Monday, April 14, 2008



I remember the day that I spotted the once scary (only to me it seems) Joe Shithead outside my Burnaby home so many years ago. "Alex, we need you to photograph DOA for Interview Magazine," he said to me in his blasé way of saying things. Joe has always been straightforward about this sort of thing and indeed soon after I had a full glorious page in Interview Magazine with this picture. The other side of the page was a smaller picture (ha!) of the American punk band Black Flag.

As a photographer I am living in an age of chaos, less work, a decline in magazine work and the dumbing down of lighting so that everything looks like Flickr. The uncertainty of my profession just when I have received my Gold Card and perhaps a $200 government pension is stressful.

Yet, a week ago, last Sunday, there was Joe Kiethley and his band DOA in my studio. Joe had hired me to shoot the back cover photo for their upcoming CN Northern Avenger. What were the chances in our changing times and a music scene in turmoil that both Joe and I would be in my studio at the same time so many years later shooting for a CD? Whatever those chances might have been I am grateful to Joe and DOA for bringing a bit of calm to my unsettled life. How many people could say that about a punk band?

Thank you Joe for you perseverance, for not losing your way and specially for that evening of calm.