
A photographer capturing subcultures that refuse to die - kikitee
http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/subcultures-mods-skins-lowriders-owen-harvey-photography/
======
esaym
I don't feel fashion ever goes out of style. But then again, I don't really
have any sense of fashion.

My grandma, tired of always putting on makeup (and not very good at it), paid
to have her makeup tattooed to her face about 20 years ago. She requested
"aqua" for the eye shadow color. The artist, having never tried to tattoo eye
shadow, was concerned about "what if that color goes out of style?". My
grandma just replied "I don't care".

Edit: Oh and tattooed make up always goes over well in a surgery room. "Excuse
me ma'am, you were requested to have removed all your make up prior to
surgery".... Good times.

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Slansitartop
Are these actually subcultures that refused to die or just instances of retro-
fashion? Most of the models look young. How much continuity do they have with
the original members of the subcultures, beyond historical photographs, etc.?

~~~
pavel_lishin
> _How much continuity do they have with the original members of the
> subcultures, beyond historical photographs, etc.?_

The Lunatics looked like they had a wider age range than the British folks.

~~~
mieseratte
I've always had the impression the lowrider subculture is still at least an
active thing in Southern California? I grew up in an area with a sizeable
Hispanic population on the East Coast and never really got a whiff of it
though.

I can't speak for the "scene" anywhere but where I live, but you never really
hear of skinheads in the US, and the handful I've ever seen are generally
older (late thirties and up) and typically exist as a part of a punk scene.
It's common enough to see a few older dudes in Fred Perry's with shaved heads
at a show in my small southern city. I got to a lot of shows, see everything
from a buncha street punks in spiky jackets bumming gas money to "feminist"
punk bands but can't say I've seen a skinhead band come through.

As I said, I claim to know nothing about the "scene" anywhere but in my town,
but at the very least the music hasn't died out. You still have major Oi! /
skinhead adjacent acts like Cock Sparrer around, apolitical skins[1], and
plenty of newer skinhead-esque bands[2][3]. Of course these are all in the UK
/ EU. Seems there are a few labels around, and the videos have good enough
production values that I imagine there have to be a fair enough number of
skins around to buy the records / merch. Seems some older, lesser known
skinhead acts are on the same label as some of the aforementioned new ones, so
there appears to be a bit of continuity. At least continuity beyond "art
school hipsters."

[0] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI2NYRhlM30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI2NYRhlM30)

[1] - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK-
GlWH3M7I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK-GlWH3M7I)

[2] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4pZlP6YtE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4pZlP6YtE)

[3] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F2ypnLQUrU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F2ypnLQUrU)

~~~
tomjakubowski
Yeah, lowrider culture (and hotrodding) is still alive and well here in
Southern California. About once or twice a month I'll hear, and then see,
lowriders cruise past my apartment in downtown LA.

------
YeGoblynQueenne
I'm so relieved that the media continue to ignore my subculture- the biggest
subculture of the last, oh, 40 ish years [1]. With the disturbing exception of
the recent fashion trend of young girls dressing like '90s Metallica (but with
designer handbags).

_______________

[1] This sorf of thing:
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=battle+jacket&t=ffsb&atb=v100-7&ia...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=battle+jacket&t=ffsb&atb=v100-7&iax=images&ia=images)

May it always remain uncool and away from the fashionable mainstream.

~~~
fusiongyro
The fact that conversations with metal fans about metal are about as
interesting as accounting night classes probably has more to do with this than
some kind of visceral reaction to how "extreme" metal is or whatever. _Look
What You Made Me Do_ is much more musically and artistically offensive than
anything Metallica ever did, and I'm including _Reload_ in that.

~~~
KozmoNau7
You made the mistake of assuming every metal fan likes Metallica or
particularly cares about them.

There is a lot more artistically varied and interesting metal out there. _A
lot_ more.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Also, of thinking that Metal fans are uniformly interested in how "extreme"
their music is.

Personally, I care that the songs I like are memorable. Not that they are
extreme.

As to how interesting they are to outsiders- so? Who cares? I listen to my
stuff, you listen to yours. I won't even compare my music to others'. That's
the kind of thing that gets you thinking about why you're not more fashionable
and then you end up like modern-day Metallica.

~~~
KozmoNau7
The "normies" have a very odd perception of metal and metalheads, as if we're
some kind of satan-worshipping cult that sacrifices live animals at concerts.

I blame media demonization and the inherent distrust of everything that seems
"different".

I just want to drink beer and listen to heavy music :-)

------
vumgl
Generally it's such a shame that society is made to ridicule anyone who is
wearing or behaving in a way that is out of fashion. Anything between just-
recently out-of-fashion to grandma-old-style is seen as either bad taste or
says something not-so-nice about the person wearing or doing it. I would love
to see people feeling more free to wear that thing that was in fashion 2, 10
or 20 years ago. The world is strange, let's keep it that way.

~~~
ohmichel
"The world is strange, let's keep it that way." I like that.

~~~
brandnewlow
Then you should check out Planetary some time (origin of the quote). It's a
wonderful comic series about investigators who uncover and document the hidden
history of the world, which happens to consist of clever remixes of pop
fiction tropes from across cultures, genres and eras.

~~~
macintux
Nice. I'm actually working out of a library today with the Planetary Omnibus,
and I keep intending to set aside time while I'm here to start from the
beginning and take notes. Such a rich world and I generally can't take enough
time to read very far into it, I keep losing track of what happens along the
way.

------
walshemj
Interesting about the Mods one of my (now retired) MD's was an old Mod and had
a realy realy nice collection of museum quality restored 60's scooters - which
he probably enjoyed more than his Lexus

~~~
sincerely
For anyone else interested in the Mod subculture there is a nearly 30,000
post-long thread on Syleforum which has been running since 09:
[https://www.styleforum.net/threads/mod-to-
suedehead.89027/](https://www.styleforum.net/threads/mod-to-suedehead.89027/)

------
GauntletWizard
Wow. There's a great portrait here, not just of the subjects but of the artist
themself. The mixed-subculture couple, the way these groups are run reminds me
a lot of my adventures in the nerd convention scene. There's a lot of people
looking for meaning there, for something to be good at even if it's just being
themselves.

I think the modern world is dehumanizing and alienating to a lot of people,
and they're just struggling to try to find themselves - these subcultures,
perfecting "the look" \- are a way of feeling unique and special. They're a
thing to have pride in. They're tribal in a way that's self-determined, making
them both more welcoming and less prone to the kinds of charismatic capture
that bring an end to "tribes". On the other hand, that makes them more
ephemeral than blood-tribes - there's no permanent tie.

There's an interesting contrast with those blood-tribes, though. What happens
when you leave? Leaving groups is common - questioning your very identity is
something everyone should do, frequently. But it's also hard and painful. I
think there's a lot in common with the people in this recent article about
leaving cults:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16198465](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16198465)

Ultimately, I believe associating too strongly with an identity is really
harmful, that you're vulnerable to both being manipulated and to losing your
faith, in yourself and humanity. It's hard to prove, though; there's only
anecdata, and much of that is dirtied by people trying desperately to convince
themselves that they're okay and that if only everyone tried it they could see
how great their cult is.

------
jacobush
When I read _" Recently, though, a photographer pointed out another theme:
that these subcultures are loaded with machismo. It rang true in a way that
made Owen rethink the work."_

I was immediately reminded that the US itself ranks pretty high on the
Hofstede masculinity index:

[https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/the-
usa...](https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/the-usa/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede's_cultural_dimensions...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede's_cultural_dimensions_theory)

Anyone else thought about _" spending all his money on film"_? :-D

That is also a statement in and of itself these days. Anyone capturing
pictures with film cameras instead of digital these days, is doing so very
deliberately.

------
bdr
If you like this, you might enjoy Randal Levenson’s work.
[http://www.randallevenson.com/project.html](http://www.randallevenson.com/project.html)

------
CodeSheikh
I miss seeing hydraulically lifted cars on the streets. Whenever they would
pull up next to my Kia at the traffic light, I would hope they could show off
a move or two.

------
akkartik
He should come photograph some of us on the Arc Forum ^_^

------
olivermarks
I recommend Derek Ridger's work if you find Owen Harvey interesting. Derek has
been documenting London Mod, Punk and club culture since the 70's and his
style is much copied.

[http://www.derekridgers.com](http://www.derekridgers.com)

------
test6554
It's not very nice to say that bald people "refuse to die"...

~~~
ladberg
There's a big difference between bald people and skinheads.

------
Nursie
I get the impression my old subculture has more or less died. Goth doesn't
seem to be much of a thing in the UK any more. The annual festival at Whitby
still happens, but I've rarely heard of any new music in the genre.

What's left of the music scene seems to have been subsumed into metal (which
is fine, the metal crowd are decent people, if a little uncouth ;)

And those that really enjoyed the dress-up aspects of it have meandered into
steampunk.

------
everyone
Something I have never understood. Why dress up / acquire certain things, in
order to conform to some random pre-designated style?

Also, in my experience, if someone puts a lot of effort into their superficial
image or appearance, they tend to be boring and uninteresting underneath that,
which makes sense.

~~~
electricslpnsld
> in my experience, if someone puts a lot of effort into their superficial
> image or appearance, they tend to be boring and uninteresting underneath
> that

Some of the most interesting artists and musicians I know also put a lot of
effort into their personal appearance. I don't think attention to appearance
is correlated with depth of personality in any real way.

~~~
ixtli
The desire to make a thing beautiful is no more or less valid when you do it
to yourself versus if you do it to a canvas.

~~~
everyone
Making your person a piece of art.. Thats a cool idea. I like it.

I'd say someone like Daniel Lismore[1] is doing interesting stuff there. But
the people in the article, replicating the standardized patterns, its like
they are making themselves into those paintings that come in rental flats.

Also why strive to turn yourself, which is all you have, into a _thing_? Like,
you may as well instead decide to be a post-box and sit on the street
accepting peoples mail. It seems like such a big sacrifice to me.

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en5_eg__TOA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en5_eg__TOA)

~~~
jdietrich
Daniel Lismore's work is entirely derivative of the late, much missed Leigh
Bowery. I don't mean to knock Lismore, but Bowery was more radical, more
brilliant and did it all 30 years ago.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om0MrCOXPcE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om0MrCOXPcE)

In my opinion, the ur-example of living art is the incomparable Gilbert and
George. It's simply impossible to separate Gilbert from George from the work.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDgch7UzRf8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDgch7UzRf8)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL86-gH3dg0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL86-gH3dg0)

If I were to pick a stand-out contemporary example, I'd name That Poppy.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4nHLHDtyVA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4nHLHDtyVA)

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dieg0
how come hipsters take such photogenic pictures of other hipsters

------
baxtr
_Life is today, tomorrow never come_

