I always enjoy seeing Carl Gunhouse’s “I had a great time photographing …” captions, which precede a carousel of action-packed images. As an evocative window into a particular show or scene, I’m often inspired to check out the bands depicted. While following Carl’s work, I grew curious about the process behind his assiduous documentation of the New York, New Jersey and surrounding scenes. We talked about his current favorites, the Downtown Brooklyn Project, and even Scott Radinsky and Wade Boggs. (All pictures here are by Carl Gunhouse besides Boggs and Radinsky.)
When did you start taking pictures at hardcore shows, and how has the process changed during your decades behind the lens? And has branching out to other subjects affected your HC photo style?
I started late May 1994 at Youth Brigade, Integrity, Lagwagon, the Bouncing Souls, Lifetime, Sticks & Stones, and Bowel at Middlesex County College. My mom was a photographer when I was growing up, and I was familiar with a camera. I was going to shows in the early ‘90s, and a lot of people were announcing triumphantly from stage that hardcore was not dead, especially in NY. As a kid it made me feel like maybe hardcore was at risk of dying, and I had to do my part to keep it going. I am not musically gifted, and I didn’t have a lot of friends, so it seemed like photography was a way I could do my part.
It was super intimidating when I first started photographing shows. I worried people would certainly realize that I was a poser and mock me, but quickly, people like Chris Wynne from In Effect Zine, Gabe Walter from Whole 9 Yards Zine and Rick Ta Life asked for pictures and it felt like I was helping keep hardcore going (Turnstile you are welcome). Now taking pictures is how I feel the most comfortable at a show.
Style-wise, when I started, there was a lot of drag flash, or pictures with a bunch of swirly lights and a little blur. I thought that was gimmicky, and I was a big fan of Justine DeMetrick who did Intermission Fanzine, so I tried to make pictures like hers that were sharp and evenly exposed. Over time, I’ve softened a little and now let a little blur show at times in my pictures, mostly to let in as much color from ambient light on stage as I can. The last couple years I’ve used a handheld flash at times to get some more creative shadows. And I loved Angela Owens’ tight frames from a little further back on the stage, so when I’ve been stuck with a mic stand in front of me, I’ve tried to use it to frame up the picture like Owens often did.
When I first started shooting it was just to document shows and, on some level, it still is, but as I’ve gotten older and spent my adult life teaching photography and curating art, I’ve thought a lot more about the difference between making art and documenting something. For me, art is making pictures that I think look cool even if they don’t really have any practical purpose for the band. Over the last couple of years, I’ve tried to make more artistic stuff, like portraits and still lifes at shows, which, if they are good, I hope will say something more about me than it does about the band that might be playing.
I always have a great time seeing your “I had a great time photographing” captions, which precede a carousel of incredible action shots. How do you pick which pics make it into these samplers? Is it more about the technically best picture, one that captures the spirit of the show, one that might inspire someone to check out the band, or all of the above?
Instagram limits you to 10 pictures, so I go with my best 10 but try and break it up evenly among the bands from the show. I try to avoid having the same band member be the subject of more than one picture. Anything extra, I put into my stories. And everything I like goes up on Facebook, which just kind of exists for me as an open-source archive. I think I err more on what captures the spirit of the show or ideally the interaction of the band and the crowd. I guess it never occurred to me that the picture would get people to check out a band, but if so, that’s rad. I do certainly try to photograph bands I am into, so I am honored that people might check them out.
I’m impressed by how many shows you manage to shoot outside of NYC. What are some of your favorite scenes and venues?
Venue is easy: Gold Sounds’ stage is the right height for kids to sing along and stage dive. It’s small enough that it tends to be chaotic, so it’s easy to make something good picture-wise. Saint Vitus has my favorite lighting and when they don’t go crazy on the smoke machine, you get a lot of nice color caught up in the haze. The stage there is a nice height, maybe a touch long but it’s also a 5 min walk from my apartment, so I am partial. But the best vibe is Cinco De Mayo. The mismatched fluorescent lights aren’t the best for shooting color, but it’s hard to beat a floor show in a quality family-owned Mexican restaurant, which is now decorated in shirts of the bands that have played.
Scenes-wise NJ is bumping, with a lot of music diversity and lots of kids who just seem to be there to have a good time, if not awkwardly push mosh. LI and Philly are also good, where, like New Jersey, there is a proper scene where you see a lot of familiar people at shows, and everyone tends to be nice. Brooklyn had a moment, but post pandemic if you’re not going to a big show or a show on the punkier end of things. But a shoutout for Austin Ampeloquio for starting to book some good stuff and Bazooka for being rad hardcore from NYC.
It’s refreshing to see an OG with such pure enthusiasm for younger bands (similarly to In Effect who often features your pictures.) Can you list some of your favorite newer bands, and are there any recent changes you have noticed in hardcore, particularly after the pandemic?
Well, as an old person, I find shows get a little weird when you are there with a bunch of other old people and everyone including the band is a little gassed three songs in. I want shows with young people doing irresponsible things with other people’s physical safety, and it is hard to get that without searching out new stuff. I guess the new in newer hardcore is relative, but I love Heavyhex, Disguised, Cutdown, Never Again, Heads Will Roll, Hard 2 Kill, Burning Lord, Dead Last, Last Man Out, Blu Anxxiety, Phantom, and I am gonna stop listing things because I am just gonna think of more stuff I like, like the Freezeheads, Phantasia, Without Peace and Odiame.
Since the pandemic, things have certainly gotten bigger. There seems to be a generation of kids who seem more diverse, who occasionally dress in a way that confuses an old person like me. For instance, the face paint but not being a Juggalo? I assume that comes from people being into makeup tutorials online? But the kids do show up and seem to dance to lots of stuff, if not seem a little oblivious as to who is playing.
Do your pics reveal any trends about merch and shirt colors? In your pics from the 2021 Triple B showcase I remember seeing multiple yellow shirts in the crowd and onstage (and wrote that down for an IQNM shirt trends article that has not yet happened …)
Ha, I had no idea, and no memory of that show being heavy on the yellow shirts. But I just went through the pictures, and you are right. On the first day at Saint Vitus, Scanlon, Swank, Dave from Ammunation, as well as a kid in a Trail Of Lies hoodie and a young woman are all rocking yellow to orange tops. I was never that into shirts or merch, my vice is vinyl. I liked to buy shirts to support, but at this point I have more than enough, so I guess it’s not something I think about that much. It certainly stands out more to me in old pictures. Looking at early and mid 2000’s pictures, there were a lot of terrible t-shirts and band swoopy hair, but at the time I was oblivious to it. I guess it is hard to spot trends in the moment, if you aren’t looking for them.
Since I always ask this on Serve ’em a Sentence – how many library cards do you have, and in what systems? And what is your favorite library?
Oh, I am bad. I don’t have a library card and had my NY Public Library card suspended for accidentally not returning some books on Jean Renoir in grad school. Is it cheating to say the Morgan Library? It is stunning there, but I’ve mostly visited to see exhibitions and never used it as a proper library. Also, Yale Beinecke library with the marble panels that turn this crazy pink color when the late day light hits them.
Which came first, the Downtown Brooklyn project or the gallery in Brooklyn that you co-run? What is your favorite Brooklyn band of all time?
Oddly, both started at about the same time. I had been curating shows since just out of grad school. Like a lot of people. I started because no one else was putting my work in shows. That led to starting a gallery with some friends that has been up and running for over a decade. And the Downtown Brooklyn project began when a friend Jason John Wurm asked me if I wanted to be part of a group taking pictures of the change in the neighborhood, and I was into doing it. He eventually moved to LA, and the other people went on to other things, but I’ve dug it, so now it’s just me.
Brooklyn hardcore? Hmmm, I never liked Biohazard or Life Of Agony, I heard Indecision, Shutdown and Inhuman all around the same time, and I liked Shutdown the most, but I’ve probably listened to Indecision more over the years. I guess it is fair to say Merauder were a Brooklyn band? Right? I am gonna go Merauder. Also, just got back from Dead Heat at Saint Vitus and stumped a lot of people on naming post ‘90s Brooklyn Hardcore bands. The only name I got was Creem, which I have the LP but never saw them live, so hard to claim they were a favorite of mine.
Did you ever capture an interesting detail or moment at a show and not realize it until you saw the picture after?
Oh, totally all the time. The best stuff, it’s just chaotic when it’s happening, and I have a vague sense of what I captured, and just hoping my focus is on something of interest and not the back of someone’s head.
Thank you for doing this! Anything else you want to cover or hype?
No, thank you. Ever since you put Rollie Fingers on the cover of a zine, I’ve been a fan. I am gonna shout out hardcore photo people I like, Steve Levy, Matt Viel, Step2Vic, William Marks, Dan Skinner, Dave DiMaggio, Todd Pollack, Agatha Hueller, Danielle Dombrowski, Tim Daley, Michelle Mennona, Rich Zoeller, David Siffert, my video friends Dan at Never Better, Jeff Davis at Feet First Productions, and Sunny from Hate5Six.
I didn’t realize you were a baseball fan until you mentioned Rollie. Thank you for reading IQNM! What is your all time favorite baseball photograph and/or baseball book or movie?
Oh yeah, I’ve been a Yankee season ticket holder since the early 2000’s. And favorite baseball picture? I always loved the clouds in this Wade Boggs card, but I am gonna say this picture of Scott Radinsky playing wiffle ball in the Roxy parking lot for an interview in Rumpshaker Fanzine. Radinsky had a respectable career as a middle reliever who sang for Scared Straight and Ten Foot Pole, but more importantly he’s the only major league pitcher I ever doubled off in wiffle ball. And I love the Ken Burns documentary. I could listen to Buck O’Neil talk about anything, and it even makes George Will likable. Plus, my only solace for the Red Sox winning in 2004 is that it must have made Doris Kearns Goodwin feel good.
