People below are making some awesome art. They also make appearances in Out of Step: Faces of Straight Edge. See if you can find them.
The update is that New York is still cold. Its almost April, come on. It was my first winter in the Northeast and actually it was that bad. A fairly mild one for us here in New York. In other news I'm sending my 5D and lens to Canon for a thorough cleaning. I'm so excited about that because they've never been cleaned. Being a CPS member is great.
I know a lot of people have totally give up on this blog because I haven't updated often enough but I hope people rediscover it because I'm going to start updating it much more frequently with lots of pictures.
New York . 2007
And . . . the book is still available through distros like Southern Empire, Revelation, Very, and of course
This post is a few days late but things have been a little crazy in my life with the wedding and big move to New York. But here are some pictures from the hella sucessful book relase/gallery opening night at Young Blood Gallery in Atlanta. Tons of people came out from all over the place. We sold a bunch of books, a few prints and had several hours of pure fun. Thanks to Matt Miller for some of the pics and for helping me hang the show. The show is still on display at Young Blood through the end of the month and all of the prints are for sale. The book is obviously still available through
Photo by Matt Miller
Photo by Matt Miller
Photo by Matt Miller
Photo by Matt Miller
Photo by Matt Miller
Photo by Matt Miller
Pre-orders for the book have now begun. Check out the Southern Empire Records
( http://www.southernempirerecords.com ) site for more information.
"Out of Step: Faces of Straight Edge is the first book from photographer, Ray Jones. The book consists of over 140 pages of beautiful black & white photographs featuring a wide representation of individuals who make up the current straight edge community."
Be one of the first to pre-order Out of Step and receive a free stenciled poster! Less than 50 of these will be sent out, so get yours now! Books will ship beginning October 10th.
Hey everyone. The book proofs are in and I just approved them. I'm scared to death that there will be some small mispelling left over in the final edition. But I did the best editing I could.
So we are behind the shedule we originally set but still well within the window and we'll have no problem getting the final books in time for the release. Here are few glimpses. They're intentionally not the best of quality. I still want people to be somewhat surprised by the final work. I've also included the flyer made by Young Blood Gallery to advertise the show.
Hope to see you all there. Keep an our various web outlets for pre-ordering and other things.
Yes it's been another couple of weeks since my last update for Out of Step: Faces of Straight Edge. Sorry about that. The charger for my Powerbook is failing so I've been offline for a while. But I just wanted to give a quick update and answer a few questions that I've been hearing.
Book design and everything is complete. We're getting ready to send everything off to the printer in Canada. Here are some sneek peeks. The book will have 66 pictures. It will also include a foreword by Dave Anthem, an excellent writer, and the man behind Southern Empire Records and Empire Press. (Listen to the lyrics of Prayer For Cleansing).
The book will be available to anyone who wants one, no matter where you are. And don't worry there are plenty to go around, so don't fret about getting a first edition. We haven't talked about if we're doing pre-orders yet but online ordering will be available. The book will barcoded as well and will be available through online distributors and some bookstores as well. I'll have more specific details soon.
Don't forget about the book release/exhibition opening on Oct. 6 in Atlanta. Everyone is invited.
So this is a huge update because things have been so crazy for me lately and I obviously haven't had a chance to update.
First of all, I'm in New York now. I got a great job and moved up last week. It came out of nowhere and definitely made things crazy but its a good thing for sure. Below are a few pictures of some friends I'm staying with in NYC.
Big Pants and Raver Chris.
Girlfriends.
Secondly, it's crunch time with production for the project and I'm getting pretty anxious about it. Things are rolling along though. I'm just not going to have a life for a while outside of work and the project and oh yeah, I'm getting married in the fall. So check out these few new details about the book and exhibit opening:
OCTOBER 6, 2007
YOUNG BLOOD GALLERY
629 GLENWOOD AVE.
ATLANTA, GA 30312
404.627.0393
You can also email me with questions at ray@facesofstraightedge.com
Also, recently I went to North Carolina for a few days to say goodbye to some of my family before I moved I had to photograph one more person as well. Kenneth . Ranch Foreman . Ribera, NM . Edge for 10 years.
Get into it!
Friend in NC
Grilling tofu at Jonathan Undying's home.
Ganon.
Dreams crushed.
Played some putt putt
Ski ball.
Freedomcakes. If you don't eat these the terrorists win.
How amazing was Progression Through Unlearning? Seriously. I had forgotten how great that album was. I listened to it today while I was working out. Incredible. It's sad how such an influential band like that just kind of faded away. I also read in an interview that they are all straight edge, something that I always wanted to believe as a kid but never had confirmed.
In other news, my friends last night told me of a straight edge guy in Georgia who owns his own racing team. He builds race cars and stuff. Sounds pretty rad. Also, there's a pitcher for the Texas Rangers who is straight edge too. His name is C.J. Wilson.
That's all I've got. Yesterday was the 14th and I was officially supposed to be done shooting yesterday but there are still some people out there I want to get up with. Take care.
Sorry, I'm not posting as often as I had hoped but I'm trying to get better at it. I'm not used to having a blog. It requires a lot of attention. So I've started scanning the negatives for the book. It's a slow process but fun and exciting too. I've finally figured my workflow and how I want to do it all so now I just have to physically scan each frame. Here are a few raw scans of new pictures that no one has seen yet. I photographed these guys along with a few other people on a recent trip to Charlotte.
Adam Cook . 28 years old . T-shirt designer . Charlotte, NC . Edge for 5 years .
Carl Albanese . 27 years old . Account Manager II . Charlotte, NC. Edge for 11 years .
So other than that things are moving right along. Don't forget about the Release Party Oct. 6 at Young Bloog Gallery in Atlanta, GA.
So I had brunch this morning at Soul Veg with my friend Tony Price. We began the process of specifically discussing the design and layout of the book. We made some progress and we're both very excited about the challenge and the ideas we have for it.
After SV I then proceeded to walk around Ikea with friends for 2 hours. I bought a $4 container for compost.
On to the fun stuff. Last week I was in Philadelphia photographing EMS's wedding. I stayed a few extra days to hang out with friends and shoot some pictures for the book. In the end I think I photographed 4 or 5 new people. It was great. Great stories, new friends, outdoor ping pong. Below are some pictures from the trip. Stay tuned.
EMS with all his Erie friends.
Dave Anthem, me and Barone.
One of the guys I was lucky enough to meet and photograph during the trip. He's an Environmenal Scientist in Pittsburgh.
Dave, Ben and I went to a High Roller video shoot in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania for fun one night. They had pyrotechnics and long hair.
This is Ben Sap having his mind blown.
Dave's a filmmaker and writer so we set up a shot using an old 8mm and 16mm projector he had. We had a hell of time trying to get those things to work the way we needed them too.
Available light wasn't gonna cut it here.
P.S. Sorry the RSS feed is messed up. I'm working on it.
So I just got back from a great trip in Philadelphia. I photographed my friend EMS's wedding and hung out with some great friends. I'll have pictures from the trip up very soon.
In project news, Out of Step: Faces of Straight Edge officially has a designer for the book. Tony Price, who also did the latest flyer for the project, has signed on as to design the book. Tony is a great graphic designer and an old Vegan Straight Edge comrade from Atlanta. Stay tuned for more news.
Here are some pictures from a shoot I had a week or two ago in Atlanta. I photographed a guy named Bryce Ward from New York who was down south on assignment with the amazing David Burnett.
Thanks to my man Matt Miller for the pictures.
So this is a journal of the project. So I'm just going to try to be as personal and straight forward as I can. Hopefully it will do a decent job of letting you learn more about the project, why I'm doing it, how I work. And it will probably be good for me as well.
I sarted this project in early 2006. I had already been doing photography for many years by then and had been straight edge even longer. I had this idea for a project for quite a while. As I got more involved in photography and crafted my skills more and more I realized that photography wasn't only a job for me, but it was my way of exploring and learning about the world. I was always pretty shy as a kid, but now with my camera and my new found talent I was doing things I never imagined I would do. Making pictures allowed an exclusive insight to the world. And it allowed me a way to show everyone how I see it.
So one day I just decided I might as well get started with this project. What better time than now? I was also in a anthropological/sociological/photo class with a photographer named Bill Bamberger at Carolina. So I decided since I was starting this photo project I might as well use it for the class.
Doing my own photography book has always been a dream of mine, although it's very hard these days to actually get one published. But I talked with my good friend Dave Anthem, of Prayer For Cleansing fame, who runs Southern Empire Records and now Empire Press and told him about what I was doing. He was into it so we decided to go for it, and things started falling into place.
So it's been doing this all on my own, funding everything myself and managing all the logistics and everything but its been great. And now we're approaching the release. So that in short is the life of the project to this day. I am still photographing for the book although I only have a few weeks left. Check the categories for more information and come back to the blog for updates often.
Ray
P.S. Matt Miller and I went on a midnight search through Atlanta the other night looking for picturesque vistas of the city. We found one good one but I'm not completely satisfied. I know there's a better one out there.
Matt manhandling the 50 f/1.8.
This is what I walked away with from the night. Canon 5D, 15 sec. @ f/11, ISO 100, 28-70 f/2.8L
Opening night/Release party
When: October 6, 2007
Where: Young Blood Gallery
629 Glenwood Ave SE
Atlanta, GA 30312
What: Opening night of the solo exhibition of photographs featured in Out of Step: Faces of Straight Edge and official release party for the book. All original prints will be for sale and the book will be for sale as well.
Who: Everyone is invited. Please come and party with us and show your support.
Out of Step: Faces of Straight Edge is a 139 page book of black and white photographs. Faces of Straight Edge offers glimpse into the straight edge community nearly 25 years after this subculture formed its roots. All photographs were shot during a 20 month period from 2006-2007 by Raymond McCrea Jones. The book was published by Empire Press on Oct. 6, 2007 and is available online at places like
facesofstraightedge.com
myspace.com/xsouthernempirerecordsx
myspace.com/straightedgedocumentary
raymjones.com
Email me at
Hey everyone. So this is the blog for the project on www.facesofstraightedge.com. This will be the place for up to date information about the project, what I'm doing, where I'm at as the release date approaches.
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