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Vice Blog

AN INTERVIEW WITH CARLY RABALAIS

Carly Rabalais is the girl who shot the photo of that guitar that looks like someone perioded all over it for our Still Lifes issue. She's also a singer in a band called Golden Triangle, and she spends a lot of her time touring and documenting the stuff she sees in really good-looking pictures. She's got a quick trigger finger, and likes to take spontaneous photos of her friends and bandmates that sort of make you feel like you're being let in on an inside joke. She's today's featured photographer too, and we had a few words with her.

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Vice: Tell me about this photo of the guitar. What's the back-story? It looks like there's blood on it.
Carly Rabalais: Cameron bleeds every time he plays an instrument. He's probably bleeding somewhere as you read this. This was taken of his guitar after a show we played in Columbus, Ohio, while on tour. He did some extra bleeding that night.

You're one of the singer's of Golden Triangle, and you guys tend to tour a lot. Any favorite photo you've shot on tour?
Yes, touring provides good photo opportunities. One of my favorite photos was from one of our first tours. We played in Greenville, North Carolina where some locals put us up after the show. When we got to the house it was a little scary. The guys who lived there wanted to separate us girls from the guys in our band. We were given a room to sleep in that had multiple bare mattresses on the floor, all of which had suspicious stains. I don't know why but Vashti bruises really easily, so you can imagine her leg after numerous nights of banging her tambourine. The dirty mattresses made the perfect backdrop for her battered thigh.

Who's your favorite photographer?
It's hard to choose one photographer as my favorite. Of past generations, I'd have to say Nan Goldin. Current favorites are Todd Fisher and Veronica Ibarra.

How'd you get into photography?
I can't really remember how I got into photography. I just remember having a blue Fisher Price camera with 110 film when I was pretty young. I think I've had a camera ever since.

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To me your photos tend to have a similar richness and vividness in the color and exposure. How do you get it to look like that? What kind of camera and film do you use?
I started using a point and shoot camera because it was easy to take with me everywhere. With point and shoot you have less control, so to keep it interesting I started shooting slide film and cross-processing it. That makes the vivid colors. I use the Yashica T-4 camera, primarily.

What do you like taking pictures of?
I like spontaneous photos when no one see's it coming. I also like when it contains an element of weird.

carlyrab.blogspot.com

ELLIS JONES