This is the blog of Missoula, Montana based photographer Andy Kemmis. Andy Kemmis photographs action sports as well as the personalities behind these endeavors.
That’s about all I can say after taking in 40+ bands in 3 days, adding many, many GBs to the hard drives and witnessing 3 a.m. several nights in a row…as if I were a spry 20-year old again…which, as it turns out, I am not.
I spent the weekend shooting Total Fest IX at the Badlander, Palace and the Missoula Art Museum of all places. Billed as “an all-ages, volunteer-run, nonprofit, DIY event that brings together creative, non-commercial musicians and fans for three-days of great music and times,” Total Fest has also been referred to as “King of all DIY rock festivals” courtesy of The Stranger in Seattle.
TF is always a good time for people to get together, reunite, float a river or two, BBQ, shoot the shit, play music and have a good time. For me, it always serves as a good reminder of what attracted me to photography years ago: ENERGY. There is so much raw, real, sweaty, loud, angry, happy, no nonsense, genuine, creative, don’t-give-a-shit energy generated by every band; every person at TF, that it is hard to take it all in. There were so many moments of awesomeness over the weekend I feel like it would be impossible to grab them all.
Check out the Total Fest IX image gallery on my website to check out the moments I did capture.
As if it weren’t enough to get this view of the city on a clear day, we watched a bird cruising around right outside the window from this angle. A bird’s eye view indeed.
As I am learning these days, there is a lot that goes in to planning a wedding. Even a simple, “low-stress”, low budget, just-wanna-have-fun-with-friends wedding. Recently however, in the sea of never-ending little details and expensive stuff, I had a few moments of downright awesomeness.
I decided to forego the traditional invites you see in every magazine and do something a bit out of the ordinary. Hence, our wedding invites were printed on wood. No…scratch that…they were SCREEN-PRINTED on wood…that I cut out and sanded BY HAND. Damn!
With the guidance and brilliance of Aaron and Christian down at Garage T’s, we pumped out 100+ totally custom wedding invites over the course of several hours. Of course, Quiet Riot and Coors helped out a bit too.
We haven’t given out all the invites yet, so I can’t reveal the finished version here, but this will give you all a darn good idea.
Last year about this time, I struck up a little photo project centered around a nonprofit organization I helped create and am still heavily involved with – The Montana Skatepark Association (MSA).
Way back in the day (meaning like 8 or 10 years ago) a few friends and I sat down with the Missoula Parks and Rec folks to talk about how to go about building a public skatepark in Missoula. Eventually, it happened and on opening day in September 2006 the park was ushered in with a visit from Tony Hawk and about 10,000 fans. ‘Twas quite the sight. Lot of heavy liftin’ to get to that stage, but an invaluable experience for me. Learned a lot about process, working with people, sacrificing this for that, and a whole bunch about the DIY spirit. Definitely a momentous period in my life.
One of the primary fundraisers we concocted for the MSA is an art auction we call ON DECK. On May 7, 2010 at the Badlander in Missoula, ON DECK will turn 5 years old. That means that another crop of talented artists from around the country will have donated their time and talent to help us raise money to further skateboarding in MT. I started photographing these artists a couple years ago and am enjoying it thoroughly. So far this year, I have only snuck in one shoot with local artist Courtney Blazon. Her work has a very unique, almost dreamlike style to it. And, she couldn’t be a nicer person to hang out with and photograph. Here are a couple of images from a shoot I had with her and the deck she created for ON DECK 5. I encourage you to check out her work and bid on this deck during the ON DECK auction.
Courtney Blazon
Courtney Blazon laughing and smiling. She's good at that.
Posted by Andrew Kemmis on 19 February 2010, 11:24 am
Happy Friday. This one is shaping up to be a good one, and its looking like it will continue on throughout the weekend. Full of film, photography and even some good old fashion work – the manual labor kind, not the stare-at-a-screen kind. (Cause if I’m gonna have a sore back, it might as well be from doing something other than sittin.’)
Yet another interesting display here on how the world of magazines is changing. Very interesting to see where it is all heading. And while it is obviously cool checking out all the bells and whistles offered, I was reassured that even though the method of reading/watching/tickling your fingers through a publication are changing, it only solidifies the importance and need for strong photography and good writing. Smart, creative human beings can breathe a sigh of relief.
In other, somewhat-related news, I went and saw Doug Pray’s documentary Art & Copy last night at the Wilma Theater. The film was just one of 136 films being shown during this year’s BIG SKY DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL. The festival is quickly rising to the top of my Reasons I Live In Missoula List. Hell of an effort pulling this altogether. Great results year after year.
I thought the film was a fantastic commentary on the double-edged sword that is the world of advertising. In the Q & A afterwards, I especially liked how Mr. Pray likened advertising to the counter-culture world he has portrayed in some of his other films like Surfwise, Hype!, and Scratch. Here’s a trailer for Art & Copy:
Posted by Andrew Kemmis on 6 November 2009, 12:17 am
Last Friday night, I sent a friend a text message saying “spaghetti wig?” Got a response saying “great.” That’s pretty much how all perfect Saturday’s begin, right?
The following day I went over to “the model’s” house where I found him and another friend engrossed in a zombie movie. Wasn’t surprised – only pleased. An undisclosed amount of Rainier was introduced and then the wig was born. It just so happened that it was Halloween last Saturday. Even better.
Here are a couple of results from an afternoon of vitamin R, zombies, spaghetti and a whole bunch of giggling.
