Captain Reckless and Stu Arkoff at Club Red, Tempe Arizona, 2007.
I always have a dilemma when I shoot — the question of color vs
black and white. I started out shooting black and white, processing and
printing everything the old fashioned way, and that sort of stuck with
me. Plus I developed a love for the great documentary photographers,
such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, James
Nachtwey…an image in black and white has such a timeless quality to
me.
And yet, when people wear vibrant red coats like Stu’s that night,
or when I have beautiful colored stage lighting, I get a little
intoxicated in all that color. But I eventually go back to my roots.
I had Vic Victor put in a word with Stu about shooting some stuff
for Zombie Ghost Train, when they played together shortly after the KK
naked shoot for Girls and Corpses and shortly before this show. So Stu
calls me to chat about doing photos, and asks me, "we don’t have to
take our clothes off, do we?"
I’m never gonna live that shoot down.
Stu and Reckless trade a lot of banter on stage, and they are one of
the funniest bands to catch live. Also of note: Stu has quite a hard
time keeping his tongue in his mouth, as anyone who has seen photos of
him can attest to. And Reckless is one of the fastest damn bass players
I have ever seen.