TOAN TALK: Interview with Nightedlife Photographer Deanskii
24yr old Torrance native Dean and his crew creep the sinful streets of not only LA but across the US and beyond to document the crude life that is the underground party scene. Their unique uncensored style of photography exposes the art of the wasted youth, graff, drugs and everything in between. TOAN got the pleasure to meet one of the men behind the lens and get to know a little more about the Nightedlife project.
What is Nightedlife and what type of things does Nightedlife photograph?
DEANSKII: “Nightedlife is a bunch of photos—we all take photos of crazy shit that goes on through our lives. It started out in San Francisco. It’s based out there and all the photographers are spread out from New York, Texas, Los Angeles, Canada and everywhere else.”
How did it start?
DEANSKII: “To be honest I didn’t start it, but I mean I was like one of the first persons to do the zines that came out from them. I think it started from like—Nick Garcia hit me up on Flickr and I was kind of scared because I thought he was a police officer you know ‘cause all my photos have like graff and drugs and I was like you know what—why not? It won’t hurt me so I shot him a couple of photos and that’s what started the first Nightedlife zine and from there it progressed to other zines.”
Approximately how many are in the Nightedlife crew?
DEANSKII: “That’s kind of hard to tell to be honest.”
A lot?
DEANSKII: “Yea ‘cause like even though they don’t come out with zines, there’s people who still support it you know, we still consider them like—they’re called “Nighted Lifers”
Where can we find these zines?
DEANSKII: “You can find the zines off nightedlife.storenvy.com and the website is just nightedlife.com"
How long have you been handy with the camera?
DEANSKII: “Since I was a little kid I’ve always been taking photos, my mom would always give me like little disposable cameras and until maybe like in high school. I was shooting digital in high school. Like I was taking graffiti photos and then maybe not till like 2012 when Nightedlife hit me up I kind of started shooting more film and you know I got more serious then.”
Do you feel the rawness of your photos would differ if you used a digital camera now as opposed to film?
DEANSKII: “If I was shooting digital it would probably be the same but I like having the hard copy ‘cause either way I’m still gonna take pictures of some ratchet ass shit you know, either or I’m still gonna take pictures of drugs and naked girls and crazy ass stuff”
Has anything happened at these parties where you happened to not have your camera and missed a really good shot?
DEANSKII: “Not really I mean, I try to like—to be honest half the time when I take my photos I’m like fuckin drunk and wasted or whatever”
So you don’t even know what you shoot?
DEANSKII: “No no no I mean I shoot…”
Well what I mean is, it’s always a surprise?
DEANSKII: “Yeah, well usually when I shoot like I kind of already know what’s gonna come out on the picture. I’m not like blacked out drunk. I’ll wake up the next morning like “ok yeah, that’s gonna be a tight ass photo when I get it developed”
Where do you want to see your photos?
DEANSKII: “I wanna have my own solo show soon. I’m just too broke haha. I wouldn’t really know how to start organizing it though. I’m not a real organized person so I’d have to have someone else do it for me at the same time you know, but that’s not really solo solo but you know, I can say its solo. Partner up with some other group or whatever but I want it to be my own show my own gallery my own photos my own everything.”
What do you want your audience to get from your photography?
DEANSKII: “I just don’t want them to be seen as party photos or ratchet photos you know like—I guess mainly all my photos are but I mean I can still take nice photos but I choose not to because everyone takes nice photos. I could take a picture of flowers and shit and you know be boring. At least like my stuff is not really set up, it’s more like spur of the moment. Like “oh this fights happening I’m a take a picture of it” like I’m not you know setting up doing shoots and stuff. I don’t even consider myself a photographer to be honest. I mean like I used to do all the settings and shoot digital and all that.”
It was too boring?
DEANSKII: “It was too boring, I just felt I was forced to do all that stuff you know.”
Do you think you've gained a reputation where people come up to you and do some crazy shit to get in one of your shots?
DEANSKII: “Uh I don’t think they do crazy shit but I’m pretty sure like Instagram or Twitter and all that stuff.”
To get on your social media accounts?
DEANSKII: “Yea, like I’ve got friends that are like “oh that’s so tight, you got the picture of me on your website.” Im like oh tight.”
What can we expect from the Nightedlife crew in 2014?
DEANSKII: “A lot of crazy stuff..”
Well I know you had a show recently in the bay, how was that?
DEANSKII: “Oh the one in Frisco? It was tight. It was cool. It was mainly like a graff show, but you know a lot of my friends were in it. I wasn’t expecting it to turn out that big ‘cause we’re from LA. When I got there setting up it was empty and then I went to go get some food down the street and by the time I got back the whole gallery was filled up like damn! And then there was another big show going on that day too and I was like damn this is so crowded and yea I actually got three shows coming up next month.”
Are they on your site?
DEANSKII: “Nah they’re not on the site but I’m a post them up once we get flyers. We got a Nightedlife show in Seattle on the 22nd, I got a show in San Diego on the 22ndalso. In Frisco I got a show too but idk if I’ma do that one…that’s three times too much for me like I can barely handle one show haha.”
