Cooking with Satan » Photography

Cult Of Youth & King Dude, Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn, August 30th 2010

simon — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:59:46 +0000

Two great performances curated by the (in)famous Pendu NYC that night in Brooklyn.
The Glasslands Gallery was the perfect venue for that show even if some dumb-ass cops seem to think they are fucking Charles Bronson around here, but anyway…
King Dude is mainly TJ Cowgill, he’s hailing from Seattle and he’s playing haunting folk songs with a voice deep as a grave. It’s sad, dark and it smells like goat in winter. The kind of music you’d like to hear around a bonfire in the woods for the solstice with steak knives and liquor in your blood.
Now, I was disappointed at first when I realized that Cult Of Youth would be playing as a one-man band but actually Sean (leader and songwriter) delivered a fiendish performance, literally possessed by his music, including some new stuff that sounded very promising for the band’s future. Hell, he even granted us with a cover of “Dark Wood Too Awakes” by Current 93 and totally killed it! Somewhere between a mad preacher and a folk poet, it was absolute brilliance here.
I left before Cosmetics, the last band before the disco-dance party, played but I’m sure, even it’s not really my thing, it was a cool show as well.
So thanks to all the bands who played tonight and thanks to Pendu NYC for another great event in Brooklyn. I’m really looking forward to hear new Cult Of Youth material and to all of you out there who like folk music with horns you should check King Dude.

More King Dude here
More Cult Of Youth here

KING DUDE

CULT OF YOUTH

(All pictures by Simon for Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

KING DUDE “RIVER OF GOLD” VIDEO

Him

simon — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:04:09 +0000

(picture by Simon for Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

Playground #3

simon — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:09:15 +0000

Now, here’s a good one.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard contains some of the oldest buildings in New-York City.
The land was originally bought for 40 000 $ by U.S government in 1801.
140 years later, on the eve of World War II, the yard contained more than five miles of paved streets, four drydocks ranging in length from 326 to 700 feet, two steel shipways, and six pontoons and cylindrical floats for salvage work, barracks for marines, a power plant, a large radio station, and a railroad spur, as well as the expected foundries, machine shops, and warehouses…
In 1966, secretary of Defense Robert McNamara closes the Brooklyn Navy Yard along with over 90 other military bases and installations. At the time of its closing, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employs more than 9,000 workers and is the oldest continually active industrial plant in New York State.
In 1967, the City of New-York buys the Navy Yard for 24 000 000 $.
Today, most parts of this giant park have been renovated and are now used for various purposes such as storage, artists studios, cinema sets (the Steiner studios) and other businesses. But some parts remained empty, slowly decayed by time and rust.
I got the chance to take a walk around among these remnants of old forgotten times and bring you back the following pictures…

THE NAVY YARD IN 1944

THE NAVY YARD TODAY

After decades of manufacturing and engineering, the oldest buildings of the Navy-Yard are now gigantic collapsed industrial spaces…

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(All pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

THE NAVY YARD HOSPITAL

Adjacent to the Navy Yard, the hospital was built in 1830.
By 1850, the Annex was a self-contained parcel of land, walled-in, with a gatehouse, a laboratory, and a cemetery. In 1864, the Surgeon’s Residence was constructed. During the Civil War, the hospital would supply over one third of the medicines used by Union troops, and the basement of the main hospital building would be used to confine and treat wounded Confederate prisoners. During this period, more space was needed, and needed quickly, and a wooden annex was added to the main hospital building. This allowed hundreds of additional beds in the facility; over 500 patients could be treated at once.
Since 1966, when the Navy Yard was decommissioned, and the hospital remained in abandonment. It was recently bought by the Steiner studios who purchased the complex in order to expand their studio space.
The hospital is now your perfect haunted mansion, drowned in silence and darkness and I had a blast walking through these empty corridors…

THE OFFICERS’ HOUSES

Now, here’s the heartbreaking part of the story: the Navy Yard also built between 1864 and 1901 ten officers houses called the “Admiral’s Row”.
These gorgeous houses have abandoned since 1966 and are now eaten by trees and trash until they will be either destroyed for a new supermarket or renovated for visiting purposes. The renovation costs would be up to 25 000 000 $ so of course the city want them destroyed.
The Admiral’s Row is now a federal property surrounded by a fence and barb wire and I was not equipped enough to get in there…

Playground #2

simon — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:56:09 +0000

I had the opportunity to work recently on a photo shoot at the Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn.
The Floyd Bennet Field was New-York city’s first municipal airport and became a national park service acquisition since its shut-down in 1971. Today the Floyd Bennet Field is ranged among the historical sites of the city. Some of its buildings have been converted in business concessions and a sport complex. A small portion of the former airfield is now also used by an environmental education program for gardening.
Fortunately for us, a few hangars haven’t been re-used yet, mostly for financial reasons, and offer an interesting sight of industrial decay.
I was really not expecting to find anything like that there so I’m glad I did. The only problem was that I had very little time to walk through this mess to really explore the complex (a custom building seems much more well preserved from the outside but I couldn’t get in) and, last but not least, I didn’t have my camera. These pictures were taken with my phone. Guerilla style.
Couldn’t help myself thinking how awesome it would be to set up a show in there…

Now, the bikes that you can see at the end and that we used for the shoot are the property of crazy-ass Neil A.K.A Mister Tinker. If you’re into old custom bikes you should definitely check his blog here. Yes, one of these babies was born in 1953…

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Check Playground #1 here.

Diane Arbus

simon — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:08:02 +0000

A little homage to one of the greatest photographers of all time, Diane Arbus.
She was known for her black & white photographs of deviant and marginal people, a chronicle of freaks and misfits. If you’re not familiar with her work, you definitely should. Truly, amazingly beautiful.

tumblr_l4kaywkwvd1qzs56do1_500.jpg

simon — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:12:55 +0000

Aluk Todolo Tour Pics

simon — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:43:48 +0000

A few images from Aluk Todolo recent european tour that the band kindly sent me.
Have I ever tell you how AWESOME this band is?

M.I.A & Ryan Mc Ginley for NY Times

simon — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:29:08 +0000

Intense. I can smell from here the stress of the production team…

Paul Rowland Polaroids

simon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:13:03 +0000

Founder of Women and Supreme models, Paul Rowland, now creative director at Ford, is also a photographer driven by an “obsession with otherworldliness” and influenced by: “Diane Arbus, Joel-Peter Witkin, Roger Ballen, Francis Bacon, Riccardo Tisci, Morocco, sorcerers, shamans”. One hell of a freak show right? He has shot various things, especially a lot of editorials for V-Magazine, and these polaroids are only the tip of the iceberg but this is most likely where my preference goes. Good stuff.

Paul Rowland website is here.

EYEHATEGOD!!!

simon — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:29:37 +0000

I heard many things about what you can get at a Eyehategod show. Some were positive, most, as you guessed, were negative. I won’t deny that everyone has his bad days, especially when you’re a bunch of New-Orleans fiends as much famous for your substance abuse and your crime record (we personally don’t give a shit, but the kids like it) than your music, but everybody has its own opinion on what a good show is… So I don’t know for the others (who cares anyway?) but what I saw yesterday was merely one of the best gig I’ve ever seen. Everything was perfect from start to finish. Eyehategod played as if they were just one man, one big hairy menacing sweaty man, granting the hysterical crowd with all his nastiness. If Williams and Bower get the money shots, the guys behind them play tight as hell and deserve as much credit as their bandmates. It was a little bit more than an hour of raw punk energy, bad attitude (that singer is really evil, no doubt about it) and humongous riffing crushing your face right in the dirt. God, it was intense…
Now, the other bands that night… Wait! What other bands are you talking about?

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without permission)

Monarch! Did It Again

simon — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:33:57 +0000

Fuck yes! Punk-rockers, crusties & metal-heads, dogs, open fee at the entrance, 1 € beer, cool merchandizing (home made patches, buttons, even some Hellnation tees!) all in together tonight, D.I.Y or die!!!
The venue is located nearby the river in a trashy fucked-up neighborhood right in the middle of nowhere, a perfect location for the gig as dark clouds gather and a cold rain starts to fall.
After quite some delay, Black Widow (a one-man project by Rob from Grey Daturas (R.I.P) who’s also playing drums with Monarch! tonight) opened the show with monotonous fuzzy drone analogic noise. 15 minutes, a short set that would have been boring if longer. The dude just stopped in time. Not really a consistent opening act, just a small appetizer for the rest to come!
Parisian veterans Desecrator unleashed a juggernaut of ultra-fast messy grind-core punctuated with putrid growls and harsh screams. Classic stuff to say the least. But two barking dogs in the middle of the pit just made it sound cooler than expected! A little bit more craziness would have been appreciated though…
Then Monarch! totally killed it in one very long song haunted by howling delayed vocals slightly taking over this ritual descent. After a good ten minutes of drone, the beat finally sets on a melancholic sabbathian riff that goes on and on. The song finally ends in a rather abrupt way as you happen to expect some kind of climax that would have made the thing perfect. But still an awesome show, all made of skulls, bones and drones. Monarch! rules as kings in the crypt of funeral music. Word.

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

BLACK WIDOW

DESECRATOR

MONARCH

Hell Militia, Blacklodge, Aosoth in Paris

simon — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:01:14 +0000

It’s actually pretty rare to see a black-metal concert with only worth checking stuff.
Usually there’s always some crappy cheap symphonic act between two bands or even sometimes no good band at all but just a bunch of goofy metalheads muppets wearing bad corpsepaint and playing some kind of fuzzy high-pitched Iron Maiden with synth.
Tonight though, it’s a different story…
I’d suggest you to browse the Metal-Archives to have a better clue about the black-metal hall of fame who were on stage that night but let’s just say that these guys are hugely responsible, through their various musical projects, in the worldwide very known fact that french BM kicks some serious ass (sometimes).
Ok, Aosoth didn’t really impressed me but their show was a decent starter for the evening. Some good tunes but too similar from one to the other. Not totally bad but not really good either…
I was quite curious to see Blacklodge live as their industrial black-metal fueled on narcotics (Mysticum anyone?) is quite the shit on record. Good stage presence, all dressed in the same uniform, and awesome vocals (that reminded me of Master’s Hammer for some reason) but unfortunately too messy to really catch the brilliantness of their music. Some parts were totally insane, and totally appropriate to put you in a trance-like state, as some others were drown in the echoes of a fainting drum machine. Enough highlights though to enjoy the performance enhanced by Shantidas (from Aluk Todolo/Diamatregon/Obscure) visuals, mixed live on some good old cathodic screens. A better live sound would have certainly helped them out.
Then Hell Militia, leaded by the mighty Willy (also known as Meyhna’ch) took over the stage and literally torch the place with their merciless black assault. Nothing but very conservative black-metal at its best empowered by a very charismatic leader. The man got some consistence for sure. Very good response from the crowd (not too big by the way, a little bit over a hundred) as well, some moshpit here and there, and a pretty good conclusion with a GG Allin cover (I might be wrong here by the way). Badass as fuck!
In conclusion, this was probably the best black-metal concert I’ve seen in ages. Hands down to Blacklodge for the originality of their music and Hell Militia for a merciless show.
Alcest was playing the very next day, I’m glad I’d fixed my mind on that one instead.

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

HELL MILITIA

BLACKLODGE

AOSOTH

Livraison

simon — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:25:06 +0000

“Livraison” is a brilliant swedish creation, half book, half magazine, artistically directed by the designers duo Sandberg & Timonen that I had the chance to met at the “Live Alive” opening. To quote the authors, the intention behind “Livraison” is to “focus on individual expressions and concepts rather than popular ideas, as dictated by the media mob. Each issue of Livraison is based on a theme, a question, which we aim to push forward.”
They have released four issues so far and this is one of the most interesting thing i’ve seen in art & fashion books… Have a look.

Get some “Livraison” here

Family

simon — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:52:47 +0000

Brooklyn Zoo

simon — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:34:50 +0000

Fresh street art from Brooklyn. Pictures by me.

Playground #1

simon — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:51:58 +0000

The Aincourt sanatorium is located in the Vexin county, approximately 2 hours from Paris. It was built in the 30’s and it’s composed of three huge buildings (built identical) lost in the middle of a giant park (called “site de la Bucaille”). This is one of the biggest sanatorium ever built (on such short notice) during the XXth century.
During WWII, the sanatorium was used as a prison by german troops. War prisoners were sent over to various concentration camps from here.
The original purpose of this sanatorium was to cure tuberculosis and provide good light and fresh air to the patients, but as the disease decreased through the years, the first building closed about 20 years ago. The second building only closed in 2001. The third building remains active today. There’s nothing much left in the first two buildings, both places have been quite devastated in a short amount of time, but there’s still this ghostly presence floating around as you explore the empty rooms and climb up the stairs to the rooftop. Enjoy the walk.

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And there he was…

simon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:37:42 +0000

Just staring at me…
I found him today at the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris.
Truly awesome.