The Photography Of Bruce Kalberg / Bruce Caen

Freshjive presents the Bruce Kalberg / Bruce Caen photography exhibit at Reserve.

Thursday June 3rd, 7:00-11:00 PM
Reserve Store
420 N. Fairfax
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Bruce Kalberg

From 1979-1984 Bruce Kalberg photographed virtually every band and personality against the backdrop of the first rush of Punk Rock in Los Angeles and Hollywood. As publisher and chief creative force behind NO MAGAZINE (NOMAG) Bruce photographed both the music and art scene nightly in his studio in Echo Park creating a portrait of fashion and underground culture like no one else. This was the real culture made up of outsiders, losers, immigrants, Punk Rockers from generation one (‘76-’82) living in Hollywood thirty years ago, more crudely wrought lives outside of the sparkle and spotlights than the Entertainment Industry would have you imagine. The obverse of the coin of the world presented nightly on shows such as Entertainment Tonight, this was the heart of Hollywood.

Each photograph is a unique work of art incorporating a backdrop that was custom built for those that stood in front of it. The backgrounds were constructed from pieces of outdoor advertising, carpet parts and other street remnants. They were painted over with geometric shapes organic repetitions and a pop art sensibility that reflected the world of underground Hollywood culture. The backgrounds enveloped the subject and flattened the space so that subject and background where one. These portraits are evidence of a unique time in Hollywood and also the art of a multidimensional artist. The interaction between the various bands and Bruce Kalberg, publisher and photographer, are funny, intimate and real. The images are both reflection of the scene and after their publication in NOMAG were responsible for giving a visual identity to the culture and our memory of it. NOMAG provided a voice and look for many generations and is currently as relevant as when it was created. It was new, dangerous and exciting 30 years ago and still is today.

An artist and photographer, Bruce Kalberg studied fine art in London at the Croydon College of Art (1970-1974) and in Los Angeles at Otis Art Institute (1976-1978). He created NOMAG as an extension of his art studies.

In 2005 Bruce Kalberg under the name of Bruce Caen, published SUB-HOLLYWOOD. The story of a 1980’s publisher of a counter culture magazine. The novel is the story of an underground music magazine publisher in his 20s finding his way through the Los Angeles art world and the raucous tough Punk music scene. This is the same Art community and environment that Gary Panter, at that time an L.A. resident, and Raymond Pettibon gave visual definition to and the same environment that inspired their early work. The novel continues the vision of NOMAG and of Bruce Kalberg/Bruce Caen as an integral part of Hollywood culture.

“Crazy, sloppy, excellent L.A. punk novel by the guy who did the west coast No Mag. The scenes w/the L.A.P.D. are so true you’ll be able to smell the jiz on their breath.”
–THURSTON MOORE, BYRON COLEY, ARTHUR MAGAZINE (Bull Tongue 26, Ecstatic Peace)

“SUB-HOLLYWOOD is the work of punk literature that many of us have long been awaiting. Punk was the brilliant sound and account of things falling apart, but its effect has been hard to replicate in writing, since writing lacks the force and rage of sound. BRUCE CAEN makes up for that-indeed, matches the effect–with a sustained narrative that makes that time and sensibility run deeper. SUB-HOLLYWOOD is the story of a man who has nothing, is without direction, searching for something. For a time, he finds a way, through art and the Los Angeles punk culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. His passage makes for a riveting and hilarious tale, but also one that comes to trouble and madness. It moves to a shocking conclusion that is perhaps the most remarkable mating of dissolution and redemption that I’ve ever read. SUB-HOLLYWOOD reads as an autobiographical narrative, but it incorporates elements of farce, tragedy, history and some essay. It bears fair comparison to the bold, first person novels of Knut Hamsun, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Henry Miller, Leonard Cohen andHunter S. Thompson, though it’s also thoroughly modern and thoroughly of its own. It is the story of things coming apart–which makes it the most valuable sort of story. There’s not a false note or false hope on any page. You can’t imagine what awaits you here, and you can’t forget it long after the last page.”
–MIKAL GILMORE, ROLLING STONE Contributing Editor; SHOT IN THE HEART, Author (Winner of National Book Critics Circle Award; Los Angeles Times-Best Biography).

”Caen gets down to business. What keeps him in the game is his style — dry and blunt, with steady momentum and a penchant for metaphor that flirts with silliness while rarely slopping over. And as a storyteller, he lays out just enough details — the size of the ass, the condition of the paint, the greasiness of the jeans — to make a situation live while he cruises through the uncluttered action of a seduction, a bust or a fix fest. Then on to the next, the next and the next. Story? A fucked-up guy gets more and more fucked-up till he hits a hallucinatory apotheosis. Not a plot, really. A life. Boring it ain’t.”
–GREG BURK, LA WEEKLY Book Review

”Sub-Hollywood is not shapely — I don’t think an editor got within 200 yards of it — but Caen is an excellent storyteller. His style, zigzags between Bukowskian deadpan and something more aloof – a colder realm of perception…You should read it.”
–JAMES PARKER, BOSTON PHEONIX Music /Book Review

Part Time Punks DJ Michael Stock

Michael Stock is a Part Time Professor and a Part Time Punk—which means he is a DJ at three clubs in Los Angeles (PART TIME PUNKS every Sunday at The Echo; PUNKY REGGAE PARTY every Friday at La Cita and HUNGRYBEAT which happens at least two Saturdays a month at La Cita).  He also has a weekly radio show on KXLU (88.9FM in Los Angeles/www.kxlu.com everywhere else) every Thursday from 3-6pm PST.  Michael spins strictly vinyl and mostly the sounds of punk, post-punk, minimal synth, industrial & DIY circa 1978-84 (though he’s also a great lover of Indiepop, Twee and Shoegaze sounds).  For awhile, he was also writing a monthly column on vinyl records called “The Bins” for Flaunt Magazine, which was something like a cross between Lester Bangs and Theodor Adorno.  But now, he’s at work on his second novel, tentatively titled All’s Well That Ends.  Along the way, he has taught a number of courses on Punk, The History Of Comic Books and even things like Writing, Film Aesthetics and Drama at places like UCLA, UC-Irvine, Loyola Marymount and, most recently, CalArts.