A Couple Words With Charlie Engman

Who: Charlie Engman.



What: Still figuring that out; open to suggestions.



When: Often.



Where: I'm American, born and raised, but I live in the UK right now and have my sights set on Japan.



Why: Photography has the power to turn something into something else. Taking a picture of some trash can be just like crowning a prince.



How: Sometimes with a Canon40D, but mostly with a 1975 Canon EF1 (it's a shining star).



Get more Engman on his flickr!

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Connor Tomas O'Brien interviews Marlowe Tatiana for boty

Connor Tomas O'Brien was rad enough to send over this interview he did with Marlowe Tatiana a few weeks ago.

words by Connor Tomas O'Brien
Marlowe Tatiana Granados used to run The Only Glitterati, a pretty amazing two-year online photographic documentation of youth and beauty. Now she's moved on to Petite--Anarchy.com, a site showcasing the work of some of the hip young photographers, filmmakers, etc we know and love.



Connor Tomas O'Brien: I might as well start with what's on my mind... I'm really intrigued by Petite--Anarchy – what's that all about?
Marlowe Tatiana: I've always wanted to override the common aspects of what we have available to us online, like online magazines or blogs. Petite--Anarchy will be something like a visual online experiment. I want people to be able to get what they want to know about someone, or maybe just find out about someone without it being too editorial. Mostly it's going to be a website that features artists and writers as well as being considered an art piece as well. A lot of people I've met will be contributing as well as people who have submitted to me. But of course, the content will be along the lines of the kind of attitude that The Only Glitterati had as well.



What I liked about The Only Glitterati is that your photography exists somewhere between party photography and diaristic photography. A lot of party photo sites like cobrasnake and streetparty.tv get boring fast because the photographers don't really seem to give a shit about who they're photographing. Your photos are more intimate. What do you think of party photo sites and where does your personal/party stuff fit in?
It's hard to say, I mean I'm friends with some event photographers and I know Mark (Cobra Snake) and he's really fun and whatnot but for me, event photography at its peak became this huge thing where everyone could be famous in a certain way. Event photography is more about photographing everyone who is at a party and what fucked up shit happens or what someone is wearing. I think TOG fits in somewhere between – part of my lifestyle is going out, but I don't go out to take photos. I mostly only take photos of my friends. Aka my little "Glitterati" clan. You know, mostly we just happen to go out a lot, so that's where my film goes. I've been called a party photographer before, but really most of the time I get too fucked up anyways. I think that's a reason I'm jealous of event photographers they have their entire nights documented, where with me I'll get a roll back and say, "What were we doing? Where were we?" To be honest I've never really found the need to go on an event photography website unless I was at the party – it's unfortunate but there has to be a level of quality to get someone to look at party photos.



So when you began The Only Glitterati, what sort of audience did you want to appeal to? Friends, or strangers?
I was pretty young when the whole idea came about, I didn't really know what to expect, in the beginning I did more shoots than any personal stuff, so when I did start to put photos of friends...I guess reflecting on it, I would hope people wouldn't care if they knew us or not, and maybe just appreciate a single photo for the way it looked or the atmosphere.

You use film exclusively, yeah?
I only use film, you're right. I don't know whether people look at them differently, but if they did, I'd hope they see the massive difference in the quality and skill – film forces you to become a better photographer, like this is the one shot and you better get it fucking spot on.



And you use SLR cameras and not little point-and-shoots?
I mostly use an SLR, but recently I've been buying little point-and-shoots and testing them using colour film. They get annoying though, I want to get one of the point-and-shoots you can change all the settings on. A friend has a Contax t2. So amazing.

You know Tim Barber, right? Tell me a story about him, he fucking rocks.
I met him a year ago at the Agathe Snow's Whitney Bienniel 24 hour dance party. I gave him one of the first issues of my zine one night when he was Djing at Lit, and he asked me to sign it – he was the first to ask me to do so. One time he caught me puking in an alley after this really crazy night of open bars and debauchery, that was really embarrassing. But yeah, he's really cool and humble. He has really blue eyes.



Are you interested in the gallery/'fine art' side of things? Have you had any shows?
I haven't had an individual show yet, but I've been in a couple [of group shows]. I'm participating in the Contact Photo Festival this year in Toronto. I get really awkward when I'm at a show where my photos are being shown – I freak out when someone is analyzing one of my photos gesturing ‘the rule of thirds’ on a print.

I hate that too. I end up getting too drunk because I'm nervous.
Same, one show I was in all my boyfriends/ex boyfriends came, I drank an entire bottle of Veuve Cliquot.



Who are some of your favourite photographers? NYC-based, or elsewhere.
I'm not really a full time New York girl, but yeah, I have been lucky to have met a lot of cool photographers. Some of my favourites... I love all the ultimate photographers, Mapplethorpe, Doisneau... Currently I love Dana Goldstein's work (she's actually contributing to Petite--Anarchy), Robin Jonsson, Ryan Mcginley's older stuff (‘The Kids are Alright’), I'm such a sucker for anything slightly interesting.



What do you like to photograph?
I'm lucky to know so many beautiful people, but I'm really interested in idiosyncrasies, I like awkwardness. It's cool when people don't give a fuck how they look in a photo. In the current series I'm working on, ‘What We do is Secret’, my friends are all just deadpan looking straight into the camera, their beauty comes off as a gift as well as being tragic. The series is going to be something of a test of what identity really is – I'm trying to isolate all association from the photos like titles and names of the subjects.

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blood of the blog sundays #6

Samesies is a project started to highlight how different people can essentially take the same pictures. Curated by BOTY faves such as Alex Carman, Dave Geeting, and Sophie Curtis, this blog makes me laugh because some of the photos are so VERY similar that it's painful. Makes you wonder!





One of these guys, David Brandon Geeting (full name total points!!), also has a pretty great blog titled Seeing is Stealing. Mostly his flickr favorites, it seems, it contains a fairly wide array of work i've never seen before, at least. Kid is keeping it up, too!
Bonus link!



So, some guy named Jon Vermilyea has a blog apparently. He draws good things and is funny and I like it alot so you probably will too.

Vanessa Maltese

Okay, so I know we don't post very much non-photo content, but here is some, and I'm warning you ahead of time so all you photo losers can stop whining about it.

Vanessa Maltese lives in Toronto and goes to OCAD. She paints pictures that I like.
One time she thought that I hated her for a few years after we both had some pieces in a really bad group show. After that she drunk dialed me and asked me to come over and give her a shiner. Seriously. I still owe her that black eye, but until then, go read the interview NOW Magazine just did with here. ITS RIGHT HERE!

Help us!

I am a firm believer that money isn't everything. At BOTY we really like to provide free DIY content - but that isn't always easy. Our web-hosting bill is due in about a month and if you like us enough to help us stay online it would be much appreciated.

Click the button and then stay tuned for more interviews, features, and issues we've got in the works, duh!

Hamburglar Eyes

I just stumbled onto this short little feature about some of the people behind Hamburger Eyes Magazine.


Filmed by Nick Fogarty. Shot on 16mm.

David Arantes

David Arantes is from Portugal. That's pretty cool!









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flickr friends

Asiaolar

Christian Stearry

Emily Halbardier

TRH x Dimitri Karakostas

We ain't dead!! We rollin' harddd!! If you don't know, now you know!
TRH
DK

Three new photos by Pedro Ramos

still killing it!!

Alexander Binder x Vice Photo Issue 2009

Good job, kid! I'm proud as fuck of you!
awesome updated portfolio

Demeo and Vogt in Seattle

Michael J. Demeo and Rita Vogt's show is moving on up to Seattle this Friday. check out the flyer.

RIP Dash Snow

"Hard-living, cop-dodging New York collage artist, photographer, and graffiti writer Dash Snow has died of a drug overdose at 27."



Full article, NY Mag
Dash @ TV Books
Dash in NY Mag, 2005

Romka 3

The newest issue of Romka Magazine just dropped. If you didnt check it out when issue 2 came out you're a meat-head and you should check it out now. Click the picture to go right to it!


cover photo by Katherine Squier

a couple words with Joshua Whitelaw

We got some new Josh Whitelaw photos for you!

Who: Me. Josh.





What: Half of the time it's just snapshots of my friends and stuff, and the other half it's the stuff I think about before I take.



When: Pretty much everyday if I can. I take my camera everywhere.



Where: Leicester in England at the minute. I'm hopefully moving away somewhere nice for university soon. Hopefully.



Why: Because I'm no good at anything else.



How: With point & shoots mostly. My Yashica T4 or my Contax TVSII.



Find more Whitelaw on QUAY FOREVER or on his flickr.

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Night Vision Vancouver

Night Vision - July 10 2009

A bunch of my pals are part of what looks to be a pretty dope outdoor show. There are a whole ton of really respectable people getting in on this one. Not to mention that the show is in Strathcona Park, in true East Van style. Don't sleep on this one, Vancouver!



There is a big preview blog over at NIGHTVISIONEXHIBITION.TUMBLR.COM. Go look at it. Sponsored by the good people at RVCA and pals at VANCOUVER IS AWESOME who featured us a while ago.