Pictures: Holiday gifts with Maryland flavor
The most wonderful time of the year can also be the most daunting. One way to stick out from the masses of unimaginative gift cards is to purchase items with local flair. From dresses by a local designer sought after by the cast of "The Real Housewives of D.C." to a furniture store that offers the option to personalize the face of a wall clock with your favorite Baltimore neighborhood, this year's guide provides a number of options to give your holiday a classy Maryland feel.-- John-John Williams IV
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| Pictures: Holiday gifts with Maryland flavor |
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For the fan of antique flair(Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun / November 3, 2010)s.c.lord design, The Mill Centre, 3000 chestnut Ave., Studio No. 341 (410-961-4597, www.sclorddesign.com), offers these framed antique artworks, $425 for the large Antique Victorian Printers Proof and $160 for each antique photograph.
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Baltimore Citypaper, January14th, 2009
Rough Gods: Brutal Truth and Beauty
Ends Saturday, March 14
Works by noted photographer and music producer Michael Alago featuring a live polaroid photo shoot with the artist and his favorite model, Timothy Corscadden. (reception 6-9 p.m. Jan 17)
When looking through the viewfinder of his trusty cameras, New York music-producer-turned-photographer Michael Alago favors the beefy, muscled physiques of male bodybuilders, with their hardened abs, overdeveloped pecs, and quadriceps that look like woven steel rope. In fact, Alago's camera really likes one particular model, the tattooed, hyper-chiseled Timothy Corscadden, who looks like a WWF wrestler come to superhero life. Alago's work became the photography exhibit Rough Gods, and selections from it featuring Corscadden opens tonight at this Woodberry design studio/gallery.(Bret McCabe)
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Baltimore GayLife Magazine
Rough Gods: An Interview with Photographer Michael AlagoBy Maddy Dwertmann Published January 8, 2009
A noted photographer and music producer, Michael Alago is best known for his work as a talent scout and producer in the music industry. Among his greatest accomplishments were working with Nina Simone on her final full-length album, A Single Woman, and signing the Grammy-winning heavy metal band Metallica to Elektra Records. Alago, who currently lives and works in New York City, has exhibited his photographs in Paris, Berlin, New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Montreal and Toronto.
S.C. Lord Design, located in Baltimore, MD, will present Alago’s bold photographs which “pay glorious tribute to body art, sexuality and muscle in a series of aggressively-styled portraits,” in the upcoming exhibition Rough Gods: Brutal Truth and Beauty. Rough Gods runs from January 15 through March 14, with an opening reception, featuring a live Polaroid photo shoot with Alago and his favorite model, Timothy Corscadden, on Saturday, January 17 from 6-9 p.m.
Alago spoke with Gay Life about some of the highlights of his career in the music industry, his love of photography and the hyper-masculine subject, the allure of the Polaroid and the importance of pursuing what one truly loves.
Before photography, you worked in the music industry for a number of years.
Oh, yes. I was involved in the music business from 1981 until 2003. My first job was at a nightclub called the Ritz on E. 11th Street in the East Village. I answered the phones a lot and was kind of groomed there to be the assistant music director. I was
there for 3 years and then for the next 20 years, I spent working at Elektra Records and Geffen Records doing A and R (Artist and Repertoire). I was basically a talent scout. I signed new up and coming artists to the record labels.
What were some of the highlights of this phase of your life?
There were tons of highlights. Thank goodness my instincts were really good…and I just love music. I signed a variety of artists from Metallica to Nina Simone. I saw Metallica summer of 1984 and just thought it was the most incredible sound I had ever heard. They were doing something so new in heavy metal…and I just fell in love with them. They were so charismatic on stage. They were ring leaders. I kind of knew that I wanted to have these people in my professional life. I signed them, and the rest is history.
Then, on the other end of the spectrum, I love the classics, the standards. I love Frank Sinatra. I love Tony Bennett. But, above all, I love Nina Simone. I listened to her growing up and she was just one of my favorites. I got to sign her to Elektra around 1993 and little did I know the record we were making, called A Single Woman, would be her last full-length recording. She didn’t end up recording another album before she passed away in April 2003. I also worked with White Zombie, Michael Feinstein…. It was really an exciting time for me. It was the ‘80s and I was in my 20’s and I was finding all of these new artists…or artists who weren’t on labels in the U.S. I ended up having a great rapport with these artists and they loved the history of Elektra…thatThe Doors and The Stooges were there before them. It was an extraordinary record label to be at. It was really a lot of fun and I loved my job.
Why did you decide to leave the music business and pursue photography?
After doing anything for 23 years, enough is enough. Records weren’t selling the way they used to. There was all of this file sharing, downloading…going on that really interfered with record sales. I thought, “You know what. I want to just stop now while I feel like I left on a real high.” And, I got to do a lot of things that I wanted to do and I didn’t want to be in corporate life any more.
I always took photographs. I always loved pictures. I loved to look at anyone’s family album because I liked to imagine what stories were being told in the pictures. When I was young, I always had a plastic camera and loved to shoot people, family events. As I grew older, the Polaroids turned into tricks that I wound up picking up while on the road….a very different family portrait (laughs).
You still shoot Polaroids, right?
I mostly shoot with a digital camera, but I love Polaroids. You know, it’s still part of the allure of taking a picture. As I grew up and the nature of polaroids…they always felt, as an adult, a bit naughty to me…just one image, no negative. For me, the Polaroid wound up being kind of erotic. I still use Polaroids in my work now. I love that it’s one of a kind. I love that it’s in a square. I love that it’s small, that it’s precious. I love that if it’s exhibited, you have to walk up really close and get involved and talk about it.
I thought, I just want to shoot photographs and I want to shoot photographs of men. I don’t want to take pictures of models or go to agencies and find people because everyone does that. Then, things become homogenized and I never want to be homogenized. I wanted to shoot men that I was attracted to: body builders, football players, tattooed men, scarred men. Anyone who had this tough exterior. I never wanted anyone to be mean or nasty. I just love that hyper-masculine look. It was something that totally turns me on all the time…..
It’s funny. There’s a picture I took of a guy’s back and on his back is the head of Jesus Christ. I shot that with a little plastic camera that I had in my pocket when I was at the Eagle one night. It is a picture that wound up being very popular and has sold really well. If you have a camera, any camera, and you kind of know what you’re doing and there’s a feeling to what you’re shooting, it really doesn’t matter what kind of camera you use. I can shoot with a $10 plastic camera, a digital camera, a Polaroid camera. Now that Polaroid’s gone out of business, I’m trying horde Polaroid 600 film so I don’t have to throw myself out a window (laughs). I just love the medium so much.
Where do you find most of your subjects?
Oh god, I find some of them at online sites. Or, if someone is walking down the street and I feel like it’s a good time to approach someone, I approach them on the street. And, always when I have a good session with someone, I’ll give them another business card and tell them if they have a friend that has a similar vibe, I’d love to shoot them. I’ve had great luck and a lot of people have said “yes” to me, which is really a blessing.
I make the sessions fun and adventurous and spontaneous. I really don’t do a lot of preparation. I like to meet someone at least once before I shoot them just to get a vibe from them. When we shoot, we do it in the studio against a simple back drop or find a cool location and we just go and start shooting. I find that when I don’t do a lot of prep work that there is this electricity and excitement, this really live feeling…so that once the picture is exhibited you feel that energy and life in that image.
You have a new book due out soon. What is the focus of your new work?
About two and half years ago, I put out a book on my own called Rough Gods. It was a limited edition book of about 2,000. They’re all numbered and signed and they’re almost sold out. I’m working on another book that will be out in late summer 2009. It’ll be the same name as my show—Rough Gods: Brutal Truth and Beauty. That’s the show that’s coming to Baltimore.
Are you really going to be doing a live photo shoot at the opening of your show in Baltimore on January 17?
We’re going to do a photo shoot with my favorite model, Timothy Corscadden. He is tattooed work of art…that I also have a crush on (laughs). The visual is so beautiful. He’s this body builder. When you think of someone whose whole head is tattooed, you can say “fine, whatever.” But, it is this almost elegant, warrior, gladiator look. It’s not silly. It’s powerful and strong. He really is a masterpiece. We’re going to do this fun Polaroid shoot for everyone opening night of the exhibit.
Do you have any other upcoming projects and where do you see life taking you next?
Well, I still dabble in music. I’m in the music business now in a very small way…the way I want to work in the music industry, not the way a corporation wants me to. I recently worked on the Cyndi Lauper record that just came out. I’m hoping to work with her again this year. That’s exciting because I really do love and respect her as an artist. I also worked with an artist from Washington, DC called Richard Morel. He made a record called The Death of the Paperboy that I executive produced. I also put out a record on “Outsider Music” by this musician named Colton Ford. It’s an R and B record…with a very Justin Timberlake, George Michael vibe.
.…I’ve been so fortunate. I think it’s so great when one gets to do what they really want and love in life.
For additional information about Michael Alago, or to view his work, visit www.roughgods.com.
S.C. Lord Design is located at 3000 Chestnut Avenue, suite 341 in the historic Mill Centre in Hampden. Gallery hours are 10am- 5pm Tuesday- Friday, Saturdays 12-5pm and by appointment. For more information, visit www.sclorddesign.com.
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Baltimore OutLoud
Gods and Jockstraps
Have you ever seen a man so overtly masculine that you felt you could almost smell his musky manscent from across a busy street? Or men with backs so wide that they have to walk into rooms sideways? I’m talking, men so hulking that their clothes constantly tear away to tatters leaving them in only a well-worn jockstrap. These are the hulking, hairy and heavily tattooed men that Michael Alago photographs and calls “Rough Gods”.
Michael Alago is a passionate man. Over the phone he talks fast, as if he is fearful that his phone will die at any moment. In person he is much the same, sometimes taking a deep breath before letting what’s on his mind come tumbling out. “Things can move really fast in my head, “ he says “When I see a man on the street and think, ‘He’s a Rough God’. I’ll get a million thoughts and it becomes sensory overload.” But Alago does know what he wants and definitely knows what he likes. “I don’t shoot people I’m not attracted to. I want to look at them and have an erotic feeling about them.” I don’t press him on what happens after the shooting stops, but he does hint that the “erotic feeling” he mentions, does periodically come into further play.
Alago’s photography is not exactly what you would expect to see on, say, a calendar for Men of The Eagle. All the Daddy-fetish accouterments like military boots, buzz cuts, facial hair and the de rigueur jockstrap are there, but he goes beyond fetishizing them and surprisingly, lust is actually replaced by something closely resembling love.
There is a romantic quality to his work that you don’t typically see in photographs of men like this. It’s the dappled lighting, the sidelong glances, the casual repose of his models that humanize these seemingly unapproachable men and make them a little bit more like us. “When a man just leans back and closes his eyes, it just quiets everything. I love the vulnerability that it creates” says Alago “I call it ‘The Dreaming’”.
Don’t get the wrong impression, Michael is not a starry-eyed little dreamer, he has reached God-like proportions himself in the music industry. During his twenty year career in the corporate music world, Alago has worked with a wildly diverse group of artists including PIL, Michael Feinstein and Nina Simone. But with the internet forcing monumental changes on the music industry and corporate powers dictating what the next big thing should be, Michael took these not so subtle cues and opted out in order to focus primarily on his photography.
During those years, while he was busy producing music and discovering bands like Metallica and White Zombie, Michael was also taking photographs–lots and lots of steamy, sexy Polaroids of naked men. “I always Polaroided the people I picked up or had one-night stands with. I wanted a remembrance of the evening.” he says with a laugh. Alago has taken 1,000s of these “Trick Polaroids”, as he calls them. Back when Polaroid film was actually available, he would shoot an astounding number of images, sometimes up to one or two hundred shots per “trick”. “I will exhaust myself of a model and not want to shoot them again” he says. “That may sound selfish, but during that sitting I want to get it all…the sly smile, the full raging hard-on…everything.”
What started out as a loose documentation for his scrapbook of conquests has become a more artistic and controlled body of work. “The way I shoot Polaroids has changed.” Since those snap and shoot early days, Alago takes more time to compose his shots to ensure that everything stays “sexy and inviting” and not just a notch on his camera strap. Either way he does it, I eagerly await the day I can see his whole amazing collection of “Trick Polaroids” on one big gallery wall and experience them the way he wants them to be seen, “A Polaroid is precious. I want people to walk right up to the original and get involved with the photo.” And while Polaroid film has become scarce to nearly impossible to find, Rough Gods continue to find their way to him whether by way of referrals or on the streets of New York City. Rough Gods, the book, is available now and a second book of Alago’s wonder men will be available in late 2009.
Michael Alago will be in Baltimore on Saturday, January 17th exhibiting recent digital work and will also be Polaroiding one of his Rough Gods live at the opening reception. Alago happily confirms that Timothy, an epic RG if there ever was one, will be on hand for the show opening. “He’ll be here in his red jockstrap.” I love red.
“Brutal Truth + Beauty” runs from January 15th through March 14 at the S.C. Lord Gallery located at 3000 Chestnut Ave. #341, in The Mill Center. The opening reception is on Saturday, January 17th from 6-9pm. Jockstraps encouraged, but not required.
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JANUARY 17TH, 2008
There have always been those artists- like bus drivers, politicians, ditch diggers, and bankers- that would be great company over a beer. Many of us would look toward the past and choose a ‘master’ like Picasso or Matisse and watch them smoke and sketch on cocktail napkins. Choosing a drinking buddy from the ranks of today’s artists would perhaps prove a thornier challenge. One of my preliminary votes might be a photographer whose show arrives in Baltimore courtesy of S.C. Lord Design in Clipper Mill near the Jones Falls.
Gloves and Gun by Cameron Wolf
Cameron Wolf: Retrospective
Through March 1, 2008
S.C. Lord Design
3000 Chestnut Avenue
Studio 341
Cameron Wolf takes the obvious comparisons to Robert Mapplethorpe’s fetishism and turns them on their head. He does this primarily by cloaking his models in black leather and then taking the traditional symbols of sexuality and fetish and making them stand for something entirely different. Wolf is an AIDS activist, researcher, and student from the Bloomberg School of Public Health and now works as a field coordinator for regional AIDS prevention in Thailand for USAID, so needless to say his photographs say something slightly more sweeping than the black leather and symbols of erotic fetishism that appear on the surface. Artists often play with profane symbols- Roy Lichtenstein’s Benday dots memorialized legion of comic strips- and Wolf does the same, taking the traditionalism of fetish- yeah, it’s been around for a while- and brings it an uncomfortable undercurrent. Needless to say, if Wolf’s photographs are any indication, he would have some stories to tell that would leave you thinking over your drink. He’s a good guy, as well: proceeds from his show benefit AIDS organizations in Baltimore.
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