61 Photos I Don’t Hate Kickstarter

If you are a regular reader of this website you are probably aware that I have been organizing every single photo I have ever taken. It’s taken me so damn long to do it and part of that reason is that I hate everything I do and I just get depressed looking at photos that I have decided I hate for whatever reason. I have been working on a portfolio for months now and figuring out how to make a few dozen photos reflect my entire body of work is the most frustrating thing I have ever done. It’s easy to edit a million photos down to a few hundred that aren’t awful, but almost impossible to get that edit down to a few that I actually love.

While I was doing all that I had this idea to go through all my 35mm work, which is my personal work, and pull every single image that I don’t hate that isn’t in another book or zine. When I was done I had an edit of 61 images and I decided I could make a decent zine out of that stuff, but it was just another folder full of photos in my endless collection of bad ideas I have for books and zines and art shows.

But then I realized the Kickstarter Make 100 project was coming up again. Every January they encourage makers that have used their platform to do a one off, short run project just for the point of creativity. This is the third year they have done it, and I really loved the idea but in 2017 I was in the middle of my Instaxxx book and last year I just didn’t have anything ready to go, but this year I had the perfect thing.

So I am going to make a book of 35mm photos I don’t hate. It’s going to be from the edit of 61 photos (probably much closer to 30 photos) and there are only going to be 100 copies made. Every one of them will be signed and numbered and the book is going to be square which I think will be a fun format to play with. 

There is also a limited edition of 25 books that will come with a 7″x7″ print (5 prints, each signed/numbered out of an edition of 5). It will have a variant cover and will have some additional photos and come in a fancy envelope! 

I just thought this project would be really fun to do, and super easy to execute. Shipping out hundreds of huge books was a nightmare last time I did a Kickstarter, but doing 125 small books will be a lot of fun and really simple to deal with. But don’t worry, I got a much bigger project in the works. My juggalo book is still coming soon!

Lastly, I wanted to give a big thanks to my photographer buddy Steve Prue for helping me film my Kickstarter video. It’s truly terrible, but that’s because I am awful on camera and I gave up editing after 30 minutes and just added ridiculous wipes and absurd sound effects so that my terrible editing would just look like a joke. 

Now go help me fund this book project! Even donating $1 helps my project in Kickstarters algorithm so even if you are broke even a tiny bit helps a lot. Thanks a ton!

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10 Years Later…

10 years ago today I was laid off from my job at Archive.org. I was digitizing books that were in the public domain so that anyone could read them without having a physical copy. Archive.org is a non-profit and a huge part of their budget came from Microsoft donations. The housing market collapse in 2008 caused a lot of companies to reevaluate their corporate giving and Microsoft massively cut their donation for 2009. 

Two days before we left for the holiday we were told that the late shift was being cut completely and that everyone from both shifts could reapply for their jobs the next day. They would pick the best from both groups for the shift. Unfortunately for me I was working part time as a nightlife photographer and there was no way I could get to a day job at 7am every day when I was getting home at 5am. I took 6 weeks severance, filed for unemployment and took a few weeks to figure out what I was going to do next.

I also ended up benefiting from the market crash because that January I was hired to photograph Sundance for the main liquor sponsor even though I didn’t even have a legit professional camera at the time. I did the job for way less than I should have charged, but it was a ton of money for me and everyone was happy. Right around that same time someone randomly found a photo I took of all my cameras and paid me a few thousand dollars to retake that photo for a poster for a Swiss photo competition.

So suddenly I went from going paycheck to paycheck to having a little money in the bank and enough to buy a better camera and by the time my unemployment ran out I still hadn’t run out of money. 10 years later I have had a lot of ups and downs but I still haven’t had to get a job. Given the state of the industry, I might not make it 11 years, but I made it 10 years as a professional photographer and I am pretty proud of that.

I don’t really have any other new content for you today, but here’s a bunch of links to the best photos I have taken over the last 10 years. I am also uploading a new set exclusive to Girls of Driven By Boredom today so if you want to see some new NSFW photos of Kasey Warner and her friend Damia, go sign up there.

Now here are links to my “Best of” posts from 2009-2017. I will start working on the “Best of 2018” post in January.

Best Of 2009Best Of 2010Best Of 2011 – Best Of 2012

Best Of 2013Best Of 2014Best Of 2015Best Of 2016Best Of 2017

Me In 2009

Me In 2018 

 

 

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New Prints Available & A Sale On Everything

As I start to get ready to work on my next book project, I want to try and move on from the last one. I still have three boxes of my book Instaxxx in my living room as well as some prints and other things leftover. I got some books signed by some adult film stars and some limited editions left of my old zines. I even have two hats left. Long story short I want to get some of this stuff out of here. So let’s have a sale! 

Starting today and going through the weekend everything in my store is 10% off. I realize that’s not very much, but honestly my stuff is cheap enough anyway. I am good at making things, terrible at making money on things so my margins are such that all the Sharks in the Shark Tank and that little dude from the Profit would yell at me for. Whatever. I haven’t run out of money quite yet.

The other news is that I found the 9″x”12 Instax prints for the Instaxxx book release parties that I threw in NYC and LA. I only have a couple left of each of the prints that haven’t sold out so they could sell out pretty fast. There’s a print of the Instax from the cover of the book (see below), one of Stoya in Vegas, Marz Lovejoy on her fire escape in Harlem, two friends of mine on my couch, Charlotte Stokely with a giant snake, my friend Ali flashing the J Train and Lil Brown Eyes floating on a watermelon. So many to choose from!

I also put the Bill Murray holding a puppy print back in my store. I had to take it down for a bit for a boring legal reason involving the charity I was fundraising for, so now 100% of the money goes to me and I will use it to buy hundred of Pogs off ebay (or pay off my AMEX). It’s 10% off during the sale and there are only 5 of those left so it seems like a good time to get one if that’s a thing you need in your life.

So go look at my shop and buy some stuff and I will ship it to you and use that money for things and you will have things and we will all win. Go team.

Instaxxx On Sale

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Back To The Galápagos

So one year ago I went to the Galápagos Islands with my family to celebrate my parents’ retirement and their mutual 70th birthday. It was the first family vacation we had been on in 20 years. The islands were absolutely incredible. It was like something out of Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, had to leave early. After spending two days getting to the islands, my dad tripped on a rock cut his head open less than 24 hours after we boarded the boat that we were to be living on for the next week. It was a really magical and horrifying trip that I detailed in this 2000 Words post. Just a heads up, there is a lot of blood…

The good news is that my dad was okay. After spending a day in the only “hospital” in the Galápagos he was was allowed to fly and when he got back to the States his doctor told him they did a fantastic job stitching him up on the boat and he would barley have a scar if it weren’t for the fact that he ripped one of his stitches out and didn’t bother to get it fixed because of course he didn’t. The other good news was that my parents bought travel insurance and we got all our money back for the trip including the last minute tickets that we had to buy to get us home.

So one year later we are returning to the Galápagos and I am really excited about it. The place is so fucking insane and I can’t wait to show you guys the photos I take there. Assuming we all survive the trip in relative health it should be amazing. 

All that being said, I am going to have very little internet access so I won’t be updating the site again until after the 14th. I will be posting stuff to Instagram though, so make sure you are following me there and on Twitter if you want to hear about the trip in real time. 

Lastly here’s a link to some of my photos from last year that you can check out while you wait and see you guys in about 10 days!

The Galápagos Islands

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Off To SXSW

Once again, I am leaving for South By Southwest in Austin, TX. Between the last decade covering it as media and the years I was going as a music manager I have been roughly 15 years in a row. I thought it was 14 actually but if you include 2004 and this year that’s 15 right? Who cares? Anyway, I love Austin but SXSW is kinda a shitshow now, but at least the food is good, I get to see a ton of old friends and I am working my ass off while I am there.

If you happen to be in Austin for SXSW you should RSVP for the Brooklyn Bowl party that I’m shooting. It’s at the Scoot Inn on the East Side and it’s sponsored by Sailor Jerry and Harley Davidson who also happen to be the people who hired me so go buy some rum and a motorcycle but not at the same time. I am also shooting this boxing match mixed with music because of course on Saturday that should be pretty interesting. I’ve never actually shot a boxing match before which should be fun.

Also if you are in town you should go see the movie Wobble Palace which my brother edited. It’s in the film festival and I really enjoyed it. Here’s the RogerEbert.com review if you want to know more about it. Quick tangent, my brother also edited the TV show Take My Wife and both seasons are now available on iTunes. It’s about a queer couple trying to make it in comedy together while also trying to make sure their relationship doesn’t fall apart. It’s really, really fucking good and totally relatable despite me being a straight white dude and all. Here’s a review of that too…

Okay, since I probably won’t update this again until next week let me plug stuff as always. You can get my books and zines here . And since I am gonna be gone for a while I uploaded a mini gallery of my friend Meg to Girls of Driven By Boredom. I did a shoot with her yesterday and at the end fucked around with my new LED lights. I will post the real shoot on here eventually but the mini shoot at the end is up on Girls of DBB now.

Okay, that’s all I got. Make sure to check out my Twitter and Instagram while I am gone for a ton of stuff from SXSW. And hopefully I will see some you guys at the Brooklyn Bowl Party in Austin.

Brooklyn Bowl Reunion @ SXSW

 

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Cyber Monday Is Stupid But Buy Some Stuff

Look, Black Friday is dumb enough without Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday and all of this stupid bullshit. But I need to pay my rent anD Monday is a way better day for web traffic than Friday so I am doing this shit. To be honest none of this stuff really on sale but anyone who buys a book between now and, let’s say Thursday, will get a free 5″x7″ print. That seems fair. You can keep it and give the other shit for Christmas to your favorite person because you love them and my stuff is the best.

Not sure how how best to organize this but let’s just start with a link to my Etsy store. 90% of the stuff I have for sale is on there. I should also promote Girls of Driven By Boredom. Now seems like as good of time as any to sign up. Tons of exclusive stuff on there in high resolution for a super inexpensive price. Moving on.

The main thing I want to sell you is of course my book Instaxxx. It’s HUGE and has hundreds of instant film photos from hundreds of naked women. It’s fairly classy. I mean, I wouldn’t buy it for your grandma but I feel like your uncle will probably dig it. You have some options on how to buy it.

  • Just Instaxxx – This is the book. Nothing else.
  • Instaxxx Mini – Instaxxx Mini is a smaller version of the book. I made it so I can ship it cheaper Internationally. It’s about half the size but has nearly as many photos in it including some extra ones. I made the US shipping really expensive though because I want to encourage people who live here to buy the big book.
  • Adult Star Signed Instaxxx – I have just five copies of Instaxxx signed by a bunch of porn stars: Carter Cruise, Lucy Everleigh, Riley Nixon, Charlotte Sartre, Kasey Warner, Blair Williams and Whitney Wright. The book is also signed by me and comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity. It’s expensive but there’s only five of them.
  • Adult Star Signed Instaxxx Mini – Same deal here, just with different porn stars: Joanna Angel Abella Danger Bobbi Dylan Jillian Janson Jojo Kiss Gia Paige and Charlotte Sartre. I got these signed at Exxxotica, NJ. I made a numbered COA for these too. It’s also a good chance to get the Mini edition in the US without paying crazy shipping.
  • Stoya Signed Instaxxx – Stoya signed both versions of Instaxxx. I sold a bunch of the big ones but this is the first time I am listing the Minis. Stoya helped a bunch with the Instaxxx Kickstarter and she signed a bunch of books for me too.
  • Instaxxx & NOT SAFE Bundle – My book Instaxxx and the companion zine NOT SAFE. Save $5 buying them together.

Instaxxx Winter Edition

Speaking of bundles. I made a few discount bundles recently and I think there are only two left. The Driven By Boredom bundle comes with a DBB snapback, a shot glass and a ton of other stuff. I mention the hat and the shot glass because the hat has been sold out for a while and the shot glass has never really been for sale online.

I also have two t-shirts for sale via TeeSpring. These things are print on demand but I figured I would just list them here anyway. I only make a couple bucks off each one but they are kinda fun.

And lastly this seems like the perfect time to break out my Christmas card again. I sent out about 200 last year but I printed 500 so there’s a ton of them left so if anyone wants one you can get one mailed to you for just two American dollars. It seems worth it just to fuck with your mail man.

Okay, that’s it. Do your duty as capitalists and buy some shit from me. Thanks!

Jillian Janson Signed Instaxxx Mini

 

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Off To The Galápagos…

So amazingly I am headed to the Galápagos Islands tomorrow. My parents have been talking about taking a family vacation there since my brother and I were little kids and now that they have retired they are finally actually doing it. I think the last time I went on a family vacation was when I was 14. Around 15 I got way too punk rock to be hanging out with my family and they were probably too embarrassed to be seen with me in public anyway. Whatever the case I get to spend 10 days with them and I feel like it’s going to be pretty amazing.

I am going to be on a boat for most of that time and only have access to what I assume is going to be wildly expensive satellite internet. I am going to try and get online at least once a day to update Twitter/Instagram & check emails but I am fairly certain I am not going to be updating this site again until after I return on the 24th.

With that in mind I wanted to update you guys on my new book and give you guys something to look at while I am gone.

I have laid out 150 pages of my Instaxxx book and scanned over 500 photos for it. The plan is for the book to be somewhere between 170 – 200 pages and I have a lot of work to do still. I am going to lay out probably 250 pages and then start editing down. After that I am going to take some of my favorites and add them to the zine I am working on that is going to accompany the book. It’s going to be about 40 pages and feature 35mm and polaroid nudes with $1 from each zine going to help marginalized sex workers.

So aside from just laying out both the book and the zine I also have to write intros to these things which is by far my least favorite part. I need to get someone to photoshop the dust off a bunch of the Instax scans and we need to design some covers which is probably the most fun part. Whatever the case there’s a lot of work to be done and leaving town for 10 days right now is not ideal. That being said, I hope to have the book at least laid out by the end of April so that I can get this thing out by mid June.

Pre-order Instaxxx here!

Now I wanted to leave you guys with some content and I also wanted to promote Girls of Driven By Boredom since I am not going to be working for the next 10 days.  If you haven’t signed up already there is a massive amount of content on there. It’s really cheap and has tons of exclusive and uncensored stuff on there. The images are all high resolution too.

Anyway, already uploaded over 100 Instax scans to Girls of DBB and today I just uploaded another 200! Don’t worry there’s still going to be a lot of surprises in the book but if you wanna see a bunch of Instax photos that no one has seen here’s your chance. Lot of fun stuff here that will never make the book too. A big chunk of this stuff will never see the light of day outside of Girls of DBB. So go sign up already!

Anyway, I am gonna go watch hockey playoffs before heading to the god damn Galápagos tomorrow! Here’s a couple mildly safe for work Instax for you to look at in the meantime.

Instaxxx

Instaxxx

Instaxxx

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Off To Texas

Headed back to my 14th straight South By Southwest in Austin, TX this week. I wasn’t even going to do an update about it because I ran out of time and I don’t have any actual content to share with you or anything but my flight got delayed and I missed my connecting flight and now I am bored in the Delta Sky Lounge and it seemed like a good time to update you guys on some random stuff.

Firstly if you want to follow my SXSW trip check out my Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. Should be updating all that stuff. Snapchat too. My name is predictably “drivenbyboredom” on all of them.

Next up I figured I would update you guys on my Instaxxx book. After raising $20k on Kickstarter I have quickly found out that’s not really enough money to do a hardcover book. My first estimate came back at $22k. $20k after fees and taxes and shipping costs and film costs is suddenly like $10k. Not ideal. So I am going with softcover but it’s gonna be twice the size of my last two books so that should be pretty awesome.

I have pretty much finished shooting for the book and I have scanned all the instant film that I shot. Next up is laying out the book which I will be starting on pretty much as soon as I get back.

If you backed the book I will be doing a Kickstarter update when I get back with all sorts of info and if you haven’t backed the book you can still pre-order a copy here.

Lastly I should mention that I had some stuff fall through at SXSW so I have a bunch of free time if anyone needs a last minute photographer… or perhaps you live in Austin and are a super hot babe and wanna be in my book. Just saying… If either of those things are the case hit me up!

And since I have nothing else to post here is a photo of my friend Selina I took last time I was in Austin. I actually turned this photo into a postcard that you can buy here.

Red Lobster

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Aneta At Hello Beautiful

First of all, I am back from my trip to LA. You may have noticed that because I am actually updating. I had this update all ready to go, but yet I couldn’t find 30 minutes to post it while I was in LA. Moving on…

Aneta is a fucking babe. I found her on an almost completely useless website and sent her a message but she didn’t get it because the unnamed site is almost completely useless. However, I did find a link to her Instagram and I followed her and she followed me back and a week later she was getting naked in front of the staff and customers of the Williamsburg Brooklyn salon, Hello Beautiful.

The shoot came about when I had just launched my Instaxxx Kickstarter. The day it launched I reached out to Nakid Magazine and offered them an exclusive instant film shoot in exchange for promoting my Kickstarter. They were all about it, so the next day Aneta and I met up at Hello Beautiful.

I had just shot Hello Beautiful’s owner Rebecca (and her girlfriend) for my Instaxxx project and she told me I could shoot at Hello Beautiful sometime. My thought was I would use it after work but Aneta and I went over there anyway because Rebecca mentioned their was a basement that we could use during business hours.

When we got there Rebecca convinced us that we should just shoot while customers were in the shop. She asked anyone if they minded and they didn’t so we got to work. We shot a ton of Instax and I also shot a handful of digital too because it was such a cool opportunity so I figured I would double down.

The photos ended up on Nakid Magazine a few days later.

Anyway, I uploaded all the digital images to Girls of Driven By Boredom over a week ago because I like to keep content on there fresh all the time so I figured I would throw it up on here too. Honestly the digital stuff was a second thought but I still think they are pretty fun.

And speaking of Girls of DBB and mediocre digital photos I threw up some random digital shots of Stevie Foxx and Cassidy Aka HookerProblemz hanging out in a hotel room doing weird shit mostly involving spitting on each other. I was shooting them for my Instaxxx book too but I figured I should just throw these up on Girls of DBB anyway.

Lastly, I should mention my trip to LA was pretty successful. I think I shot at least a half dozen Instax that will end up in my new book, I played a bunch with the Instax Mini camera which might end up in the introduction of the book and I shot about 10 rolls of 35mm film. On top of that I shot a half dozen digital sets and I think I may have even found a printer for the book so all and all a good trip.

Okay enough house keeping; let’s look at some photos….

Click here to see the photos of Aneta naked in public at Hello Beautiful Salon.

Aneta

Aneta

Aneta

Aneta

Aneta

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