Pants Party

Les Savy Fav ROCKS my world.
Ilford Delta Pro 3200 film, developed by hand. Shot at FFF in Austin...



PEACE to you all!

Death Is The Most Important Band You Have Never Heard Of

Originally comprised of the three Hackney brothers - Bobby, Dannis and David, the band Death has to be the greatest musical re-discovery in recent history. Punk without even knowing it both sonically and symbolically, Death was doomed to obscurity when refusing Clive Davis' (of Columbia Records) request that they change their name. They pressed 500 copies of a 7 song EP on their own Tryangle records then disbanded the band by moving away from Detroit.

Brother David passed of cancer in 2000, but before his passing he urged his brothers to hold on to the master tapes, as one day "the world would coming looking for them."

David's prediction came true and more than thirty years later, thanks to the help of Drag City records, Death has been resurrected in the form of re-issue of the original 7 song EP, …For The Whole World To See. Death has since enjoyed a new found and quite unexpected bit of fame, the New York Times called them "the band that was punk before punk was punk," and Mos Def has a documentary about them in the works.

Uber hip music festival Fun Fun Fun in Austin hosted one of their select few reunion shows, I was lucky enough to hang with the guys before they hit the stage and shoot their set. Links to music and articles after the (hand developed)photos.





Listen to "Politicians in my eyes."
NYT Article.
Guardian UK.
Mos Def doco.
PEACE to you all!

FFF Film 09 1

Fun Fun Fun, quite possibly my favorite music event of the year went down last weekend. This is the third year I have shot FFF for Skope Mag and Meow Poww Media, and every year it gets better. Growing so weary of digital, I shot mostly film this year - lots of black and white which I have yet to process and a few rolls of C41 and E6. The C41 I sent to the lab and unfortunately the entire roll is underexposed - my fault, changed film too fast and had the ISO set in manual at a stop under the rating of the film. However, just got the E6 roll back from the lab and I am pretty excited. Next week I will do a full FFF recap and write up, but for now here are my favorite shots - 7 shots out of a 36 exposure roll, not a bad hit rate. Many more photos - film and (bleh) digital.

A wide view of the Metal stage, which every year is the only stage without a photopit, so to get shots for this stage I have to stand in the crowd with a telephoto.


Random hero tuning up before going on stage. With festivals like this, there are so many artists around there is no way you can know who everybody is.

Random backstage action.

Living the High Life.

Russian Circles KILLING it.

So far, this is my favorite shot from the festival. One of the dude's from Sugar and Gold.

Focus was a bit soft here, was literally running to another stage when I noticed this blind cat who was JAMMING on the side of the stage. Snapped a shot of him, then came back to the stage later to find he was the keyboardist and singer of the band Foot Patrol - who VM Black describes as "Austin’s favorite foot fetish funk group." Can hardly explain how amazing they were, will type more on them later.
PEACE to you all!

The Moon, My Love

To achieve the effect on the print below, I used an Anti-Newton Glass 4x5 carrier and used blue artists tape to mask off a custom frame.
Moon, Crouched
Chromogenic Print, 1/2, Hand Developed by the Artist
Not for Sale
PEACE to you all!

Fun

This is why I love film, there are things that can happen that are truly impossible to reproduce. Ultimately, this is a flawed photograph, my reel was a little wet which caused parts of the roll to stick to itself. But, to me it is beauty. This was a roll of Fuji Velvia 50, which I pushed to 100 and cross processed as C41 - developed by hand. Not sure what band this is, although I know that is Dr. Octagon's MC off to the right.
PEACE to you all!

Back

Here is an outtake from my time in Austin shooting for the Living Canvas series. Troy's backpiece, which was done by the venerable Chris Trevino, is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
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Full Disclosure

A screenshot of my workspace - busy day today, 3 shoots and started working on my first documentary.
PEACE to you all!

In the Fam

Outtakes from the first two shoots of the day.

PEACE to you all!

M O S

Mates of State
Chromogenic Print
1/3, Artist Test Print
Registration is misaligned, but can be cut down.
$100 UPDATE: This print has been sold and is no longer available.
ryan.chahanovich@gmail.com
PEACE to you all!

Thoughts on Paying Attention

Let me start by saying I am a huge nerd, and I love all things web. Blogging, Twitter, RSS feeds, Crackbook - it is safe to say I spend a lot of time broadcasting my life and tuning in to the lives of other's on the web. But, while at SXSW, especially the Interactive session I noticed that people get so wrapped up in broadcasting every moment that they forget to actually slow down, be in a moment, and absorb an experience as it happens.

The more I reflect on this, the more I feel like detaching (to an extent) from technology, and just BE in a moment. To me, shooting film is perfect for such a mindset because after depressing the shutter there is no instant review. For better or worse that moment of light is captured. A few days or weeks down the road when the film is developed and scanned/printed and enough time has separated you from the event you can reflect and transmit. Shooting film means being present and aware, in my own little world at least.

With that here are a few rough images from SXSW Music, three of my favorite performances captured as moments of light. Bear in mind, this film had been expired for several years!

Circle Jerks at Emos, I flipped my shit when they played Coup D'Etat and I hopped in the pit and am quite sure I hit several people in the head with my camera.

The Great Lakes at Red 7. I could have gone either way until at the very end the guitarist hung his guitar from the rafters while it fedback like a banshee, he then climbed the rafters himself hanging above the crowd - awesome!

Efterklang at Habana Calle. Considered by many to be the Beatles of Denmark, the performance was overwhelmingly beautiful.
PEACE to you all!

SXSW 09 Film Favorites

Having a Gold badge at this year's SXSW I made it a point to see a lot of films. In between panels, showcases, and items on my shot list I would sneak over to the Paramount or the Ritz as often as possible to catch a flick. I ended up seeing a total of nine films, all of which were excellent - was not disappointed in a single film. Here are my top 3 picks:
1. Winnebago Man. This film was unreal, a documentary based upon one of the first ever pre-youtube viral videos. An outtake reel from a late 80's Winnebago industrial film shoot hosted by the venerable Jack Rebney was copied from VHS tape to VHS tape, making the rounds all across the country. The filmmaker tracks down Jack, now a hermit living alone in Northern California, and tells a great story of someone who came into the spotlight under less than ideal terms. There is not a trailer for the film online, however the original clip that spawned the phenomenon is on youtube, and is probably the funniest thing I have EVER seen.

Official site.
2. Iron Maiden: Flight 666. So I grew up as a huge metal kid and have even played in a few metal bands, but I am confident that this fact did not bias my review of this film. You could hate metal and THOROUGHLY enjoy this film. It is an intimate portrait of a band that truly loves what they do and have created an incredible fanbase the world over. As the film's director said before the film ran, "If you are new to Iron Maiden, welcome to the family." Funny enough, after the film that is exactly how I felt. Most astonishing I think was the fact that the band got it's own custom 757 to tour the world with their gear and crew and the plane was flown by the band's lead singer Bruce Dickinson! The sound was fantastic on the film, and invoked a feeling of actually being at one of their larger than life shows. I was grinning from ear to ear the entire film and often laughed out loud. The crowd at the Paramount was awesome, when their marquee songs would come on a few guys in the front row would stand up, take their shirts off and swing them in the air, so good!

Official site.
3. Sons of a Gun. I met Greg, the filmmaker on my flight out to Texas - he was a SXSW virgin stoked to be showing his film. Once I landed in Austin I viewed the trailer and knew it was a must see. The production was done on a shoestring, but the film portrays such a touching drama that you can't helped but be sucked in. Better characters and story could not be fabricated and can only exist in the twisted reality that we all inhabit. Really and truly a great film and a wonderful human drama.

Official site
The rest of the films I saw:
Letters to the President. A great look inside Iran. Trailer.
Intangible Asset #82. An Australian drummer's quest to find a Korean Shaman. Trailer.
Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy for Governor Tales from the campaign trail of one of Texas' most original characters. Site.
Objectified From the creator of Helvetica, musings on industrial design. Trailer.
Sin Nombre A young girl travels to America with the help of a former gang member.Trailer

Most of these may not ever be available on DVD or in theaters, but if you get the chance to see any of them I highly recommend you do!

PEACE to you all!

God Bless Texas

Let me start by saying thus far I love San Francisco and all, but my heart and soul will forever reside in Austin, Texas. It was wonderful to be back, it felt like I hadn't missed a step. Moving to SF was the right thing to do for now - but it will not be home forever.

So, here are a few snaps of two Texas icons - the Lone Star Flag and Kinky Friedman. The images are super grainy, I was shooting ISO 3200 Kodak that had been expired for over 5 years. In retrospect I should have hit it harder (more exposure time, wider aperture) and possibly dipped it another minute or two in the D76 developer, but oh well.

Also, as promised my write ups for film and music are on the way. Getting ready for a photo exhibition in the Haight, preparing negatives, master files and mounting is keeping me super busy.


PEACE to you all!

Blur

I think I said this last year, and it certainly applies again, was it a dream? Am I already back in San Francisco, waking up in my own bed? Certainly I did not hit SXSW (music portion) as hard as I did last year, but still had a wonderful experience. Saw lots of good music, a ton of films, and made lots of images.
Let me start with the thank yous, Scott Gress you were a wonderful host, Gin and Meow Poww Media you rock, Marc Urselli always great to see you, and perhaps thank you most of all to Bettina and Eric at Austin Bikes. Really, lending me a bike totally made my trip and I am so very thankful. If you are in Austin and need a new ride, go to Austin Bikes, they are the best!!! Also, to all of you who I love and did not get to see (Jon, Todd, Duke, so many more), I was just so overextended that I was not able to see and do nearly 1/100th of what I wanted to, I love you all and will be back in Austin soon.
Tomorrow I am going to do a write up on all the films I saw, and the following day will do the same for music and post a few images. Was shooting exclusively film during music, so I need to go buy some new chemistry and develop/scan so I can post some images.

Keep Austin Wierd (and yuppy free).
PEACE to you all!

It Has Begun...

SXSW Interactive kicked off today! Going to be a busy boy but I will check in from time to time...

PEACE to you all!

Lace Up

OK, a few things:
1. I have refreshed my personal website with new imagery, social media icons, and updated some of the copy. ryanchahanovich.com
2. Thanks to the venerable Hannah for lending her arm. The background image of the site, seen below, is another sneak peek into my floaters project which I have shoots scheduled today and tomorrow for.
5. I will also be making sched's for the Films, Music, and other Panels I will be attending, post those soon. For now, here is a link to free food at SXSW!
PEACE to you all!

Coming Up

SXSW will be here with the quickness! I just got my shot list from the powers that be for Screenburn at Interactive. You can view my shot list sched here: http://sxsw2009.sched.org/rc_interactive_foto
I will also be putting together another sched of the Film and Music I will be catching, post that here in the next few days. One showcase I will NOT be missing is being put on by MeowPoww, Gin is arguably the hardest working girl in the industry:) Not to mention, Ume will be there and it is TOTALLY free.
PEACE to you all!

Wrist

Been working away on my project, code name "Floaters" - here is an outtake.

ps - SXSW is right around the corner, I will be shooting Screenburn at the Interactive Conference. Make sure to get your game on.
PEACE to you all!

Sunshine

Barton Springs, how I miss thee...
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Congratulations!

PEACE to you all!

Ramblin man

Spent some time flipping through my notebooks, and reflecting on some of the places I have been this year. While flipping through the notebook, I updated my geotracker and was able to see that I have been on the road quite a bit this year. Below is a small screenshot, you can see the full page here.
PEACE to you all!