Releasing my first limited edition T-shirt tomorrow! Lucky you!
Hanging with SSION
In a cluttered art studio in Brooklyn, a boy in a purple tuxedo applies a new layer of sparkly shadow to his eyelids. He’s hot, which is semi confusing considering he looks like a totally insane freak gender-fuck, and has a unibrow and a lazy eye, and his ratty wig is crooked and his teeth are covered in lipstick. But there’s something about this boy that’s overwhelmingly magnetic. Like you can’t help but want to put all of him in your mouth.
This is Cody Critcheloe, the brain behind the unhinged art beast that is SSION. Since its genesis in 1997, Ssion has released three albums, toured with the likes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Fisherspooner, made a feature film, directed music videos for artists like Peaches and the Gossip, exhibited art in cities all over the world, and has shocked, awed, and confused thousands in the process. Last spring, Cody performed a week of shows at MoMA’s PS1 museum in Queens to debut Ssion’s third album, Bent. The show–which included more than 30 performers, a live band, half-naked cowboy backup dancers, and massive video projections in SSION’s signature deranged pop art aesthetic–was an epic extravaganza of music, performance and film, and confirmed Cody’s place as a true art revolutionary. A punk prophet to a global army of freak disciples.
“I think a lot of people know about SSION, but they’re ultimately confused about what it is or what it’s supposed to do,” smiles Cody, “but I actually think that’s sort of cool. Most often people think SSION is a band, but it’s not really. There are times when I play with a live band, but it always changes depending on what kind of music I want to make at the time. Who I collaborate with depends on the nature of each individual project. So SSION is essentially just my thing, but there are other people involved at different stages who are hugely important to what it sounds like and what it looks like.”
The spectacle that is SSION (pronounced shun) began getting attention in the early 2000s. Cody was living in Kansas City at the time, studying at the Kansas City Art Institute. It was there that he formed a group of friends who would soon become infamous for their collective creativity, their outrageous costumes and make-up, and their twisted sense of humor. The close knit art collective, which also included photographer Jaimie Warren (who took the photos that accompany this article) and performance artist Collin Self, spent their time putting on performances, organizing parties and exhibitions, and making public access TV shows. From an outsider’s perspective, their lives seemed totally fantastical, extreme, and enviously cool. “People always ask me if Kansas City was as crazy as it seemed,” explains Cody, “and it was and it wasn’t. We were always doing stuff and making things, but most of the time it was purely for pictures to be taken, or to make a video that we’d put on Youtube. A large part of what motivated us was creating an illusion for people outside of KC, and I guess it worked.”
Cody’s Kansas City crew were also largely involved in the artwork and videos connected to SSION’s first two albums–Opportunity Bless My Soul (Version City Records, 2003) and Fool’s Gold (Sleazetone Records, 2007). They also took part in the creation of Boy, a feature length film comprised of SSION’s previous music videos strung together with mockumentary live footage, which premiered at Peres Projects in LA in 2010. “Something that’s really strange,” says Cody “is that since I moved to Brooklyn last year people will check me out the street, which is so crazy to me because that never happened in Kansas city. It’s such a different mindset here. People in KC thought I was such a freak. The thought of getting laid or hooking up wasn’t something I consumed myself with while I lived there, because it didn’t even seem like a possibility. I almost stopped thinking of myself as a sexual being, and I think other people in our group felt that as well. The scene was so small–it was really just our group of friends–so we weren’t going to date each other, and no one from outside the scene would have even looked twice at any of use, because we were just too far gone for them. So it sort of removed any need or desire we had to be sexually attractive. I think that was part of the reason we all looked so crazy and dressed up so much, because no one cared about looking hot.”
The very first incarnation of SSION, however, dates back to Cody’s pre-Kansas days, when he was still in high school in rural Kentucky. “I released a tape on a 4-track called SSION when I was about sixteen,” he remembers. “I did it all myself but when I played live I had my friends from the town play backup. This girl Rachel would be reading spoken word poetry and screaming, and we didn’t have a drum kit so we used pots and pans as percussion. You know, just sounding as horrible as we possibly could. After I made the first SSION cassette tape I sent it out to all these indie labels, thinking I was going to become part of the whole Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear movement. They were my idols. From my small town perspective they seemed extremely famous.”
Cody’s description of his childhood is like something out of s movie: boy raised in a small, Southern Baptist town by a teenage mother; boy grows up to be a gay, dog collar wearing goth freak; boy escapes to become an internet celebrity, etc. “My town was really tiny,” he says, “like there were only 50 people in my graduating class. It was a dry county, so there was no alcohol, and it was in the middle of nowhere so you had to drive over 30 minutes to get to the nearest mall or movie theater, or to do anything really. It’s a really meth-y town too, because there are so many factories. Like there’s a paper mill, an aluminum factory—everyone has these long shift kind of jobs, so it makes sense. I didn’t realize how druggy it was until after I left. On some level I was really clueless about my surroundings there. I knew more about what was happening in other places than most people, but I was sort of separate from that town in a weird way.”
While his peers were huffing glue in fields wearing Korn hoodies, Cody spent his high school days reading queercore zines and listening to Riot Grrrl. “Suckdog, Dame Darcy, Pussy Galore—those were the biggest deals for me, and I would send always send them the various tapes and fanzines I made. When I was nineteen I wrote Lisa Carver [of Suckdog] a letter every single day until she responded. For some reason I just wanted her to acknowledge my existence. Then when I started making videos I would send them to Vaginal Davis and Bruce LaBruce. I wanted them to critique my work, and sometimes they actually would. When I met Bruce in person thirteen year later he remembered the zine that I sent him. Man, he’s so cool.”
When asked if he’s close with his parents, and if they are fans of his work, Cody gives a halfhearted shrug. “I talk to my mom every now and then,” he says. “She’s an odd mix. When I was growing up we had a satellite dish and we would always watch MTV together. She was into Def Leopard and Poison and all the hair metal stuff. So she sort of gets it, and she thinks I’m pretty funny, but she’s also Southern Baptist. Deep down I think she likes what I’m doing, but she would prefer not to know too much about it because it’s too much for her to handle. I just went off the deep end in her world.”
On the day of this interview, Cody is in the process of editing together the music video for Bent’s first single, “Phy-chic”–a euphoric dance track with a chorus that croons, sometimes I think about you every day. The video sees Cody in a neon computer universe, sashaying about amid flying peace signs, acid smileys and puppy dogs. “I wanted to make something really commercial but also really gross and fucked up,” he says. “I wanted it to reference all that internet art, but also sort of make fun of it because I actually hate that aesthetic. I think it’s disgusting.”
The video will be premier this Summer, alongside the physical release of Bent. [The album will be released through a Brooklyn based indie label which at the time of publication Cody wished not to disclose]. However, most SSION fans are already familiar with the record, as Cody put it up as a free download on the SSION website last Summer to coincide with his MoMA performances. Working along artists like Fischerspooner, Teengirl Fantasy and Azari & III, SSION’s new material is anthemic, empowering, and apologetically gay–a guilty pleasure you don’t have to feel guilty about. At its purest, Bent is an incredible pop album. Think Prince meets a Richard Simmons workout video meets a children’s TV show from the 90s where everyone is tripping on DMT. “I feel like over the past couple years I’ve gotten more comfortable as a song writer, both lyrically and musically,” Cody explains, “and with Bent my ambition was just to write good pop songs. I once made a record during a weird period where I was trying to prove to myself that I was a ‘serious songwriter.’ It totally backfired, and since then I’ve tried to approach music in a genuinely punk way, where you just doing give a fuck, and you do exactly what you want. And if what you want is to make a cheesy pop song, then fucking go for it.”
SSION has grown from Cody’s gay-disco-meets-punk-rock experiment into an internationally renowned art machine. Many people have contributed to building the myth that surrounds the project, and helped to actualize Cody’s pure vision. Truly original, SSION is redefining the way we think about punk and about modern pop music, and has turned Cody into a cult hero in the process. “Sure, I know gay kids and weird kids are into what I do, but at the same time there are people who are into Dungeons and Dragons and Frank Zappa fans who get the SSION,” Cody laughs. “But, I try not to think about that stuff too deeply. My only job is to create the best art that I can, because if I’m making music that I love, then I know I’m doing the right thing for myself and for other people.”
Sugar Tits: Teach Me How To Do It
Recently I’ve been toying with the idea of becoming a stripper. The inspiration came when I was in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago: some friends and I went to a strip club–my first since I was sixteen–and I was so in awe of the strippers and their ability to use their bodies to hypnotize an entire room that I could barely speak. And then suddenly, as I was slipping a $5 bill into a stripper’s thong, I thought Oh my god, THIS is my true calling. THIS is where I belong! It was like a revelation or whatever. So then when I got back to New York I excitedly applied to a few strip clubs. However, when it came time to audition, I got cold feet. The thing is, I know I’m good at taking my clothes off (duh), but I have no clue how to pole dance. Or really how to dance at all. I felt I needed a mentor.
So… I decided to enlist the help of my favorite sex blogger, Sugar Tits. You probably already know Sugar Tits from her anonymous slut blog where she writes about her various S&M relationships, giving out blow-jobs in the public bathrooms of Milan, and (more recently) her life as a stripper. She even wrote about having orgasms mid-striptease… wtf? She’s also written some stuff for Slutever, like this article about her Master buying her her first dog collar, and this article about getting into the stripping business. Below you can read my discussion with her about stripping, romance, and why being treated like shit can be such a turn on.
Why did you decide to become a stripper?
Sugar: Well, last October I went out to a strip club with some friends and one of the strippers invited me onstage, and after dancing to “Marry The Night” I realized how lolz and fun it could be. And also being treated like a whore is a real turn on for me.
Where did you work?
It was this really shitty club way out in the ghetto of Milan where they claim Led Zeppelin went once–they call it “Lap Zeppelin”. It was the trashiest, most perfect strip club I could have ever dreamed of. I thought they were going to make me audition, but when I showed up the guy was just like “OK you’ve got small tits but a nice face and you know how to talk so you’re fine, you start tomorrow.”
Were you nervous that you were going to suck at it?
So nervous! Right after that I went home and watched all these Lindsay Lohan stripping videos to try and prepare myself, because I was clueless, and the next night I went in and all these girls were flipping around on poles and I was freaking out. Then eventually the DJ called me onstage (I used my real name because I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to), but I didn’t realize that the DJ actually directs you–like first he tells you when you can strip, and then when to take your bra and underwear off–so I went up and just took everything off at once and was sashaying around and touching myself or whatever. Then a few minutes later I got bored and walked offstage, and the other girls were like, “Bitch, you have to finish your fifteen minute set!” so then I had to retreat back to the stage like an idiot.
LOL
Yeah. And I also didn’t realize that when you get offstage you have to go to the dressing room and put your clothes back on, so I was just prancing around naked until someone yelled at me. So that was embarrassing. The first night was kind of a disaster. But then little by little it becomes easier, and drinking makes it more fun, and stripper shoes are amazing and help you to slide around. By the end I was at least Lindsay Lohan ‘I Know Who Killed Me’ level.
The reason I think I’d like stripping is because the power dynamic seem so hot. Like you’d think the guys are in control because they are paying you to be the whore and take your clothes off, but then the act of paying to see naked girls is sort of pathetic in itself, and the fact that they clearly want to fuck you and can’t means you are really the one in control… ya know?
Yeah, exactly! It’s actually really complex and enlightening, because as you know I’m really submissive sexually, but stripping was the first time in my life that I actually felt sexually dominant. Spending a night in a room full of men that are willing to pay to just look at you naked is such an ego trip. I felt more powerful in that job than I ever have, but also more fucking degraded at the same time–it was amazing, the perfect mix of strong female and slut.
So is it true that you would cum while stripping? That’s so crazy! Kitten Natividad–one of Russ Meyer’s vixens–who I interviewed recently also talked about cumming while stripping; she became famous for it. She said she loved watching guys lust after her.
Honestly Karley, I was cumming like five times a night, it was amazing. And that’s crazy for me because I almost never cum during sex. Mostly I would cum while giving dances in the private rooms, so like I’d be dancing and touching myself but some gross man with a huge boner would be touching my butt at the same time, so it was perfect.
That’s insane. So can you pole dance? I recently got an audition at a strip club but I didn’t go because I was scared I was going to fall off the poll like an idiot.
No I can’t, but it didn’t really matter because in Italy it’s more about seeing a girl naked than about watching her dance. It’s very classy here! In Italy the guys can do whatever they want to strippers–they can lick your pussy or put their fingers in your ass or whatever, they just have to keep their pants on.
Whoa. Most clubs here girls don’t even get fully nude–they wear thongs.
I’m sure you can find some trashy, totally nude place where they won’t care if you can dance. That’s the thing: if it’s more about nudity and touching then they care less about the dancing, and vice-versa.
What was your favorite type of guy to dance for?
The gross ones, for sure. My favorite client was a disgusting old bald guy in a wheelchair. Not that wheelchairs are gross, but definitely the most unlikely male prospects were my favorites–like the really fat guys who you know never get laid. The young hot guys who would come to party would normally be jackasses. And also it was like, if I wanted to fuck a hot guy then I’d just go to a bar and find a hot guy, ya know?
Were you making a lot of money?
OMG, so much money.
So why did you quit?
OK, so I told everyone that I quit stripping because it wasn’t fun anymore, and I haven’t even written about this on Sugar Tits yet, but the truth is that I liked it so much that I had to cut myself off. Like Karley, at the end of it, I was giving out blow-jobs to guys in the private rooms for free because it turned me on so much. Like if I really liked a guy, or if a guy was super pathetic and disgusting, I would just suck his dick. I felt like such a whore, it was so amazing. But the next day I would feel bad about myself, firstly because I was being “unprofessional” or whatever, and also because the whole club could get in trouble if I got caught. And as I started doing it more and more I started having so many personal issues with it that I had to quit. I was afraid I was becoming obsessed with stripping.
Whoa.
But seriously it was one of the best experiences of my life and I have no regrets. I think I’ll start again after I graduate from university, but I think if I’d kept going the way I was I would have ended up getting into trouble.
So going back to when you said you almost never cum during sex…
Yeah, it’s hard for me. Like I’ve fucked about 100 guys and only my ex-Master–let’s call him Jake–and a handful of others have made me cum.
How did your relationship with Jake start?
Well the story is really interesting and kind of romantic. Basically, I always knew there was something missing in my sex life, and I think that’s probably why I was so promiscuous–because I was “searching for something” or whatever. Then one day about two years ago Jake came up to me at a party and asked if I wanted to model in a shoot for this art/porn magazine that he publishes. So I said yes, and a week later we were at the shoot and I was lying there being fingered by the male porn star, and then out of nowhere Jake walked up and just slapped me in the face. It was the first time anyone had ever slapped me and I loved it. And then that whole night we were making out, and on our second date I asked him, “How did you know I would like that, considering I didn’t even know?” And he was like, “I could see it in your eyes, you’re just that type of girl–you just needed someone to slap you.”
Wow, that is romantic. Tell me about the first time you guys had sex.
It was at a swingers club; he brought me as his date. It was this really disgusting place full of young and old couples drinking, and then he took me downstairs and there were a bunch of differently themed rooms and a dungeon, and we fucked on a bed while these gross guys watched us.
And you ended up having a pretty intense Dom/sub relationship with him, right?
Yeah, I was his slave. He introduced me to that whole world, and it changed my life. The only fights Jake and I ever had were about where “the line” was. See, I wanted there to be specific times when I was “the slut”, but the rest of the time I wanted him to respect me, but it’s hard to draw that line with guys because they’re mostly dumb.
So how did you work it out?
He ended up buying me a dog collar, so whenever I had the collar on I was “his”, and whenever I didn’t he couldn’t control me.
Were you in love with him?
Yeah, I became totally obsessed with him and our breakup really destroyed me. And I hate to admit that because it makes me sound so helpless and weak, but for him I was. I guess there’s always that one person who you’re just a dumbass for. Sometimes I regret Jake being the first guy I had that type Dom/sub experience with, because I think I wasn’t good enough at it yet. When I look back I think, God, I should have been more patient, or not been so needy, or not cried when he whipped me a hundred times or whatever…
Yeah, but if you were more patient or didn’t give a shit then it would have made his restraint less effective. The fact that you wanted him so badly was a huge part of your dynamic.
That’s true.
When I was younger I used to fuck this really dominant older guy, and I swear he liked not fucking me more than he liked fucking me, just because he loved watching me beg. He loved to see me desperate. I remember once he invited me over, and I hadn’t seen him in weeks and was so excited to fuck him, and when I got to his house he tied me up and left me there for hours while he went and did some work, and then when he finally came back he just jerked-off on me and then sent me home. It was SO frustrating, but to be honest I’ve been masturbating to that memory for like four years now.
OMG Jake was the same! He would only fuck me like once a month! And I’d be like “Please, please!” and he’d be like “Shut up, bitch.” But you know, they do it for you. They want to fuck you, but they know that you want to feel like a greedy whore, and that you want some man to be like “You can’t have this cock!” because that’s so opposite to what actually happens on a daily basis.
So true.
And after he ties you up and makes you wait forever, when he finally does come and fuck you it’s the most amazing thing ever, because you want it so badly.
So, so true. Gosh, mind games really work, huh?
I hate to say it but they really do. I think I told you this once, but your story just reminded me of the time that Jake invited me over his house for dinner, and I was all excited, like, “Aww he’s cooking for me! Wow!” And so I showed up and he just tied me up under the kitchen table and made me wait there while he ate by himself, and kicked me under the table the whole time.
#hot
But the things about these sorts of relationships is that you need to know that the Dom actually cares about you in order for it not to fuck you up. There’s a fine line between role play and real life.
I think the idea of being submissive is a turn on for a lot of people, and you can fantasize or watch porn with that dynamic, but once you actually experience good S&M sex it changes your sex life forever. Like after fucking that older Dom guy I was scared I’d never be able to enjoy normal sex again.
Exactly! It ruins your life kind of! That’s why I was so hung up on Jake for long–because of the sex. Since Jake, what used to be “good in bed” just doesn’t cut it anymore. It sucks! And I’ll ask guys to slap me and stuff, but they just get really freaked out. We are the minority I think. Like it’s surprising how many guys just want to have vanilla sex, even on a dirty one night stand. It’s like, “Dude, I’m not your wife, I’m some bitch that you picked up on the street that you’re never going to see again and I’m begging you to beat the shit out of me and you won’t do it!”
What is wrong with everyone actually?
Also, if you have to ask someone to spank you it kind of defeats the purpose. Like in theory if you ask a guy to pull your hair he should tell you to shut the fuck up and then do something a lot worse.
You should give men lessons on how to abuse women.
Lol… I wouldn’t say no.
AA
Hey, I sold out and got an ad on my site. Now please click it and buy something. (No, seriously.) Maybe one day, if you guys buy enough see-through tank tops, I won’t have to refill soy sauce bottles for a living. And speaking of making money, yesterday some weirdo in Australia payed me $75 for a piece of paper with my spit and cum on it. Do you think if I sell enough spit paper I’ll be able to quit my day job? Hmm… Anyway, if you want some of my spit on a piece of paper please email me at karleyslutever@gmail.com. I also probably have some dirty tissues and a bunch of other random shit with my dead skin cells on it lying around if you want to pay me for any of that.
Photo by Sandy KimCasting!
Hey! I’m currently in the process of making a short film for a network television channel in England. It’s going to be beautiful, sad, funny, epic–all the good stuff! We are looking for an actor to play the part of a 12 year old boy, which is a lead role in the film. Looking for boys 10-15, or maybe a very young looking 16. No acting experience necessary, but must be outgoing. We will be shooting in LA at the end of May/early June. Actor must live in southern California. If you’re interested, or you know someone who might be, please email me with a photo at karleyslutever@gmail.com. We’re going to be on TV, woo!
Swimfans
Hey, so remember how a couple weeks ago I published that sexy/dark short story by my friend Paul Kwiatkowski? And I said he took some pics of me burning the fuck out of a Barbie that I would post soon? Well, here they are. The pics were recently featured in Nasty Magazine. This is was Paul had to say about the pics:
“The photos are based on a group of girls who were on my high school swim team. That liked to steal my disposable cameras and take photos of one another in the locker room and at their homes. I never knew they had done it until I developed that first disposable camera, and then almost passed out. I lost most of the real photos, except for one, and wanted to recreate the images. This happened back in the early 90s. Two of them claimed to like Pantera and Ministry, but I knew they still had New Kids posters and collected My Little Pony, which made their photos infinitely hotter.”
Nick Haymes: Teen Angst on Camera
You know that feeling you get when you’re so infatuated with someone that you could literally puke, and the only way to accurately express your megafeelings would be to cut the person open and live inside their ribcage? Well, Nick Haymes’s new book Gabe is the visual representation of that.
Some background info:
In 2007, a 14-year-old Gabe Nevins auditioned for the part of an extra in Gus Van Sant’s film Paranoid Park. A baby-faced skateboarder from Oregon, Van Sant was so enamored with Gabe that he impulsively cast him in the film’s lead role, playing a skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard. Soon after the film wrapped, Gabe met photographer Nick Haymes on an editorial shoot. Haymes, like Van Sant, instantly felt there was something special about Gabe (his long flowing locks and girlish features were clearly a powerful combo), and what was supposed to be an afternoon photoshoot turned into four years of obsessive documentation of Gabe’s life.
Haymes has made his career intimately documenting the lives of teenage misfits and skateboarders. Gabe, his third photo book, tells the unexpectedly tragic story of Gabe Nevin’s teen years. What begins as sensuous portraits of an innocent young star turns dark as we watch Gabe struggle with drug abuse, suffer an emotional breakdown, and eventually become homeless. The book is sad and sexy and weirdly romantic all at the same time—a devastating love affair that blurs the line between artist and subject, and makes you feel like a creepy voyeur in the best way possible.
After meeting Gabe on the editorial shoot, what made you want to keep photographing him?
Nick Haymes: There was just something about him that was a bit off… or dark. I couldn’t pin him down in just one picture. When I’m really intrigued by someone I don’t like to photograph them for just a day or a week—I want to find out more. Also, he lived in Oregon at the time and, being English, I always find it fun to travel America. I wanted to go and see what sort of life he had out there. So the whole thing started off pretty naive. I never knew the end result, but then, how could I?
Right, you could never predict Gabe’s future. But that was my main question—when Gabe’s life began to take darker turns, was there ever a point where you felt a moral obligation to stop taking pictures?
Yeah, I always struggle with it morally. But he liked being photographed, and he had done some acting and thought of it as being in a role. He has an exhibitionist quality, and I’ve always admired him for his freedom. But I was having moral issues again the other day, especially now that the book is launching and unfortunately he can’t be here.
Why not?
I don’t want to say exactly, but he’s going through a weird time in his life.
When I first looked at the book, not knowing much about you personally, I thought that maybe you and Gabe were in a sexual relationship. You can just sense an intense energy between you two in the photographs, and you capture such intimate moments, like him in the shower, or the photo of him in bed with another guy.
I know what you mean. I did become obsessed with him in some sort of manner, and I think you can have a loving relationship with a man you don’t want to sleep with. If you’re going to photograph someone for four years, you have to be in love with them; there has to be something that keeps you coming back. The relationship was quite weird—it was a friendship, but he didn’t have a father, so there was also a sort of father-son thing at points.
I think people can really relate to those obsessive feelings. Like when you’re in love with someone, and every little thing they do and every square inch of their body seems so profound. That photo in the book of just Gabe’s nipple really nails that obsessive feeling for me.
Yeah, you have to really fall for a person in every way possible. One thing that’s amazing about photographs is how fantastically they can express those feelings.
Yeah, the physical changes he goes through in the book are pretty intense. At a point he suddenly has what look like red welts covering his entire body.
Those are from psoriasis. He always had little patches on him whenever we would do pictures, even at the beginning, but when he ran away from home it got way worse. I think it was related to the stress of being on the streets. I remember he was constantly washing himself, or getting himself into water, almost to the point of OCD. It was just burning him so much.
Before Gabe you released the book Zoloto, which was photographs of your two sons. There has been some mild controversy about them being naked in some of the photos.
Yeah… I was exhibiting those photos last year, and the gallery didn’t want to put them up because the walls were made of hardwood paneling, and they were like, “It’s a bit porno.” But the images are of my kids, and they don’t have anything to do with sex, but straight away people associate nudity with pornography. It’s a shame that it’s gotten to this point.
Yesterday, I was just re-watching those Calvin Klein TV ads from the 90s where people are being interviewed in front of hardwood paneling—do you remember those? They had this eerie sexiness to them, and they were SO amazing.
Yes, and they got banned straight away. It was the best marketing campaign Calvin Klein ever had.
Right, they were banned, but they would never have made it onto TV today. Times have changed.
Yeah, everything is so safe now, so sterile, so conservative. For example, my mother hates the way I photograph the children.
Is she religious?
Not really, she’s just British. She thinks it’s wrong and that the wrong people are going to be looking at them. I said, “Well, it’s a photo book, so the people who will be looking at it are people who are into art.” I was trying to make the distinction between art and porn. She said she didn’t want the book in her house.
For you, why is the nudity in the photographs of your children important?
Well, my kids always run around naked in the house. I’ve always wanted my kids to be really comfortable with nudity, and not to have any shame about their bodies. It’s only when you tell a kid “no” that something becomes taboo, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being naked—the whole family does it in the house. I’m a photographer, I take pictures every day, so I think if that’s how my kids behave naturally then I shouldn’t hide it.
Your first book, Between Dog and Wolf, intimately documents the lives of a group of teen skateboarders. How did that come about?
Well, they’re all non-professional skaters who I just met through friends. I started the project around 2005 when I was kicking around the west coast taking pictures. Then at some point one of them said, “Do you want to come and see where I’m from?” and told me he was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Well, only one thing came to mind when I thought of Tulsa, and that was Larry Clark, naturally. So I followed him there, and jeez, it was so fucked up.
I can only imagine.
The project I’m working on now is actually a continuation of that book. But since I started photographing those skateboarders, two of the kids from the project have died. One of them killed himself by jumping out a window, and one was shot in the back of the head. It was like a drug-related incident.
Wow, your subjects seem to have bad luck…
Yeah… I get really sad about it. For I while I was scared that I jinxed everyone I photographed.
But I suppose you’re attracted to a certain type of person. It’s not like you’re searching for subjects in the Harvard University cafeteria.
I like outsiders for sure, because I end up relating to them quite a bit. That’s why I like skateboarders—it’s such an outsider culture, and it’s cheap to do, so it’s very working class. It’s not like snowboarding, which is for the wealthy. You can spend fifty bucks and can get a skateboard. They’re misfits, and I like that.
GABE was recently published by Damiani Editore and it’s distributed in the United States by Artbook.com.
Slutever Show on Vice!
Guess what?! Starting next week Slutever is going to be a series on Vice! For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now (I love you, seriously) from the trailer you will see that I meet Sissy Sarah IRL! Also, you can expect a meeting with my rent slave. (Whoa… that was awkward.)
There are four episodes in this season which will air every Friday starting March 30th. Luckily, I’ve been making this with some of the best people in the world, like my BFF Adri Murguia. You should watch it, and tell all your friends to watch it too, because the more popular it is the more likely it is I’ll get to do a season 2! #realistic
20 Secrets (That Are Not Really Secrets) About Dating
1. Always remember to wash your hands in between eating hot sauce and masturbating.
2. Guys: Don’t stress out too much about the best way to ask a girl on a date. Realistically, if she likes you, she’ll say yes no matter what. And if she doesn’t, she’ll just make fun of you to all her friends behind your back.
3. Boys who own giant cars and/or motorcycles have small dicks.
4. If you’re on a date with someone, it’s never, ever the right time to get out your acoustic guitar.
5. Sometimes it’s OK to think of men as disposable sex objects.
6. Sleeping with lots of people is not a bad thing, and if someone tries to make you feel bad about sleeping around or calls you a slut, it probably just means they’re not getting any.
7. Urine is sterile.
8. The key to flirting is just to be confident. However, walking up to a stranger in a bar and grabbing his crotch might be considered “too much” by some people. I know this from experience.
9. If you ask a guy out and he says no, just start telling everyone he raped you.
10. Crazy jungle pubes and better than razor burn.
11. A good tip for dating (and life) is to practice your “I’m totally not upset” face in the mirror, like how nominated actors practice their “good loser” face before the Oscars. This way, if someone rejects you, you can just make the face and at least they won’t be able to tell how epically miserable you feel inside.
12. It’s more important to be smart and interesting than it is to wear cool clothes. But ideally you’d be ‘all of the above.’
13. It’s probably a bad idea to let everyone you sleep with take naked photos of you, but being cautious is overrated. And who knows, maybe one day that leaked sex tape will make you famous.
14. Condoms suck but abortions suck more.
15. If you’re lucky enough to have an office with a desk in it, you should try bending someone over it. Sometimes being a stereotypical perv is a good thing.
16. Girls: It’s better to be a little bit fat than too skinny. This way at least you have boobs.
17. Most men are misogynists, even when they think they’re not.
18. If your boyfriend breaks up with you, a good way to make yourself feel better is to sleep with all of his friends.
19. Orgasms are great, but the best part about sex is all the stuff that leads up to it, so guys, slow the fuck down, will you!
20. Just because you’re in love doesn’t mean you have to start updating your status with Goo Goo Dolls lyrics, thanks.
A Day in the Life: Petra Collins
I am so smitten with Petra Collins! Petra is a 19 year old photographer from Toronto. Her beautiful photographs of young girls are simultaneously innocent and erotic–a combination that sometimes makes you feel kind of weird inside, but in the best way possible. Serious Lolita vibes! Petra shoots for mags like Vice and Jacques, and is also a staff member at the amazing Rookie Magazine, the teen magazine for girls started by Tavi Gevinson. Plus Petra is the founder and curator of The Ardorous, an online art collective showcasing the works of young, female artists. And if it’s not already impressive enough that she’s done all of that while still in her teens, she’s also really smart and funny and dresses amazingly and is so beautiful and cool and… damn, the girl really is the whole package. Below is a day in her life.
Hello friends, my name is Petra Collins. On this day I did a photoshoot for Rookie Mag called “Come Sail Away“. The shoot was pretty much my ultimate dream – I got to create my own high school dance. I shot it in my old high school, which my sister still goes to. She brought along all her super cute girl and guy friends, they dressed up in cute clothes, I shot them making out, everyone danced, we listened to Sean Paul, they ate cupcakes, Cheetohs, and pop. It was a pretty fun day.
The girls bathroom. Eerie as fuck.
The super pretty accessories Chloe brought to the shoot.
CUPCAKES! The night before the shoot my boyfriend Avery took me to Costco and bought me so many snacks to photograph (eat).
Me and my sister’s friend Feli. ( I had to make a cameo because I NEEDED to attend the dance of my dreams!)
Chloe, Anna and the boys getting really hyper – the boys went into the gym supply closet and stole a basketball, which totally stressed me out because it almost landed on the food table like twice.
Chloe smearing her make-up for her “Miss World” moment.
The food table after the shoot – ravaged.
Anna, my sister, after the shoot. She’s stressing out because we had so much to clean up.