05/13/2012
Mr Cartoon LA
Couple of weeks ago I went to visit Mr Cartoon. I was staying with a friend in downtown LA and didn’t have a car so decided to walk there – past various empty lots, chop shop garages, the LA Gun Club, homeless people, a passer by threw me a gang sign. Mr Cartoon is an artistic genius, known for his ink art and painted car collection (everything from 1940′s Chevy’s to Harley bikes).
JanetteBeckman
Photographing 'The Islington Twins' - the epitome of Mod cool in their parkas, Loakes, sunglasses and trilby's - with her twin lens reflex camera, in the school yard of North London College where she was teaching photography in 1981, having graduated earlier from Central Saint Martins, Beckman never imagined the resulting imager
... View morey to feature 6 years later as a full page in The Face, or to later form a 12-foot tall exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
She went on to shoot bands and fans, punk, ska, rockabilly, 2 tone and reggae, working from 1977 - 1982 for The Face and Melody Maker. Moving to New York in 1992, she landed just in time to document the pioneers of hip hop and styles of the 80s. Beckman says: "I was asked to go to Hollis to photograph the ‘new ‘ group Run DMC for The Face. Run met me at Hollis subway station and we walked to his street to meet the band, who were just hanging out on a spring day under the trees."
Still obsessed with steet style, attitude, youth culture, art and ephemera, she continues to shoot musicians and street style for clients such as Kangol, Schott, and Casio. Books celebrating her work include: 'Made in the UK: The Music of Attitude, 1977-1982' (Powerhouse 2005), "The Breaks, Stylin and Profilin 1982-1990" (Powerhouse 2007), and most recently her photo essay on East LA Mexican gang, ‘El Hoyo Maravilla’ (Dashwood 2011). Recent exhibitions include: Project Space in LA, Tower Records in Tokyo, Blender Gallery in Sydney, Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York, colette in Paris, and London's Proud Gallery.
