A couple of months ago my friend Kirra hit me up about helping her friend’s vintage company Koukla shoot it’s first lookbook. I shot a handful of lookbooks when I first started doing photography professionally and they were always to help friends out and get shit for my portfolio and maybe get some free clothes out of it. Of all the ones I did only one ever saw the light of day. That sort of helped me realize that I should never be shooting anything “for my portfolio”.

But when Kirra hit me up I said yes to it pretty quickly. First of all Kirra is one of my favorite people to photograph. Legitimately every time we shoot I come away with a couple images that are some of my favorite images of all time. I probably have 10 photos of Kirra that are in my top 500 photos of all time. Secondly, as funny as it is, I legitimately need to work on my portfolio. I think the last time I made a portfolio was in 2009. All my work has come from word of mouth over the last decade but with every blog and alt weekly going out of business I suddenly need to find some new work. I just lost out on a pretty big fashion gig because despite the creative team at the brand wanting to use me they didn’t really have anything recent to show their boss that didn’t involve nudity. I need to get my shit together.

So, long story short is that Kirra and Joanna, the woman behind Koukla, and I walked around Brooklyn and we banged out nine looks in less than two hours without any lighting or assistant. That’s exactly my kinda shoot. I also got to play with this high speed color film (Fuji Natura 1600) that looked really great with the vintage look of the clothes. All the stuff in the look book is digital, but I got a couple of shots I really loved from the shoot.

So check out the Koukla lookbook here and buy some stuff from Joanna!

And now I am just gonna upload a massive unedited gallery of nearly everything we shot because I have no restraint.

Click here to see all the outtakes from the Koukla lookbook!

I have a bigger update coming soon but I wanted to get up a few selects from the event I shot yesterday to hold you over. New York Fashion Week is coming up and Laundry by Shelli Segal did an event yesterday that I stopped by to photograph.

They had three models try on the new collection and they would change into each new look and walk around the office showing off the outfits. The rest of the collection was on display throughout the office and  the whole thing looked really good.

I shot this for Laundry so I am not going to post a ton of stuff but I wanted to share with you guys a few images. Come back soon for a big update from my Vegas trip.

Click here to check out some of the highlights of the Laundry by Shelli Segal event yesterday.

Last night Schott NYC and Sailor Jerry launched their second collaboration. The first one was a pea coat to celebrate the 240th anniversary of the US Navy. This time they did a version of the classic Perfecto motorcycle jacket. This is the jacket that James Dean wore, that the Ramones wore, that pretty much every cool person since the 1950’s wore. The Perfecto is legendary. I actually own a vintage knock off that I love but the leather is all dried out and despite a gallon of leather oil I can’t get it soft again.

Fortunately for me I photographed last night’s party and got my hands on one of the greatest jackets in human history. Plus the Sailor Jerry version of the jacket has some pretty good touches like a red satin interior featuring a Sailor Jerry tattoo flash skull and another skull on the shoulder. Oh and did I mention the jacket feels like it’s made out of a tiny baby cow that lived his entire life in a bathtub of moisturizer? It’s unreasonably awesome and at this point I am just trying to make you jealous.

At the release party last night a tattoo artist named Jon Boy was doing tiny Sailor Jerry flash tattoos. Normally at these Sailor Jerry events they do normal sized flash, but Jon Boy is known for his tiny fine line tattoos and so they thought it would be cool to do micro flash which ended up looking real cool. When I saw his work I thought it was a little bit silly given my love for the thick black lines of American Traditional but talking with Jon Boy changed my mind in 2 minutes. This is a guy who knows what he’s doing and clearly gives a fuck about tattooing and unfortunately her ran out of time before I could get a tiny dagger.

Also, one of the first people to get tattooed I knew I had seen before and he told me he had been to a couple Sailor Jerry events I had shot so I figured that was it… but I checked Instagram this morning and realized he was pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini and while I have probably taken his photo before I really recognized him because he was the host of the tragically short lived Top Chef Just Desserts. And if you know anything about me you should know about my love for competition reality shows about food. Funny thing is that my friend Ashley Holt was supposed to come with me and she won Next Great Baker so they could have maybe had some sort of violent pastry fight.

Anyway, check out the photos from the jacket launch and when you see me out in my Perfecto make sure to rub on my aggressively soft and incredibly badass jacket.

Click here to see all the photos from the Schott NYC x Sailor Jerry Classic Perfecto launch party!

Last night I went down to the Original Penguin shop on Broadway for a pop-up gallery opening from artist Jeremyville. He has done a few collaborations with Penguin and they did a book giveaway and sold prints and he signed stuff and there was a bunch of free chicken on sticks which is really important because chicken is delicious. I also Buff Monster there and in one week I am getting a drawing he drew of me tattooed to my leg so that’s something. 

Anyway sorry to make this write up so quick but I am running late for band practice. Yeah, I am trying out for another shitty punk band and I say shitty with nothing but love. Will let you know how that goes (as long as it goes well). Now go look at photos!

Click here to see all the photos from the Jeremyville/ Original Penguin pop-up gallery opening!

I try to be a fairly diverse photographer. I like shooting stuff people don’t expect from me. I like that my resume features both Penthouse and the Library Journal. I like that I have covered Antiques Roadshow and the Gathering of the Juggalos. I like that I have shot portraits of Oscar winners and AVN winners. So when Ford Models asked me to shoot some photos for a Teen Vogue piece they were working on I jumped at the chance.

I showed up at the Waldorf Astoria to basically shoot behind the scenes photos for a video Ford was working on for Teen Vogue. The concept was what models do the night before New York Fashion Week and basically I got to photograph a bunch of Ford Models having a slumber party. The idea was to use my images for a slideshow that would go along with the video but they actually ended up only using one image to illustrate the post and another image that was pushed to social.

I was a little disappointed they only used two photos but that’s how this shit works and it was still a good experience plus now I get to show you the rest of the photos. Keep in mind these photos were shot with the idea that the end product was going to be high contrast back and white so I used on camera flash and didn’t care about color balance, mostly bouncing off the cream colored ceilings or walls.

I will have another gallery of some more NYFW stuff I did for Ford soon, but in the mean time after you look at my photos make sure you check out the video we made!

Now click here to see a gallery of Ford Models having a NYFW slumber party at the Waldorf Astoria.

Hi there. I have some stuff for you guys and I figured I could throw all of it in one post and use alliteration in the title to make it seem more like this post has a real purpose and not just a thinly disguised attempt to sell you more shit you don’t need. Let’s begin.

First up, I found 17 old Driven By Boredom t-shirts under my couch. These shirts were for DBB’s 8th anniversary back in 2009. Apparently I forgot they were there. I threw them up on Etsy last night and now there are only 12 left and honestly I might keep a couple of them so if you want one, you should do it soon. Just saying. ORDER NOW!

Next up… Remember my Arts zine? I am really proud of that thing. It features really lovely black and white portraits of some amazing artist friends of mine and a selection of their art work. It’s printed well, inexpensive and fairly collectable given it’s small edition and great collection of artist… but because it doesn’t have any nudity in it, no one bought it. Seriously, I have sold like 30 of them. All of my other zines have done great, but this one? Not so much. I have learned my lesson… Fuck art, more tits.

Anyway, at the Zine Friends release party for Arts I traded amazingly talented human Penelope Gazin a print of a tiny puppy on a giant butt for a bunch of 5″x7″ drawings of the art school test turtle on the cover of Arts. (Side note – that turtle has an actual name and that name is Tippy.) I am keeping one of the drawings because it was a drawing of a turtle vomiting at the site of my genitals which seemed important. But the other four turtles are now for sale with the zine! So get your own Penelope Gazin drawing now! Do it!

Lastly, tonight my Dolphins are playing in their first and only Monday Night Football game of the year. Seemed like a perfect occasion to debut the video from the 2015 #MetLifeTakeover. The Takeover is a massive tailgate party/group trip that my club Dolfans NYC organizes to MetLife Stadium when the Dolphins come up to play the Jets.

The game went very poorly for the Dolphins but we threw a hell of a party! We had  nearly 1000 people go with us and had a huge tailgate with live music, catered food and free drinks thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, Sailor Jerry rum and AquaHydrate water. We had the CEO and Vice-President of the Dolphins stop by the tailgate and even Ace Ventura showed up! Check out the video!

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/149079473[/vimeo]

October has been a big month for Sailor Jerry. I already shot Lucero in Nashville and in NYC for their SJ Presents tour and last night I went down to Schott’s Soho store to celebrate the US Navy. Before Sailor Jerry was a rum company they were a clothing company based on the designs of tattoo legend Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins and to this day they still sell the clothing. They also do some really cool clothing collaborations like when I went down to Miami for the release of their Iggy Pop designed collection. Yesterday they teamed up with the iconic outer wear brand Schott to create a pea coat for the 240th anniversary for the US Navy.

Schott started making pea coats for the US Navy during WWII and Sailor Jerry Collins was in the Navy and was tattooing Navy men in Hawaii during WWII. The connection makes total sense and the pea coat they collaborated on is pretty fantastic and it even has a semi secret flask pocket so of course they had to design a leather wrapped flask as well. The whole thing was a pretty inspired idea.

Meanwhile tattoo artist Oliver Peck became friends with the Schott’s after his favorite 60 year old Schott leather jacket started to fall apart. Schott ended up fixing his jacket and since the pea coat release timed perfectly with Oliver being in NYC for the Ink Master live season finale they got Oliver involved in the release party. He was doing free Sailor Jerry tattoos all night and everyone had a blast.

On a slightly related note I have owned a bunch of leather jackets in my life but they never felt right to me. I finally got one that I like (although the zipper is broken) and it was actually a vintage rip off of the iconic Schott Perfecto made by Sears. I should have worn it last night… or maybe I should just sell it and try and buy a new Schott jacket since they are pretty amazing.

Anyway, click here to see all the photos from the Schott/ Sailor Jerry pea coat/flask release to celebrate the 240th anniversary of the US Navy!

Sometimes this job is really great. On Wednesday I flew down to Miami to photograph the release party for the Iggy Pop/ Sailor Jerry collaboration “The Flash Collection”. The Flash Collection started last year when Sailor Jerry worked together with the Clash’s Paul Simonon to create a very limited leather jacket, two t-shirts and a bandana. This year they teamed up with Iggy Pop to bring you a denim vest and a belt limited to 50 pieces each! The vests are signed on the inside by Iggy Pop and come with a bunch of patches that are based on old Sailor Jerry tattoos.

The party took place at the Garrett in Miami and I was one of the only two photographers allowed to photograph Iggy in the vip upstairs. The party featured free rum, free BBQ and everyone who came walked out with a grab bag of swag. They also had two women sewing on patches all night. I was working too hard to get my vest patched but I grabbed one for the road. Miami natives the Jacuzzi Boys were the main attraction and they played a fantastic set after Iggy introduced them. I have seen them a few times during SXSW but it was great to see them play in front of their home crowd. I took a bunch of photos, met a bunch of babes and hung out with near Iggy Pop all night. It was a pretty great experience.

After that a bunch of the journalists covering the launch were invited by Sailor Jerry to a small after party at the Broken Shaker cocktail bar. The bar designed some sort of insane Sailor Jerry drink that had beef jerky in it. Now that is intense. There also were a bunch of kittens running around which is not a terrible way to end an awesome night. The only bad part was after the party I walked to David’s Cafe to get a Cuban sandwich and found out they closed months ago and no one told me. Tragic.

Now click here to look at all the photos from Iggy Pop and Sailor Jerry’s The Flash Collection release party in Miami!

The famous lower east side deli Katz’s Delicatessen is celebrating it’s 125th anniversary this year. Normally 125 year olds don’t know a lot about pop up art galleries but Katz’s is a bit different. They opened “The Space” a Katz’s pop-up art gallery next to their deli. This month my pals at the Brooklyn based streetwear brand Mishka curated an art show and released a line of Katz’s clothing to go with it. Clearly you can’t be seen this winter without rocking a Salami or Pastrami beanie.

The homies Lamour Supreme, Sucklord & Lee Trice had some awesome work on display with more delicious work by Micah NYC, Katy Ziegel, and Solomon Alexander filling out the space. The Space was packed all night and Nick Hook and Aharaw kept the music going. I assure you that corn beef (and free booze) fueled fun was had by all.

After I hit the art show I of course went next door to Katz’s with a bunch of kids and had a pastrami on rye and a matzo ball soup plus half sour pickles. It was excellent as always and tasted exactly the same is it did a decade ago when I first ate there. Which is exactly what you should expect from a 125 year old New York institution like Katz’s.

Click here to see all the pictures from the Katz’s Delicatessen inspired Miskha art show & pop up store at The Space!

Ps. All the photos were shot without flash on my new 28mm 1.8 lens that I got for christmas. It’s the first plastic lens I have ever been excited about owning!