Okay, that’s a lie, I don’t completely hate party photographers. In fact, I am cordial with a few of ‘em, here in NYC. But what separates the professionals from the party poopers are two beautiful things called interaction and participation.

About a month ago or so, my friend GammaRay and I came across the ultimate example of party-photog failure at TURRBOTAX®. Right from the start, Awkward Photographer Dude (they’re always dudes) was there lurking in the shadows taking photos only when he was sure that nobody was looking at directly him. Whenever we acknowledged his presence, by smiling and looking directly at the camera, he hurriedly looked off towards the bar and pretended to be disinterested. (It then became a game to catch Awkward Photo Dude with his finger on the shutter and “accidentally” ruin the image by making a gruesome face.)

Now, living in New York, you can’t throw a free drink without hitting a party photographer if you’re out, so I’ve seen my share of amazing and amazingly awful photographers.

Here are my suggestions on how to do it right:

OWN IT

If you’re at an event taking photos, do it at a hundred percent. You’re there to take photos of the people there, because they are sexy, well-dressed, interesting, insane, and having a damn good time. You’re there to document that good time. Take photos that make people wish they had been there. Take photos to document the crazy-ass shit that happens in this city. Love what you do and love where you are. Otherwise, dude, just stay home.

MAKE NICE

You know how your mom always said “you’ll catch more flies with honey…”? Yeah, well, hypothetical photographer dude, you’ll catch more hotties with a little eye-contact and a sincere smile. It’s okay, don’t be shy! Those of us who go out to dance parties are not rare and elusive buttonquails. We’ve had our photo taken before. We will not beat you up or give you a verbal lashing for taking a picture. If you are worried about permission, just ask! It’s an excuse to make conversation! Most camera-shy girls will feel so much more at ease knowing you’re not some creepy up-skirt photographer, that they’ll smile beautifully and you’ll have a great shot. And then they’ll drag all their friends over, and you’ll have even more great images.

FOLLOW UP

Get a website. Get a business card. You can get both for free and cheap in this modern age. (Two words: Flickr & Vistaprint.) Now that you’ve done that, hand both out with reckless abandon. Every time you take a photo, give your subject a card with your site on it. They will may be too drunk to remember your name and the phone number you wrote on on their arm will probably sweat off, but business cards will indubitably be pulled out of a back pocket the next morning and be remembered.
Share your photos. Put ‘em up fast. If you take more than a week to put up your pics, they’ll be long forgotten. Put ‘em up the next morning, and you’re on your way to stardom. (Why do you think BronquesLastNightsParty was the first party photographer to get a book deal?)

LEVEL UP

Even if you’re just a hobbyist, it doesn’t hurt to step up your game. Develop your eye. Learn a little about lighting. Pick up an off-camera flash. Know what the hell an aperture is and how to use it. The more you flatter people and the more you catch those one-of-a-kind moments, the more likely people will remember you and what you do. And the more you treat your photography as an art, the better off you’ll be. And hell, you might end up ditching nightlife photography altogether, à la Nikola Tamindzic, formerly of Ambrel.net, who now produces some beautiful high-fashion work.

HOMEWORK

Check out the work of these NYC photographers. NSFW!

• Nick Rhodes – NickyDigital (Personality & charisma!)
• DJ Jess – Indierotica (Pure beauty, great with light.)
• Nate “Igor” Smith – DrivenByBoredom (Catches the craziest moments & all the boobies.)

So, obviously, I don’t really hate party photographers, but I do hate when they act like creepy voyeurs or are standoffish jerks. Participation and interaction is the secret ingredient. Get deep!

Saturday night, I stopped by the Lose Your Shit party, with the boys over at Whomptronica and a few other non-blogging friends.

We got there right as one of the DubWar DJs (I’m pretty sure it was Dave Q) was picking up the pace. They dropped quite a few excellent tracks (the usual standards, “Paypur”, “Smoke Rings”, etc.) but the serious highlight for me was when he dropped a remix of the operatic “Diva Dance” song from The Fifth Element, which descended into a deliciously break-y delirium. I caught a lot of people looking around a little lost, though, as to why everyone was um…losing their shit over the track. Really, guys?! The Fifth Element is my favorite movie of all time, and one day I will elucidate upon it’s virtues, but not today.

Regardless, the venue was a great space I hadn’t been to almost a year, off the water in Williamsburg. But the sound system left a lot to the imagination, unfortunately. All treble, not enough bass. But that’s a hard thing to manage when your ceilings are 30 feet high and the space is narrow. I forgive ‘em, and I did have a good time, but it was frustrating to not get everything I wanted out of the sound.

And as you can see, I dyed my hair literally hours before the party, so my hands were still pink when I was out. I roll classy, you see.

Thanks to Igor of DrivenByBoredom for the photos.

Since I have a near-obsession with all things futuristic and space-oriented, I decided to spend this Halloween dressed up as a “Space Assassin”. Most people were confused by my getup, trying to figure out who I was supposed to be, which was essentially just an imaginary character of my own design. (Though I did get few suggestions of “Pris from Bladerunner”, due to my makeup, I think.)

My costume was relatively simple, a combination of handmade and found elements including:

• Leotard, made out of black holographic spandex
• Opaque tights
• Collar, made out of neon-pink holo spandex, plastic loop, and heavy felt
• Belts galore in silver vinyl, handmade pink, and glittery vinyl blue belt
• Sequined Fannypack courtesy of 3rd Earth Designs
• Puma sneakers (not shown!)

I started my night at Europa, for the Fools Gold and Trouble & Bass show, which was excellent, as usual. Was really digging the live vocals on Drop The Lime’s latest single called “Set Me Free”. (The Harvard Bass remix is excellent and can be found here.)
I was semi-surprised at the low turnout, but also didn’t get there until around 1am, so I presume most partiers started off there and left for another event later in the night. I ended the morning at the always-ridiculous Bushwick Boat and heading to bed in the early morning.

What did you dress up as for Halloween?

Saturday night felt like a family reunion for me, everyone I’ve met and spent time talking to, dressing up or dancing with in the early morning hours was there.

So many of the groups featured that night were ones that I was familiar with, had volunteered or worked for, and had also helped inspire and push my own art collective as well. I definitely took pause to appreciate all the amazing people that I’ve connected with in the past four years here, to have them in the same room.

But as the Nonsense crew themselves claim, “The enemy of anyone celebrating 10 years in New York is nostalgia.” And looking at the event, I realized, with some pride, that I could be at the Nonsense 20 year celebration, with a little work.

The New York that comes to us every week is vibrant and alive.

You might be making art, but we think what you’re doing is far more important. We think you’re creating culture. We are creating culture. All of us. Whether you’re going to see an art show in a maze or sticking your neck out with a one-night lease on a huge warehouse.

In case no one ever thanked you, thanks. Without you there wouldn’t have been a list. Thank you. Sincerely.

Here’s to another generation of inspired and ingenious creatives here in NYC, experimenting on and enthralling the city with their new creations.

I’m looking forward to being a part of it.

They embody a similar ethos as Lowbrow Society (which is my art collective), in the fact that they value a low-key and unintimidating atmosphere outside of the fancy art-gallery scene, where people can hang out and talk shop.

I was impressed with the sense of community within the artists, especially. Many seemed to know one another and chatted amicably, asked me about my paintings and collage work, and just generally helped out with the event to keep it lively. The scope of art shown was deliciously varied; everything from hand-painted skateboard decks to macabre horror photography to psychedelic fractals.

I chose to show two large fashion-girl paintings, rendered in some crazy bright neon gouache and cutout paper, along with a spray-paint and collage piece that I did for this summer’s Mashup party. The collage seemed to get a lot of lovin’, which surprised me, because I felt like it was less “original”. I definitely will be exploring working at a larger size, because I feel a huge relief to break out of the sketchbook format and just take over a beautiful sheet of rag paper (my current preferred surface, I love how it takes watercolor and colored pencil).

Needless to say, there was also a stellar lineup of DJs as well, including Udachi, who drops the best wobbly bass, as well as Odi, who is a pillar of the NYC drum & bass scene.

Hopefully, I’ll get some scans or photos this week of my work, but for now, this post is without images, boo!