Rockdelux (Spain)

Glen E. Friedman: retratos musicales vividos

(click on image below for PDF of the entire review in Spanish of the BURNING FLAGS exhibition in Barcelona)

Interview in English below image

How did you approach those great bands and musicians that you have photographed all these years? You have captured so amazingly the energy during live shows. What was your link with music business?

Most of these people were my friends, we all hung out together in the scenes, before I was making photos at gigs i was making photos of the skaters that I knew from the local spots that i rode with. Often the musicians knew me from my SkateBoarder magazine days, this magazine was a bible of sorts to many youth in the mid/late 70’s and lots of the punks were skaters themselves, similar attitudes. And by the time I was shooting hip-hop artists I was more established and those people knew me because of what I had done before as well. 

I had no links with the music business. I had links with my friends and people who shared mutual respect. I worked with friends and artists who wanted me to help them and who I wanted to help. I was being inspired so I wanted to help inspire others. Only when my friends began to run their own record companies did i “link” with music business.

How difficult was it to do those portraits? Would you think you could repeat the same approach nowadays when it seems managers, labels and artists themselves have a lot more control of their image? I’m thinking, for example, at Primavera Sound Festival that is happening right here in Barcelona, restrictions have been added and profesional photographers are not allowed to take pictures of some of the live shows.

Yeah, that’s a big reason why i rarely if ever shoot anymore. Too much bull shit, too many out of control managers and ridiculous artist egos, it’s pathetic really. We’re all in the same community and if you don’t want to believe in that and you think you’re more precious than someone else, then you can go fuck off with out me or the other talented people that might like to help you on your journey. That said I do understand artists feeling exploited by the “professional class” that don’t give a shit about them or the music, and that’s understandable, then don’t invite those people, but the people who live for it? you’d benefit greatly to let them do their thing along side you.

What camera do you usually work with? Now and back then

I used to use a Pentax MX or a Pentax KM which by the early 80’s became the K-1000. My favorite camera ever! Simple strong, inexpensive with great glass (lenses). I still use my old Pentax K-1000 when ever I think something is worthy to shoot on film, that’s really the only way I still do serious art work is with film. I don’t own a digital camera other than my iPhone X, and that’s fun to play with, i could imagine I may upgrade when the 20 comes out, I never had a smart phone until someone gifted me the X. And the iPhone stuff is simple easy and since everything these days is so over documented I feel less responsibility to do the work I had to back in the 70s-80s-90s… But I do when I need to.

New-York is where you live now, if I’m not wrong. When did you move there and why? And how was New York back in the eighties and nineties? Is still a good place to capture urban culture?

I do live in New York, I have been a permanent resident since 1987 I guess but I grew up half my life just across the river in New Jersey, just on the other side of the bridge. I was in california for school from 2nd grade through 10th, came back to this area for my last two years of high school, then went back to California for college (6 years) and then left for NYC permanently. But truth is I was a bi-coastal kid, my parents divorced so I spent a lot of time on both coasts and still go back and forth pretty often. New York has always been a great place, but yes the 80’s from beginning til the end were pretty fucking special for music here, and of course night life, even for a straight edger like me.

Is it “still a good place to capture urban culture?” Well you certainly get a good taste of it here always and forever, but Covid-19 certainly has thrown us and the whole world for a loop! the U.S. is in a pretty horrible place politically these days, we barely survived the con-man tyrant Dump and there are so many ignorant people who still follow him not realizing they were conned by an idiot, it’s really sad, between him and Fox news they have almost single hardly, worse than anything else, destroyed all that was good about this country. We are on the brink of Fascism – it’s sad really. I’m lucky to be in NYC, but the draconian laws and the dismissal of democracy all around us can be overwhelming even for a self professed idealist like myself… We just gotta do our best and do what we do to inspire intelligence and integrity and remind people of the importance of the whole community and the world community. This late stage capitalism is really fucking ugly, i hope this country moves forward positively soon, but at the moment I am sad to say it’s not looking good.

One specific portrait from the exhibition in Barcelona has drawn my attention: Noam Chomsky’s. Could you tell us more about it? What are the circumstances that led to this portrait? 

Well I have admired Chomsky for years, and a young friend of mine somehow was able to get a chance to interview him, so I told him if he took me along I would make the photos for him for his book he was putting together of a bunch of interviews he had managed to make over some years (It’s called Paradigm). He was stoked to have me on board, so we went up to Chomsky’s offices in Boston, took the train up for the day and met the man, made a few photographs during the interview and after, it was an honor and a privilege. Next I really want to shoot Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I’ve been trying to get a session with her for over 3 years! No luck yet, but she’s a great inspiration!