Vice Magazine Photo Issue

Love them or hate them (I tend to switch between the two) Vice Magazine’s 2008 photo issue is back.

Haven’t seen the hard copy version, but the Online one is plenty interesting. Sure there’s your typical Terry Richardson and Richard Kern work (the two are kind of like politics: there are no swing voters, you already know whether you like them or not and no amount of campaigning will change your mind), but the unknown photographers make the issue.

Wasted Youth by Dave Markey and Jordan Schwartz focuses on your typical young and angsty teens, but from a time and place when hardcore was being born.

Unlike most photographers from that era who focus on the intensity of early punk, these photos are calm and more intimate. Seeing these types of shots when I first got into punk would have been a turnoff, but nowadays they’re refreshing.

The section most likely to make you fall out of your chair laughing at 4 a.m. is an intereview with Nobuyoshi Araki, a Japanest photographer who has put out 450 photo books!

I would have given up if my interview started this way, but like most assholes, once they put down their front, they’re worth getting to know. That moral also applies to rowdy hardcore guys on tour who pass out in the middle of the floor in your living room while everyone around them is still hanging out.