Michael runs No Thoughts photo zine with his girlfriend Alyssa Noches, which has just released it’s fourth issue, so go cop that. In the past he has exhibited a series of polaroids at Bongout gallery in Berlin alongside Richard Kern, Harmony Korine and Asia Argento, amongst others to commemorate the end of polaroid film production, and worked as the curator of photography at Suagr Gallery in Portland, Oregon. He selected some work for us and took us through the story behind each photo.

This photo was taken at the Portland Design Collective, which is a new store in Portland that focuses on local and independent fashion designers. I remember the night this was taken; Miracles Club played and there was a big party.  I was working the front counter and most people were in the back watching the band. Out of the corner of my eye I saw these two taking their shirts off to show off their tattoos. I ran over and made them do it again, and got this picture.

The picture of the pinhead backpatch was taken at Galerie Salome in Portland. Salome is a really cool spot that shows mostly local artists that are exhibiting mostly experimental, avant-garde art. The spot is run by Laura and her boyfriend Aaron who used to be in Antioch Arrow and is now in one of my favourite new bands Dangerous Boys Club. They have an awesome one-eye black pug named Valentino.  The photo was taken when John Wiese was in town doing a sound installation.

The bottom photo is just some tag I stumbled on. I used to roll with a bunch of graffiti kids, I don’t really anymore. But I like Thrasher.

This is a photo of my friend Rhys Balmer. He’s a photographer too. Rhys and I have known each other for a while and we used to be in a weird electronic music project called The Sixth Deer. This photo was taken on the night before Halloween. I had just spent the night watching The Crow and then Rhys came over dressed like this. He was dressed as a rapist. I think later that night he went to this meat market club Barracuda. I stayed in, I regret that now, because that sounds pretty funny.

This is my girlfriend Alyssa Noches. She runs No Thoughts Photo Zine with me, and is a photographer too. What a perfect match, eh?  This photo was taken at Disneyland in our hotel room the first morning. I like this photo because the clock says 9:01. I also like this photo because Alyssa’s hair is blonde here and it’s not anymore. Maybe an hour or so after this photo was taken I took the Polaroids for my exhibit at Floating World, which was also really cool and Disney themed.  The only thing that really bothered me about this trip is that I never once got to go in the pool.  Not once!  Alyssa made me ride rides until like midnight every night. It was fun though.

This photo was taken when I got my wisdom teeth pulled out. I waited so long to get those teeth out. They were broken in half, filled with cavities, basically rotting out my mouth. I didn’t have insurance so I just put up with it. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and had to go to the dental school. Man, the dental school. At first it wasn’t so bad until I was actually in the chair about to get the teeth pulled. That’s when the kid accidentally stabbed me in the face with the Novocaine needle.  IN-THE-FACE-WITH-THE-NEEDLE.  I should have walked out then but I didn’t. He got all the teeth out, but dude was hyperventilating behind the mask and dripping sweat onto my cheek. It was unreal. If at all possible do not go to a dental school for dental surgery like that.

There’s this part of Portland called the Hollywood district. I don’t know why they call it that, it’s not very glamorous, it’s mostly filled with old jewish people. It’s fun to visit though because there’s lots of weird antique stores there. This was taken in the basement of one of these shops. A giant basement filled with books to the ceiling. Not much else to say, that place rules.

Portland has such a huge homeless population. It’s insane. Mostly it’s because Portland is filled with liberals and old hippies who have so many programs that they make Portland the easiest and funnest city to be homeless in ever. When I moved here from Boston I couldn’t believe it, there’s someone bumming change literally every 3 feet, people are smoking crack on the sidewalk, shooting up in the parking garages, having sex under the bridges by the river. Honestly, I hate it. This guy was pretty cool though. He was ridiculously stoned and made this awesome t-shirt. I give him respect, dude was chill.

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This entry was tagged as michael j demeo, no thoughts zine, photography., portland.