MAY 2004
|
Downtown LiveGo To: Prints From the Past • Notes Prints From the PastBy James Reel
For the past 20 years or so, Sygall has lived in Tucson. At various points in his life he has shifted his focus to apartment rehabbing, computer building and programming and real estate development. But he’s kept clicking those cameras all the while. Today, Sygall is less likely to photograph rock bands than street people, Rainbow festivals and edgy performance groups like Tucson’s Flam Chen.
Not every experience with people outside the mainstream has been happy for Sygall; recently, he gave up the lease on the Sangin building near the Sixth Avenue underpass following disputes with his artist-tenants (see “Sangin, Derailed” page 18). But documenting “real” people and popular cultural movements has remained Sygall’s principle interest for a good 35 years. He says he probably would have been content, to a point, to have made money in the daily grind of shooting weddings and commercial products. “I suppose I do have talent,” he says, “but if I put more hard work into that kind of stuff I could probably take it to a higher level. I’ve come to realize that I enjoy the whole aspect of making images, and it doesn’t much matter what the images are. But shooting people is most interesting, and it doesn’t matter to me if you’re Jimi Hendrix or Joe Shmoe. What difference does it make? You’re still an interesting human.” Still, it was shooting some 30 rock bands in his early years that brought Sygall his greatest success. His images found their way into music magazines and onto posters and album covers (including Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland). “I guess I was really spurred to do photography because of my love of the music, and my belief that the music, being politically charged, would have an effect on the world,” he says. In the ’60s, Sygall could easily set up his tripod in the center aisle and shoot pictures during a Doors concert, but access to bands is much more difficult these days. Sygall had to jump through hoops just to get access to a Coldplay sound check in Phoenix last year. Compare that to the remarkably intimate images of people like Hendrix Sygall was able to capture in the early years. “It was easy to get kicked out if you made a pain in the ass of yourself,” he says, “so my policy was to change the situation as little as possible. I kept quiet, and never used a flash. The downside to not using a flash was that it was a lot harder to focus, but the upside was that people didn’t hate me for flashing light bulbs into their altered consciousness, and it captured the natural light of the scene.” The low light levels Sygall found himself in could compromise the technical quality of a shot, but in a concert setting, he says, “The main point isn’t quality; it’s the subject matter and mood.” Sygall didn’t restrict himself to rock concerts. He’d skate around Manhattan, roll right up to hookers, snap their pictures and zip away. And he’d photograph events that drew young people, most notably Woodstock. “I still consider documenting mass movements in popular culture to be the most significant thing to do,” he says. “I think about what kinds of photographs will give people 200 years in the future a window onto what we do now. You can’t invade people’s homes, so to see what people are truly like, you go to concerts, malls and fairs.” The Etherton Gallery is handling limited-edition prints of some of Sygall’s Hendrix photos, and the photographer is arranging to sell shots from his archives to Getty Images, an international photo clearinghouse. As for current work, Sygall has happily made the transition to the digital era, giving up the chemicals formerly associated with black-and-white photography and using such tools as a Sony 717 digital camera, a scanner and PhotoShop. But asked about his favorite spots to photograph people Downtown, Sygall laughs and says, “I’m afraid to go down there now” after the Sangin controversy. “There are different kinds of fringes—on one side you have the alternative hippie culture, and on the other you have people who watch cars being wrecked and men trying to take the horns off of small cows. So today, I’d go shoot the Pima County Fair.” Notes...by Jamie Manser Fare thee well!Catch the bad (ass) monkeys, Chango Malo, this month at Hotel Congress before they take their show on the road for the fifth time. The band’s 15-passenger van -Angie - will roll them through the south, up the East Coast (a virgin visit!) and back through the Midwest. Scheduled to rock the Old Pueblo on May 11 (opening for the Constantines) and May 21 (with Don Caballero), be sure to check their website, www.ChangoMalo.com, or pester the hotel desk person at 622-8848 for confirmation. Ever the jesters, the boys in The Hillwilliams have concocted numerous scenarios regarding their upcoming dismantle. A telephone chat had singer Scott Lema claiming he is “joining the circus to become a weasel trainer. After two years with these guys, I’m certainly qualified.” In actuality, Lema is marrying love Deborah Rench and the two are moving to Wisconsin in June to share their lives and eventually make babies. The farewell show will be at Plush on May 28 with special guest appearances. “It would be nice to get all our drunken friends together for one last bender and see if we can get 86’d from a club we are playing at. I’d say thanks for the memories, but I just can’t remember them!” This summer will bid adieu to another local musician. Greyhound Soul and Sun Zoom Spark keyboardist Bobby Hepworth is moving with his lovely lady Sommer Browning to New York City. Catch his last show with GHS at Plush on May 14. Cumulating CreativityTucson’s Plez Records, started in 1997 by Kings of Pleasure leader Mike Herbert, is presenting a three-band showcase at Plush on May 20 in celebration of country honky-tonk outfit Tall Boy’s debut CD release. Fender Benders (instrumental surf/spaghetti western) and Kings of Pleasure (lounge/exotica) round out the bill. Lagoon, a pop/rock band that channels a 1980s indie British vibe, is recording their first album live at North on May 28. “We just feel we come across best live, so what the fuck. Maybe it will suck, maybe it will be cool,” says guitarist R.P.M. There will also be a video crew and DJ J Daddy spinning between sets. Free smoothie coupons for Xoom Juice sweeten the deal! |
||||||||
|
|
NEXT | ||||||||
| Return to www.downtowntucson.org | |||||||||
s a teen-aged photographer in the late 1960s, David Sygall got his first big break shooting a concert by the Doors. Crawdaddy magazine awarded Sygall’s shots a four-page spread, and with a backstage pass to the Fillmore East in hand, the kid launched a career photographing the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Frank Zappa.
