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Vice Blog

A CHAT WITH PETER SUTHERLAND (AND MAGGIE LEE)

For today's mouth-off we had

Maggie Lee

, a tiny Asian lady, interview fellow photographer

Peter Sutherland

, a towering, bearded sasquatch. Right? Wasn't that clever of us? Anyways, they are both excelsior photo takers so it's kind of unfair that we're only including pictures by Peter but it is technically an interview

of

him, so there you go. Maggie'll have her day soon. Also captioning photos in Wordpress is a pain in the ass. Before we get going, here's what Maggie had to say about Peter:

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I don't want to sound like I'm fanning out but Peter Sutherland is so real and genuine. On one of my first experiences hanging ten with Peter, we swapped half our sandwiches and talked about everything from boys to Richard Prince to Final Cut to thirst-quenching lemonade to 411 skateboarding to rare books. He's a powerhouse of knowledge and a well-oiled machine of machinery. When it comes to the documentary image, publishing, collage work, video, and photo, you can tell he's a legit dude because he brings out the seriousness in quirk, and vice versa. One time Peter told me that five pimples formed simultaneously on his face because he was so stressed out. Anyways, alas, huzzah, read on for an interview with this fire starter.

Maggie: Peter, so you travel a lot and have left town twice in the past two months. Where have you been?? Peter Sutherland:

Foggy travels. Denmark, Japan, China, Nepal, and then Detroit.

That's a lot of different places in two months. What did you eat and what was the worst snack?

I aways try to eat healthy, fruits and vegs, fresh stuff, smoothies, etc. The worst thing I ate was in China. I took a bite of a greasy-as-fuck omelet with a pile of oysters cooked in the middle and I literally went back to being vegetarian.

I've read China has the gnarliest food and will try to cook almost anything thats living.

They like to fry stuff in China. I was lucky to be with really cool people in each place so I had fun and learned a lot. I did a week-long backpacking trip in Nepal with a Sherpa guy that lives there. It was cool to dip into that world. I travelled by bus for 9 hours over some sketchy mountain roads, the bus was filled and there were 20 people on top.

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Your eyeballs must be over stimulated from looking at everything. What were some awful and strange happenings?

I went to a Hindu Cremation place. There is a shot of a body under a sheet awaiting cremation in there. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I went to Nepal to do a photo workshop that

an artist friend of mine

set up. There are tons of problems in Kathmandu: lots of homeless folks, kids sniffing glue, etc. So we taught a photo art class at a home for street kids outside of Kathmandu. The kids were super open to everything--I showed them a bunch of slides of photos I like, we watched a snowboard video with them and basically had a good time for four days. Everyone cried at the end.

That's pretty heavy. It's great you had a chance to work with them and they felt that same connection

Heavy times, Maggie. I like the idea of doing something positive with art, you never know what the outcome will be or how it will affect people.

What are you doing now?

Burning myself with a cigarette lighter.

Punk. OK, let's rewind. I understand you are like a social butterfly and everything now, but tell me about your most awkward stage in life.

I remember being seven and sitting in a giant hollowed-out tractor tire on the playground at school and thinking I had it made and that I was pretty cool. Then this other kid came up and asked me if I was a boy or a girl. That moment definitely lacked awesomeness.

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HAHA, did you have long hair then?

No, I didn't have a "hair style" until I was 12, when I got the Tony Hawk cut: bangs off to one side + constant flicking out of eyes.

Ooh, classic! OK, let's fast-forward back to now. it says through Facebook that you have 1,290 friends, which is a lot of people to know. How did this happen? I mean, I know it's from being an artist and just having originality and stuff, but like what was your first big break through work when you first came to NYC?

Those are all close buddies for sure. The first project I did was a doc about bike messengers called

PEDAL

. I shot it over the course or a year with a ex-gf of mine.

Oh yeah! I remember that scene where time freezes and the girl's helmet flies off when she is hit. That was so nerve-racking.

Yeah, I got lucky and got some good footage, including that girl getting smacked. For a year nothing happened with the film and I thought it was going to sit on the shelf, then it got accepted into some cool film festivals and was acquired by the Sundance channel. So after that I gained some perspective on how much work it was to get a project off the ground and wanted to do other stuff. Then next thing was a photo book and then more stuff from there.

You are kind of like a melting pot of rap (you like Wu-Tang and 2pac a lot), metal (Iron Maiden blanket), and hippie (long hair, camping, like to make things, vegetables, etc). A lot of people connect to your photos and there's kind of a trend of young artists riffing off of or getting inspired by your art. Do you see or feel that? Also, do you get any cool e-mail?

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This is an email re:

smoke bath

I came across SMOKE BATH and I really love the idea…I want in. I think the organization is great and very much NEEDED. I grew up around lakes and trees in MN and after living in NYC for the past five years It breaks my heart to meet kids that don't know what the forest smells, feels, and looks like let alone the proper S'mores technique or what "shit kickers" are… I'm currently in Alaska for the summer where I've been taking some pretty rad pictures. I think they could inspire them to see what nature has to offer and what to look forward to if they decide to explore in the future. I'm traveling now but will definitely contact Fresh Air when I get back to the city. Let me know how I can help/get involved. Thanks for starting something really beautiful-

Wow, awesome. Getting emails from strangers is like reciprocated inspiration.

That was cool. I like how instant everything is getting, that art can now be a big free-flowing conversation between a bunch of people from everywhere. As far as rap/metal/organic stuff, I think I'm really only good at working with what is already there. Tupac, Slayer, all that stuff is already in place and I just weave it in there.

Like a huge braid.

Yeah. I read this book by the RZA, and I got really into it especially this part: "For instance, they say Martin Luther King Jr. was a fornicator. Does it matter? Do you believe in the messenger or his message? I believe in the message. That's why when I read certain books or see certain films, I skip over the names: Forget who said it if it's truth." – The

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Tao of Wu

, pg 32-33 He is just talking about looking at things in a very open way and taking them for their core meaning. It seems like a cool way to live and I think it relates to art making and photography because we are always busting out so many images that at a point they just seem to become symbols for ideas right? It's exciting to see what other people see and what they create and see that curiosity coming out all the time.

That's a good philosophy.

It's fire.

Sooooooo, what is going on in this photo where this girl is balancing a pizza pan on her head and she is drinking a soda in a glass?

The shot of the dready girl with pan on her head was taken in Colorado Springs. The guy looks like F. Durst because that era is still alive there. It's sort of like Cypress Hill came out and time just froze. It's a real chops-and-goatee sort of town. I love it. My thinking behind that shot and others like it is that I have been enjoying photos/videos/ art that is more or less a waste of time. I like imagery that doesn't document anything, mean anything, or do anything more than just give you a feeling, usually a laugh. Know what I mean? You have work like that, it's killer.

She is the center of weird attention. How long have you been growing your beard and when are you going to cut it?

It's been over 6 years. It doesn't really grow any longer at this point. When it first started to get some length I was walking through that park at Chrystie street in Chinatown. There was a super scraggly homeless guy with sunglasses and a long matted-up grey beard sitting on a bench. He looked over at me and gave me a nod. Since that moment i have never thought of cutting it.

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I like that! that's kinda similar with Clayton Patterson's story… once he grew his beard out, it was easier for him to take photos and he acquired more respect from bandits.

Clayton has a massive beard, and he does resemble an outlaw. I saw him yesterday walking around with an even more outlaw-looking dude. I feel the same--people look at me and they know I'm not a 5-0 or something. My dad had a pretty long beard as long as I knew him. I like to carry on the Sutherland beard legacy.

Is that dog in the blue van (blame it on the dog cover) your dog?

That is not my dog, but I love that dog, he had this look on his face that said "Get in the van, I got this." I love that photo because in the reflection you can see that it was taken in a 7-Eleven parking lot. Sev parking lots are classic spots for endless situations.

If you like Peter as much as we do you will probably want to go to tinker-street.com and atmgallery and petersutherland.tumblr.com. Or what are we saying. You're probably there right now.