Glen E. Friedman
===
[00:00:00]
[00:00:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: One of my favorite photographers of all time is actually a skateboard photographer Glen E. Friedman. He photographed legends before anybody cared. He started photographing LA skate parks as a teen, and those candid raw photos changed how we see skate punk and hip hop today. I discovered Glen's work as a musician, inline skater, and photographer myself,
and it blew me away how he always lived the scene. He doesn't come from some outsider's view, [00:01:00] he's inside the culture. In his own words. He never even called himself a photographer. You had to prove yourself like the skaters were proving themselves. That line really resonates with me.
He earned trust by hanging out, by skating, not by flashing credentials. At 14, he was already published in Skateboarder Magazine and photographing legends like Tony Alva in the backyard pools of Dogtown.
He moved with the Z Boys, then followed punk like Ian McKay of Minor Threat and Henry Rollins of Black Flag and early hip hop in New York. Glen says he needed to document all of this before anyone remembered it. He once explained that by 1991, Black Flag and Minor Threat were all disbanded and nobody was talking about them.
So he decided to make a book about those scenes. That book, Fuck You Heroes, was self-published, like all of his books back then. Glen set up his own [00:02:00] imprint Burning Flags, so he could do it all on his own terms.That meant total ownership, not only of the photos, but the entire process and all of the profits that he would make from those books. He would later joke that his next book titled My Rules, summed it up. It's his magazine and he had to do it himself because no one else was gonna do it properly.
Glen's, DIY ethic goes beyond books. This is one of my favorite books from Glen, and he's got another one
He's famous for funding his own expeditions as well and selling his prints. As one interviewer noted, he sold edition posters of his photos for $85, keeping the $25 profit each to finance his expedition.
I'm not taking one penny, he says, every dollar goes right back into making the art happen to me. That shows how much he values authenticity over money. Glenn's photos also became iconic album covers and magazine spreads from Run DMC in Queens to [00:03:00] Public Enemy in New York. He wasn't just backstage. Sometimes he argued with bands over their covers. He once threatened to scrub a public enemy cover until they compromised, but that's another story. Glen E. Friedman made history, then protected it in court. He defended his photos in court when a street artist tried to rip off Run DMC's photo
then Glein E. Friedman sued. The judge agreed that letting someone use a photographer's original creative and copywriter work without permission would eviscerate copyright protection. It was a win for all creators, for all photographers. Own your images, or others might use them without your say. You could thank Glen E. Friedman for that. man taught me that being part of a culture means documenting it, honestly. You don't wait for fame or paychecks. You do it because it's vital to you. As Glenn says, whatever you are going to do fucking mean it.
If it's not from the heart, then it's not [00:04:00] worth a fucking penny. For any creator, that's the takeaway. Be authentic, work your own way and own your archive.
Sure, as photographers with businesses, we have to make money, but Glen E. Friedman proved that we can still do it in a way that sits well within ourselves. And that's what I have learned from admiring Glen E. Friedman from afar for so many years.