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What type of camera do you use?
Pentax K-1000, my favorite camera in the world. I buy them for friends when they tell me they wanna learn how to take pictures. Unfortunately, they just doubled in price in the last year. It's the most basic camera probably every Photography I teacher will tell you to get. It's a perfect camera. My recommendation for someone starting out is a Pentax K-1000 with a 2.8, 28mm lens, which you can find used for like $100-$150. The equipment is not that important. I use the same lens all the time.
I bought a 6x7 camera back in '86, when I was making some money off my rap work. I probably shot four rolls of film on it since then. One roll of film produced the L.L. Cool J Bad album cover. One of the other rolls produced the Oran Juice Jones album cover and back cover, on the same roll. The other two rolls got me Slick Rick's album cover and Davy D's album cover. But, after that, it was just too bulky to use, so...
Do, you have an explanation or an opinion on why you think we are bombarded so much, everyday, with bad art. People seem so pleased with mediocrity.
Yeah, it's the dumbing down of America. Someone asked me, in a Japanese interview, what do you see as the biggest trend in America, and I said "Ignorance." I don't know how to explain why people are satisfied with bullshit. I guess very often they don't know any better. I think it definitely has something to do with TV where there's so many different channels and things you can watch. You just learn to focus your attention on that box. I watch TV sometimes. I'm not saying that TV is nessessearlily the worst thing in the world, but, just like with many other things you have to be careful in how you use it. You know, guns don't kill people, people kill people, right? Although, I don't believe in guns. Ummm...what would be an analogy? TV's don't dumb down people, remote controls do? It's the channels you watch, I don't know. I watch MTV sometimes, "Seinfeld" a lot of the time, I used to watch Letterman every night.
I read that you are very anti-fashion, yet I recently saw some promo shots you did for the Phat Farm clothing line. Could you talk a little about this, why you're so anti-fashion?
I think fashion is one of the worst capitalist things in this society. I think capitalism could be positive in some ways, and it does advance the society in many, many ways. But I don't think all those advances are good things, particularly fashion, is something that corporations use to get people to spend more money when they don't need to. The pants I'm wearing today fit me as fine as they did 5 or 6 years ago. If they're not worn out, you don't need new fashion. Fashion is just a way to get people to waste money, I think. It's just ridiculous, I don't understand it. That's why I'm anti-fashion.
Of course I wear clothes, but I don't buy that much clothes. I may be lucky because companies will give me free clothes, you know, companies my friends work for or something like that. You know, people change new clothes and new sneakers every fucking month, that's just really negative. It's using up natural resources and also people's personal resources. They don't need to be wasting their money on fucking clothes, and fucking make-up that women seem to think they need. It's self-perpetuating, they create new styles every year just to keep themselves in business. I can't say that I've never been influenced by fashion, like in my early punk rock days, wearing a leather jacket. The degree that people let their lives be run by that stuff and the amount of money wasted on it, is what makes me anti-fashion.
Also, you've got all these companies out there making clothes, skate companies, and some musicians starting their own clothing companies, all they're doing is sewing in their tag into someone else's design. T-shirts, on top of that, I've got so many fucking T-shirts. I don't buy any. T-shirts are an advertising tool, whether it be a political idea or a particular company, that's up to you. I like a plain T-shirt, or if my friend's company is doing something that is cool, I'll wear the shirt to support them, but I am being a walking billboard. If a shirt's got a particular political slogan on it, I'll wear it to share my ideas with people. For some of these companies that just write their company name on a shirt in a different font, or have some wack drawings — of course it's all subjective — on a T-shirt, it's like "Why?" You call yourself a clothing company? No. It's just rude to sell these things at such crazy prices when it's nothing you couldn't find at Salvation Army or even The Gap, but it's got someone else's name on it. I think it's pathetic and rude.
Well, I agree, as far as the high prices and stuff, but I draw and I also make T-shirts...
Is that the best place to see your drawings? On people's chests? I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but is that what you wanna do? Do you wanna be in a gallery, or in a magazine, or is it just good to have it on a T-shirt now cause that promotes it?
Well yeah, it helps promote. I'm not saying all I want to do my whole life is make T-shirts!
To me, the bottom line comes down to this: What is your motivation? Are you drawing, are you taking pictures, are you skateboarding, are you in a band because you need to do it 'cause it's inside of you and it has to come out as a way of expressing yourself? Or are you doing it because you wanna be cool, you wanna have more friends, you want people to like you, you want people to admire you? Are you doing it because you wanna be famous? Are you doing it because you wanna make money? Which one of those things is it? You know, why do you wanna be an actor, why do you wanna be a photographer? I object to people doing creative things for anything other than their heart telling them they need to do it, that's my personal feelings.
Yeah, I agree, but you're kind of doing the same thing as me trying to sell my T-shirts. You do your artwork, and you sell it, whether it be with books or whatever.
I'm making very little or no money off [the books], first of all, just so you know. Of course I do make money off of it when I'm shooting pictures of like Russel's company [Phat Farm], and making that money did pay for a good portion of the rest of the art I did all year that I don't get any money for. But, at the same time, it's for my friend's company, and I did enjoy doing it as an artist. It made me feel good to do it, 'cause I saw his company was lacking in good images. It's almost like my responsibility to help them out. I'm not saying it in a defensive way, I'm just trying to explain. When I shoot photos of The Make-Up, I don't know if those photos will ever be used, I just do it 'cause I wanna take the photos.
I see what you're saying, but...
Well, you're taking it kind of personally, but I appreciate that though. I don't mind arguing the point or discussing it further. I know not everyone has the opportunities that I did. I don't wanna be a struggling artist and a waiter my whole life. Sometimes it's hard to find that line of what you do with your art and what you don't. I think I've been much easier in the last year and a half of doing interviews than I used to be. I used to say "This is the only way, and that's it!" But, I've come to realize that, well, these are just things that you should be conscious of and think about.
You know, I was able to have that growth as an artist very young. If I got my first picture published at 19 it'd be a whole different story. Over many years I've learned how to use and exploit my talent without being exploited. Nowadays, the bottom line is to do what I do and not get exploited. The idea is do what you can without taking advantage of other people. I expect to get paid what I think is fair. If I can't make a living off of getting paid what's fair, then I gotta start doing other things. So far it's been able to support me all these years. It's a very good thing and I'm very lucky because of it. You just gotta hope to keep getting better as time goes on. The idea is to do the best you can while you're on this planet, in this world for yourself and those around you, without letting yourself be exploited or exploiting those around you and the environment around you.
More Glen E. Friedman:
• Burning Flags Press
• Fuck You All — includes recent shots, political links, rare video, and more...
• Idealist Propaganda
•  Glen E. Friedman books
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