Hipstamatic Day 4

yanez

I spent yesterday mostly blissed out on Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6 and its amazing conclusion. I wasn’t unable to hit the streets because of my work schedule but I did  manage to take a few Hipstamatic self-portraits before my shift began. Here are a pair of me reclining on SomArts’ infamous dressing room couch.

My homegirl Marie H. commented on the above photo as “Sometimes I look at your photos and think that you photograph yourself the same way a teenage girl would…. so cute!” That about sums my self portrait aesthetic up. Behold!

Peace,

Rio

Tale of the Tape and other Adventures

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In the last two weeks I’ve enjoyed making a couple of impromptu videos with my good friend and Chicano filmmaker Tokoztli. Our most recent adventure was a hunt to find cassette tapes in San Francisco. Tokoztli is the foremost Chicano scholar on the life and recordings of Tupac Shakur and he’s been on a quest to collect his albums on tape. Myself, I was looking for Freestyle tapes in a nostalgic nod to my childhood.

We played the SF Spanish Fly tape all the way back to my place in the Mission. Sadly, I haven’t been able to listen to it since because I don’t actually own something that plays tapes. It’s found a nice home on the shelf above my computer.

Our other recent adventure was a small tour of Banksy artworks around the city.

There’s no footage of the Mission District Banksy piece because a pimp was about to regulate on someone just around the corner and we high-tailed it out of there. Here is the actual piece (which can be found at Mission and Sycamore ) below:

Peace,

Rio

Hipstamatic Day 3

yanez

Yesterday I woke up sick as a dog. I spent most of the day trying to recover but I did manager to schlep out of bed and go for a walk in the Mission. I shot a handful of images on 24th street between Mission and Valencia using Hipstamatic. The results are below.

Abandoned food cart.

Standing on the iconic Mission Street tile.

Waiting for my order at Phat Philly.

Passing me by, taken through the window of Phat Philly.

That’s it for now. I’ll report back in tomorrow with more Hipstamatic images.

Peace,

Rio

My Finest Hour

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If proof were ever needed that I have the world’s coolest boss it’s that we met today at Mission Comics and Art to get  Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6 together.

While there I also met up with the lovely Amanda Martinez of Mission Loc@l and we shot a video for ML’s Mission Eyes segment. I gave a spiel about Brian Lee O’Malley’s hybrid approach to cultural references in such a mainstream book and specific references to Mexican culture within the pages of the series. I also interviewed Mission Comics and Art owner Leef Smith about the shop and Scott Pilgrim.

As of this writing I have yet to read it. I spent a few scant moments at work flipping through it trying not to spoil things for myself. The suspense is killing me.

I’m going home to read some Scott Pilgrim.

Peace,

Rio

Hipstamatic Day 2

yanez

Yesterday was a rough day for me but I did manage to get in a couple of Hipstamatic shots while riding to and from SomArts on the 27 Bryant. The photo above is of the empty interior on the 27 at night and the photo below is of an OG smoking a roach on Cesar Chavez near St. Anthony’s. I broke down and purchased all the add-ons for Hipstamatic so more photos will be coming soon.

Peace,

Rio

Hipstamatic Day 1

yanez

One of my favorite experiences in art school was the day I got my first cell phone. I ran to class determined to snap a photo of my teacher and creative hero Allan Sekula. “Hey Allan, I just got a cellphone, can I take your picture with it?” I asked excitedly as he was about to start class.

“Um sure, I guess.” He replied as he sat in a chair in the center of the classroom. I pointed my phone at him and took a photo using my Motorola’s one megapixel camera. As the phone’s camera went off it made a sound mimicking a shutter opening and closing. Allan’s eyes lit up in amazement. “That’s incredible, you mean the phone makes a sound to emulate an actual camera? To present itself as the technology it’s replacing?”

With that in mind, I just had my first day of shooting with Hipstamatic. It’s an iphone app that simulates various medium format films, lenses, and flash filters to create images that look like dreamily aged prints and cross-processed proofs. The main appeal is that it allows the user to create aesthetically experimental images without any post-production work in Photoshop. I’ve gotta say, the images I was able to casually create lived up to the hype that’s been going around. There’s also the appeal of discovering different combinations of the app’s interchangeable films, lenses, and flashes. Below is my photo of San Francisco legend Frank Chu shot with Ina’s 1969 film, John S lens, and the standard flash.

This past Sunday I worked SomArts’ first photowalk produced by CaliberSF. Seeing a horde of photographers with their digital SLRs in hand inspired me to finally give in and try Hipstamatic. I’ve been seeing really impressive images created by friends using Hipstamatic popping up on flickr and facebook for a hot minute. So while Lex and I worked the box office of the event and greeted photographers I whipped out my iphone and fired up Hipstamatic for its maiden voyage. The truth is that the app crashed a LOT on me so it took a while for me to actually start making images with it. Lex was kind enough to be my very first subject and I shot the image below.

I still have yet to really explore the many possible combinations of Hipstamatic but I’m off to a modestly decent start. SomArts’ photowalk was also a big hit and it was great to see Frank Chu again (my third time this summer, por favor believe it). Frank was actually the celebrity guest of the photowalk and he led the procession of photographers around the Soma area. At the post-walk dinner it was a treat to listen to him proudly tell his story of his participation in the post-Mehserle verdict marches and mayhem.

I’m off to experiment a little more with Hipstamatic. In the meantime I’ll leave you with a mother-son diptych:

Peace,

Rio

La Pura Cura Purikura

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This past weekend I embarked on my second collaboration with the brilliant and loco por sure Guillermo Gomez-Peña (along with members of his performance troupe La Pocho Nostra). Our project is La Pura Cura Purikura. It’s an ongoing project of purikura photos costumed, performed, and decorated by Gomez-Pena, facilitated and decorated by myself.

For this first shoot we were joined by La Pocha member Kika Olsen (below).

Gomez-Peña had the idea to dress himself as a post-apocalyptic border-shaman. With that in mind we all packed up our costumes and props and traveled to Pikapika in Japantown for a purikura adventure. Suffice to say we turned a few heads while we took photos and as Guillermo and Kika got into their characters amongst confused Japanese teenagers.

Below is a sampling of the images we created together. There are more planned Purikura sessions on the way with La Pocha Nostra so stay tuned! For a full gallery of La Pura Cura Purikura CLICK HERE.

Peace,

Rio

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La Mission Mysteries Solved!

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In the past four days I’ve hung out twice with actor Jeremy Ray Valdez, better known as the actor who plays Benjamin Bratt’s son in La Mission. On Thursday I spent an evening trailing him as a hired photographer at a benefit screening of La Mission. In between photographing Jeremy with attendees and donors at the event we got to chatting about La Mission and some burning questions I’ve had about it. I also met up with Jeremy this past Sunday at the SF Pride festival at the La Mission booth. Here’s the scoop on some mysteries of La Mission.

Mystery #1: Bootleg Flattery?

A couple of weeks ago I made a short video with Mission Loc@l’s Amanda Martinez contemplating the appropriateness of bootleg copies of La Mission being sold on Mission Street itself. Is a Mission bootleg the ultimate tribute to La Mission or are we ripping off hard working Latino directors and actors?

To get the answer I asked Jeremy what he thought of bootleg copies of La Mission being sold on Mission Street. He told me a story of an autograph session he did in the Mission District during Carnaval and how a young girl brought him a bootleg copy of the movie for him to autograph. Jeremy was highly offended at the thought of signing a bootleg copy of La Mission and expressed his extreme displeasure that Mission locals are pirating his work as an actor. According to him, bootlegs have a more adverse affect on smaller productions like La Mission as opposed to large big-budget Hollywood films.

Answer: It looks like the official word on the bootleg question is that Mission Street bootlegs of La Mission = bad.

Mystery #2: Is Che a Sureño?

The one thing that haunted me after seeing La Mission for the first time was Benjamin Bratt’s wardrobe in the film. His character, Che Rivera, wore a lot of blue throughout the whole movie. It left me wondering if there was an implied subtext that Che (and by extension his son) were Sureños. There’s no acknowledgment of the Mission’s color-coded terrain in the film and how much it weighs heavily on the minds of Latino residents of the neighborhood. To me, it bordered on offensive to have no recognition a Sureño character being a Sureño in the Mission District.

I asked Jeremy if Che and/or his son were intended to be Sureños and he answered absolutely not. He told me that Peter Bratt and the production crew were very conscious not to portray Norteños and Sureños in the film and that no character in the film was intended to be a former or current gang member.

Answer: Ain’t no colors in La Mission, blue Pendletons be damned.

Many thanks to Jeremy for solving these mysteries and for being so friendly on both days our paths crossed.

Peace,

Rio

Homegirl プリクラ

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Homegirl プリクラ is a collaboration between artists Rio Yañez and Mayra Ramirez. It is the next phase of Yañez’ art series examining the relationship between Japanese youth emulating Cholo and Chola culture and their counterparts in the United States. Homegirl Purikura reverses the appropriation of visual aesthetics and uses Japanese photobooths (Purikura) to create portraits of Cholas.

The use of Purikura enables Yañez and Ramirez to create a hybrid visual presentation of portraits decorated in Chola cultural references but using uniquely Japanese visual tools to do so.

To see a full gallery of Homegirl プリクラ CLICK HERE.

Peace,

Rio

Cali Love Opening Reception

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Last night I made my way to Free Gold Watch in the Haight to attend the opening reception for Amanda Lopez‘ Cali Love. The exhibit features Day of the Dead inspired portraits of Amanda’s closest friends, including my favorite twins Amanda and Allison Martinez. After being in the same shows and communicating online for years it was so great to finally meet Amanda Lopez and talk about her amazing work.

I shot a quick interview with Amanda and model Allison Martinez. Check it out below:

I also met some amazing artists and creative people at the reception. I was thrilled to meet the super friendly Mike Giant. As luck would have it I wore one of his shirts to the opening that night.

Equally impressive was my chance to finally meet the legendary Mayra Ramirez.

Mayra is the brains behind the Chola page on facebook and the Hella Breezys blog. She is a Chola muse to many artists and the leading public authority on chola aesthetics and culture. I’m looking forward to our future collaborative projects together. I’ll be revealing some artwork that we got the ball rolling on soon! Until then enjoy this video of Mayra getting down to Mellow Man Ace’s Mentirosa.


Cali Love will be up for a month at Free Gold Watch. I’ll leave you with this photo I took of an OLD Apple IIGS computer they had at the reception. I thought it was a great alternative to a sign-in book.

Peace,

Rio