I recently photographed Oakland based rappers Main Attrakionz for this week’s cover. When I showed up for the shoot, the guys weren’t there yet, but I was greeted another guy who assured me they were on their way. The stranger introduced himself as Shady Blaze and he seemed so surprised that I hadn’t heard of him before that I started thinking maybe I should have, so I looked him up on Bandcamp after the shoot. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to new music, but I liked his stuff enough that I’ll post a link to it here as well. Favorite tracks from MAz and Shady Blaze after the pictures….

New World – Main Attrakionz

Oh man, I’ve been shooting a ton of stuff lately so I’m just gonna get it all out in one post. Here are a bunch of my recent photos from stories about:

• Uncle Ricky
• Oakland School Closures
• The Younger Lovers
• East Bay Restaurant Guide
• Food Trucks
• The “Starbucksification” of Peet’s Coffee
• Beth Newell
• Man/Miracle

This week’s East Bay Express cover story is about gay senior citizens and the unique challenges facing homosexuals in nursing homes. Here is a link to the story. My favorite photo (above) didn’t make it into the final layout.

I’m happy to announce that the editors of the Express recently decided to make me their staff photographer. So if you live in the East Bay, you’ll now be able to see my photos in print every Wednesday. I love doing this kind of editorial photography and look forward to shooting all the feature stories for the Express from now on.

I recently photographed a fight party at the East Bay Rats Motorcycle Club in Oakland. There were probably a few hundred people in attendance, and any two people in the crowd could volunteer to fight in the ring. Fights continued until one of the fighters was knocked out, or gave up. Usually it was friends who would want to box each other, though there were a few matches between strangers. Most of the people boxing had no training, and many were also drunk. Incidentally, not one waiver was signed the entire night.

There was a moment in every fight where you could see the people fighting go from buddies to mortal enemies. It happens in an instant, someone gets punched in the face for the first time and something changes as the pain registers. You can see it in their eyes as they go from just wanting to win the match to really wanting to inflict pain. When the match ends, the same thing happens in reverse. All the hostility goes away, they hug it out and they’re friends again.

A tiger shark at the California Academy of Sciences.

I took these pictures for a story about the political fight over “shark finning” back in March. A law banning the sale and importation of shark fins in California passed the state assembly in May and if it gets through the state senate shark fins will be illegal in California starting in 2013.

There are reasonable sounding arguments on both sides of this issue, but all the experts are saying we need to stop killing so many sharks or it’s going to really mess up our oceans. I think most people would be willing to give up their favorite soup (no matter how culturally significant or delicious it is)  if that soup was causing an environmental catastrophe, right? You can sign an online petition here if you support the ban.

I made this little preview trailer for a short film project that I wrote and directed. There’s still a lot more work that has to be done before it’s completely finished, but I can at least share the first minute and sixteen seconds with the internet. Enjoy!

Warning: contains some mildly NSFW language.

All the people in these pictures were awesome to work with, and it was amazing see all the cool things that are going on in the East Bay. I feel so lucky to live in a town with so much going on and with so many great people in it.

I love being able to give some love to my friend’s local businesses like Pretty Penny, Bar 355, and 1234 Go! Records. But I also got to check out some new places that I’d never seen before like:

• The Alameda Antique Fair – I had no idea how big this thing was! It’s a little overwhelming. Cool old stuff as far as the eye can see.
• The Compound Gallery – More than just a gallery, they have open studios all the time, and some really cool stuff including Art in a Box World Headquarters which looks like something out of Dr. Strange-love.
• Golden State Railroad Museum – They’re closed until April to work on the models, but even with all the trains turned off, it was pretty impressive. I definitely plan to go back when they’re actually open.

Here are some of my favorites and some extra shots that didn’t make it into the paper:

Here are two more from the “Karate Parking” shoot. I hadn’t really planned these shots as a series, but they do kinda seem to go together.

I did most of the photography for this week’s East Bay Express special feature on bars, clubs, and coffee houses. It sounded like a fun assignment (and it was) but it turns out taking pictures in bars is really, really tough. Bars are crowded, suuuuuuuper dark, and usually full of people who don’t want their pictures taken. Fortunately, I know a few people who like to have a drink every now and then, and aren’t shy in front of the camera.

I’m so grateful to everyone who went out on the town with me and got photographed, especially Annie (for letting me crash her birthday with my camera) and Isaac and Steph (who super-modeled for the cover photo). Also, big thanks to Travis and Patrick at ThreeFiftyFive and Sasha at Thalassa for letting me blind their customers with strobes and generally disrupt their whole scene.

]]> http://stephenloewinsohn.com/2010/10/ebx-special-issue-bars-clubs-and-coffee-houses/feed/ 0 http://stephenloewinsohn.com/2010/10/no-karate-parking/ http://stephenloewinsohn.com/2010/10/no-karate-parking/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:01:21 +0000 elstevedore http://stephenloewinsohn.com/?p=964

This is an actual sign posted in the parking lot of a furniture store near my house. They’re next door to a Karate dojo, and I imagine they must run into scenes like this one all the time.