after talking with one of my co-workers about music and showing her some of my photos, she mentioned "You would love Glen E. Friedman. Do you know him?" I said, "I don't think so." She said "I'll bring in some of his books, you gotta check them out."
A few days later when she plopped Friedman's book FUCK YOU HEROES down on the sales counter I realized, "Yeah, I know Glen E. Friedman." Many of his images were already hanging on my bedroom wall, ripped from magazines collected in my teenage years and tacked up with Scotch tape. Those same photos were the ones floating in the back of my mind when I started taking my own photos at shows.
That was the day I put a name to the person behind the lens. I was amazed to learn the images that had sparked my imagination were captured with little more than a simple manual Pentax KM-1000 and a speedlite. Not only that but Friedman started his publishing career at fourteen with the release of MY RULES one of the most successful zines of all time. He would go on to document not one but three of the most important cultural movements of the past thirty years.
Nowadays, Friedman tours his work in galleries around the world under the title FUCK YOU ALL. The show is comprised of photographs from all of Friedman's past work. Not included in the show is Friedman's current photographic endeavor, documenting his son's childhood. While Friedman's show FUCK YOU ALL is an exhibit of his work, it is more a challenge to the next generation of photographers. "This is my stuff, now show us what you've got" so to speak.
When I was younger Glen E. Friedman's photos helped inspire me to pick up a camera. Since then I've learned how to use it. But now it's Friedman's question "What The Fuck Have You Done?" that inspires me. I might know how to use a camera, but what the fuck am I gonna do with it?
That's a pretty hard question to ignore when Henry Rollins is screaming it from your living room wall. And I think its one I need to answer.
1 comment:
I love the question. WTF AM I gonna do? So much has happened in the few years since we were all at the shop, hula hooping in the store and enjoying enormous pieces of crumb cake.
It is hard to try and make photography a part of my life the way it was then. I've slowly come to the realization that its just never gonna be the same. But now the challenge is to make photography a part of my life as it is NOW and not isolate it. Adapt and overcome, right? Just because I don't have access to the latest and greatest equipment doesn't mean I forgot how to take pictures!
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