Los Angeles: Earl Parker Has a Photo Show Tonight

Gather round, Los Angeles, there's actually something worthwhile happening inside your city limits tonight! In a few hours, there will be a one-night-only exhibition of Earl Parker's new photography. Earl Parker, if you're unaware, was one of the original writers and one-time editor of Big Brother, the most depraved and hilarious skateboard magazine that has ever been or will be. The show starts at 8 PM at the Burgundy Room Gallery. We'll give the floor to legendary skateboard graphic drawer and fellow Big Brother writer, Sean Cliver. Earl Parker is your quintessential enigma tucked into a mystery and rolled into a riddle—a real Quazar of a quandary. He came out of the Midwest in the early 90s, a young zine maker by trade, to the city of Los Angeles. This is where Earl lived, thrived, and survived throughout the early days of Big Brother skateboard magazine, where he first found employ as a writer. His articles became the stuff of legend—and often controversy—but his eyes were more and more often found behind the lens of a camera. Street photography became his true passion. Light meter readings his daily tic. Earl would disappear without a trace only to return days or weeks later with rolls and rolls of 35mm film documenting his journeys throughout LA and beyond. The photos were weird, wonderful, and real. Then came the Dark Days. A period of time marked by an absence of a trusty camera by his side—a time that just so happened to coincide with the mass exodus from film to digital mediums. But in 2008, through the help of a few friends, a camera found its way back into Earl's hands. It was a rebirth. A reawakening of his nimble eye to a city now decades older. The results of which now comprise his first ever photo exhibition.