Ocean Shores, Washington: Tiny Vipers fotoshoot

Tiny Vipers is a beautiful band on SubPop label here in Seattle, and is actually one person, Jesy Fortino. I photographed for her last album and we work so great together,,,, she's from the northwest like me, and we both have a great respect for the beauty of washington state --and also we seem to love the unexplainable spooky part of it that even david lynch draws upon.

Her newest album with SubPop is "Life on Earth" it's coming out next month, i heard it already and it's beautiful.











We took these photos last month [April] in Ocean Shores, Washington. Jesy, her boyfriend Chris (thanks Chris for all your help), & me drove directly onto the beach -for about a mile in crazy wind & hard rain hoping to make a bonfire. i was prepared to take the photos sitting in the car with Jesy in the rain with a shitty bonfire when all of a sudden the rain stopped & we all three made a killer bonfire. These were also natural light and the ones with all the sparks Chris made with a shovel and they were like 4 second exposures. I used my Rollieflex and Leica with i think Kodak Portra 800 color film.

Also, we had to reshoot for some promo fotos and i took these here in the old west seattle christian school where they rent out to artists now. i love how jesy sometime looks like patti smith when she was a youngin'.




Her first album "Hands across the Void" on SupPop we photographed in North Bend Washington, this was in 2007, we borrowed a red lantern from a thrift shop & the one dress she owns,,, and took the photos at dusk all around North Bend, WA in natural light. i got so lucky in my exposures since i was using my old rolleiflex & 320T slide film that had expired in 2005. But they turned out so beautiful & somehow even the 2 second exposures were rich. I wish they still made that film... i wish i had the other shots from this but my old hard drive bit it & i got to fix that.




This one was with my Leica and the awesome old agfa ultra 100 film, i love and miss this film.