AN INTERVIEW WITH OUR COVER PHOTOGRAPHER

Muir Vidler is the shutterbug who snapped that mighty Libyan fist on the cover of our new Knuckle Sandwich Issue. He also wrote an article this month about his multiple trips to Libya with a gaggle of babes for Gaddafi's bizarro beauty pageants.

Despite the sometimes strange and oppressive settings (Libya, Turkey) of Muir's photos, his images are always chock-full of colors, light, and good times. Five minutes on Muir's site will have you hanging with trannies in Istanbul, Death Metalers in Israel, Nick Cave, the president of the Maldives, Tony Alva… you see where we're going with this. The guy's got a diverse portfolio.

We figured there was probably a whole story behind that poorly-crafted fist strangling the shit out of a US jet on the cover, so we called up Muir to get the juicy, behind-the-scenes story of our cover, among other things.

Vice: Hey Muir. What can you tell me about this ominous photo on the cover of our Knuckle Sandwich Issue?
Muir Vidler: It's the front of Gaddafi's old house in Tripoli. It was bombed in 1986 by the Reagan administration, among others, I think. They left it as evidence of what Libyans call American terrorism, and they take visitors on tours of the place. I think they added the American fighter jet after the bombing.

They take tourist groups there?
Not really tourist groups. When media visits Tripoli they take them there. As you know, I was there for a beauty pageant. There were all these live-in government handlers with big fake-looking mustaches and shiny suits who were with us the whole time.

Did they let you roam around and explore?
Yeah, completely, which was weird. They never fixed anything, so you can walk through these bombed out buildings and look around. There's pictures of Gaddafi propped up against the wall and the whole thing is completely dirty and dusty.

Besides taking photos of weird monuments, you also wrote about the Libyan beauty pageants you've been to for this issue. Have any good stories you didn't get a chance to talk about in the article?
Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to work this into the article, but there was an American model agent there who looked exactly like Sacha Baron Cohen's character, Brüno. At the compound there are a lot of photos of Gaddafi wearing aviator sunglasses and staring off into the distance, and I remember this model agent kept screaming at some stone-faced Libyan official that he thought Gaddafi should launch his own eyewear company. He kept saying how absolutely fabulous it would be. I was laughing so hard I almost pissed myself.

Did the Libyan official respond at all?
No, he just stared at him until the guy got the message that his suggestions for Gaddafi's fashion line weren't going to be met with any kind of enthusiasm.

On your site you have a photo of an old man blowing an incredible amount of fire out of his wrinkly old mouth. Who is he and is that real?
Yeah, it's totally real. Danny Lynch is his name. He was an old circus performer called the Great Strong Stromboli. It's part of a series I did on aging rebels and mavericks. That photo was taken in front of his house in Manchester.

Is that his wife in the background? She seems pretty unconcerned about the whole thing.
Yeah, she was going into the house to make a cup of tea, literally. She was like, "Cup of tea darling?" I said yes, then all of a sudden he was blowing fire and she was dashing off to put the kettle on. With the dog and the station wagon in the photo too, it was a remarkably suburban backdrop.

Speaking of the juxtaposition of his wife going to make tea while he breaths fire, that sort of contrast seems to be a loose theme in some of your photos. Like the black guy with the swastika tattoo, the crazy tribesman hanging out in a snowy suburbia, and the naked bald man sitting on a bench next to a couple of squares.
I'm glad to hear you say that. You're right on the money there. I'm working on a project for a book and the idea is exactly that. Cultural contradictions. The tribesman that you mentioned was from a tribe in Papua New Guinea. They were visiting a family in the mountains in Wales.

You have a great series of photos from Istanbul. It looks like you partied with a lot of shemales and went to a lot of strip clubs, is that true?
Exactly, but I never banged any shemales, I just want to put that on record. I never got that drunk. That's part of the same type of project, I guess. Cultural contradictions. I had never heard of that side of Istanbul until I read about this place called the Sahara club somewhere. I ended up going over there to take photos even though I didn't really know much about it. I just hung out at the club for a bit until I got the film ripped out of my camera. After that I made friends with the son of a strip club owner, so I started taking pictures there.

Why did they rip the film out of your camera?
When I first got there I tried to get permission to take pictures, but no one would admit to any position of authority, so I just started shooting. Strangely, the guys who go to that club are not gay and they're not into transsexuals. They're just heterosexual guys who got really backed up from their fairly conservative society. "Any hole is the goal," as they say in Scotland. They are just looking for some kind of casual sexual encounter.

So I took a photo and someone must have seen the flash go off and thought that I'd taken a photo of him… maybe I did take a photo of him. But he didn't want to be seen in that place, I guess. So I was dragged out. I thought I was going to get beaten in some dark Turkish alley, but they just opened the camera, ripped the film out, and pushed me around for a bit. Then I made a hasty retreat.

Most of your photos have really vibrant colors and animated people who look like they're having a great time. While looking through your site I couldn't find one picture that I didn't want to be inside. Are your shoots a lot of fun? Why is everyone always so happy?
I don't know, I hope they are fun. There's a real change in photography right now, especially gallery photography, which I've done quite a bit of with a couple of galleries. Soft, moody pictures are the new trend. Whimsical, waifish young people staring off into the horizon while the sun sets behind them or something. I don't mean to denigrate that style completely, but I think it's too prevalent in the photography world right now. I personally like pictures that feel like a real moment when someone is having a good time. I think it's harder to shoot something like that than someone looking all deep and thoughtful and mournful. So yeah, I guess I try to get that kind of atmosphere in my pictures when I can.

You also shot our Riot Girls fashion shoot a few months back. Was it tough doing a fashion shoot in the middle of a riot?
Tougher than I thought it would be, actually. I thought if I saw something taking off in terms of violence that we'd be able to run over, take a quick picture, and get out. It felt a lot more edgy than I thought it would. The fact that we were kind of a big group—eight girls, three or four guys from the magazine, stylists, etc.—meant that we were a bit obvious. I said on the day of the shoot that I didn't want to risk the safety of the girls, which was true, but only partly true. I didn't want to get a fucking flaming torch stuck in my face or a brick thrown at my head either. My instinct for self-preservation definitely kicked in.

Did any of the protesters get pissed that you guys were having a fashion shoot there?
Not really. The thing with protests is that there's always shitloads of photographers. You can kind of get under the radar because of that. We were also trying not to look too fashion-y, obviously. We weren't doing a whole lot of air-kissing or anything like that. The only slightly scary part was when I was photographing a girl in Parliament Square and some guy starting shouting, calling me a pedo. He kept yelling that she was only 12 years old. I just kind of shrugged and ignored him, because I didn't want to attract any more attention. Afterward though I thought that I should have told him, "Well, at least I'm not fucking her. You can start complaining if I'm fucking her. I'm just taking her photos, man."

If you happen to be in London next month, Muir is in a group show called The Possessed on May 5th at the Charlie Smith gallery.

JONATHAN SMITH