LCSS #3: The Film Issue

LCSS the film issue!

This issue is (almost) all shot in film. Includes a non sentimental essay about why film is great, photos with captions that make fun of my friends, some cheap film point & shoot camera reviews, words about a shot I like from my portfolio and more.

Hit up the store to make it yours.

 

 

Love City goes to Germany!

Yep, The Love City Success Story will be part of a zine show put on by D21 Kunstraum, so if you're in Germany go check it out.

(It looks like the D21 Kunstraum link is down so the linked above directs you to some information about the show on We Make Zines).

Love City Zine: Issue #2 out now

Good news everyone! The latest issue of The Love City Success Story is out now! You can buy it here.

It includes: Photos! Drama! Words! Skateboarding! Advertisements for my photography!

Tijuana Bible On Film

The Gallery is a weekly feature, showing work I've produced recently. This weeks gallery is a show my friends band, Tijuana Bible played.



"Q: How many straight edge kids does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: It doesn't matter, straight edge never changed anything."

That was a joke Dylan opened with. They didn't like it.

These photos are from a show Tijuana Bible played in Ogden, Utah a few weeks ago. No one really knew about the show and the hardcore scene in Ogden seemed to be pretty sterile that night. I didn't bother to include the crowd because they weren't into it anyway. That happens I guess.

Hardcore is my favorite live genre to shoot because there's so much going on. Not to knock indie shows, but if you've seen one sad eyed bearded man playing the guitar, in terms of visual stimuli, you've really seen them all. With hardcore you never know what's going to happen, it's exciting and it keeps you on your toes.

I like having to work to get a shot I'm happy with. It shouldn't come easy, you know?

In high school I had a Pentax K1000 that I used to shoot shows with. Now I'm pretty much all digital. This show was the first time I've shot film in a while, and I think the 80's hardcore feel is a nice departure from my other work.

I used a Bell+Howell 960 NP, which is a thrift store point and shoot with a reasonably wide lens.

Anyway, the above link takes you to Tijuana Bible's MySpace. That link does too.

Enjoy.





















Nate and Dylan, post show with earplugs and a suggestively place water bottle.

News - It Lives!

A brief rundown of news around the site:

LCSS #3 is out now. It's $3 w/ shipping. Head over to the store to make it yours.

I've updated the look and function of this site to better match my zine. One of the things the new site features is artists I'm diggin. Check out the first artist in the category, Danica Novgorodoff. She's killing it.

I'm going to try to focus on more local events. Check the links at the bottom for a good place to start.

More on the way, leave a comment telling me what you think.

- Trevor

An Essay on Film

This piece is an excerpt from the 3rd issue of my photography zine, The Love City Success story. Click on the link to get it.



In this photo Natalie looks pretty and I look sleepy. We only took two photos, this was the better one. With a digital camera we might have taken a shot, looked at it, deleted it and repeated the process a few times, getting more and more frustrated that we didn't look good enough in each photo. But there were only a few frames left on that roll, so we only used two. This is the second shot, it's partially exposed, it's full of dust spots and not well composed, but it's good enough. And good enough is something to be proud of.

A photo is only an impartial as the photographer who took it, and by shooting one thing, you are by definition not shooting something else. I don't mean to argue that film is more "real" or "authentic" then digital, but I do think that film tends to be less edited. Editing is important in that when done properly it tells a concise and meaningful story. But it's important to be careful what one is editing out. By erasing the photos that contain imperfection, history is being altered.

I tell little stories with my photos. The small stories are about events or places or people. I'm also telling a big story with my photos. I'm telling the story of my experiences and my life. I think it's important to tell that story as truthfully as possible. My lack of perfection be dammed.

In an endless march towards perfection, amid landscapes that have been idealized beyond worldly recognition and women so beautiful that they don't actually exist, film, at least for me, can represent freedom from the Photo-shopped, retouched, hyper-real ecstasy that seems to be the de facto marching order for photographers these days.

Wind, aim and shoot. It either works or it doesn't. Either way, it's alright.

I guess it's kind of obvious, but it seems that the closer we get to achieving perfection the more we miss the point.

This isn't a call to burn your TV's and cancel your Vouge subscription. Do those things if you're moved to, but don't tell them I sent you. I'm just trying to say that a proper balance is needed. The advancement of technology brings things that are truly great, but there is always a trade off and it's important to know what that trade off is.

Life isn't perfect. Neither am I. Neither are you.

And that's OK.