PAT MOORE'S GANG PICS

Toronto is overpopulated with bloated amateur "photographers" these days. Thankfully, the heyday of dance party photography is slowly dying off, and amidst all the regurgitated lo-fi stuff there are a few guys who shoot film and don't give a shit if it's pretty or not. I caught up with Patrick Moore, a Toronto photographer who shoots hot chicks and befriends LA prison gangs, despite being a regular-ass kid who just really likes his Horchata. If you like his pics, go see his show in Toronto tomorrow.

Vice: Film is a slow process and it's not very cost effective, so why do it?
Pat: I think a lot of people relate to the nostalgic quality of these kinds of photos. I spend time in the frame, I don't shoot shoot shoot and look at it later. I feel like a lot of digital photographers do that, they'll set everything up the way they want it--set it up on rapid fire and say, "OK, next." Whereas all the stuff I did in LA, I really only had a chance to shoot maybe three or four pictures of the person before they were like "OK, OK enough." They aren't people who get their pictures taken a lot. I wouldn't shoot magazine covers like, I don't know, Matt Barnes. But Matt Barnes gets paid to shoot for fucking Nike and big bands and stuff. That's not really the kind of thing that I'm into--doctored photographs. I just want my photos to tell a story.

So when did Gemini Magazine start?
I put out the first issue last year. It's just a cool way for someone to hold on to your photos rather than seeing them online and forgetting the link right afterward. I used to collect them, like hardcore kids with their zines growing up. I think photo zines are kind of a trend, but I still think they're good. I have a friend in Montreal who prints mine for me, I saw what he was doing and I learned from him. So I thought, lets do a bunch of pictures of girls for "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS," and the next issue is going to be all my photos from LA. The other times I just took photos that I liked with columns like "Love the Music, Hate the Kids," or "Drugs Money Sex and Violence."

You glamorize drugs, but aren't you straight edge?
Yeah, I have a lot of friends who smoke weed and do all kinds of drugs. I have friends who own guns. There's a picture in the second issue of a guy with a crazy scar on his stomach holding a knife, it's a pretty cool photo to look at. Oh, and I did "Hoods in America" where I started to get into that world, but it's a really long process, to get in with those kinds of people. I've shot people in Scarborough who are kind of hood, and just random people that I've met--like this guy from North Carolina who I met from the first issue who just got out of jail. And now in LA I'm shooting more gang members, more street members.

So how did you get in with these gangs?
Oh, just mutual friends.

Come on. Just tell me!
OK, my friend Hambone introduced me to his friend Roc who lives in Anaheim. It's kind of a long story--Roc is a part of Set Free Soldiers, which is a motorcycle club, so that's initially what I went there to photograph, that kind of culture. But they also run an alternative church like Set Free Ministry that his dad started in the 80s. Their pastor is a Mexican and a former convict with a tattooed face. So the kind of people who go there are different. He looks into helping people--a regular church wouldn't take in someone with face tattoos, or who just got out of jail or who has a drug problem. So it's an alternative church that kind of caters to that. They'll accept a lot more than your typical right wing church would, a lot of ex-cons, people who've gotten out of rehab. He knows everyone, so I can ask people if I can take a photo of them.

And you're in there because of Roc.
Yeah, it's all about trust. I wouldn't be in with Roc if he didn't trust my friend Hambone.

Are these guys still in gangs?
Some of them are inactive members who used to be in gangs. If some of them were in jail, it kind of goes by race--like if you're white, you're in the Arian Brotherhood, if you're Mexican, it's the Mexican Mafia. All of the street gangs are out of the picture, it gets into bigger gangs, like prison gangs. I have a picture of a guy who was in the Arian Brotherhood until recently, he's almost 40 now and he's spent almost half his life in jail.

What did he do?
I didn't ask that. You don't meet someone for the first time and ask, "So, what'd you go to jail for?" The fact that I even got that close to a guy with a tattoo of a swastika the size of a fist on his head is enough. It's enough that he'll let me take that photo.

Anything fucked up ever happen?
I went to a house party once to shoot active gang members. Roc and his friends grew up on the street in LA we were going to, so they had a bunch of friends there, but they hadn't been back in a while. When we pulled up we had a gun pulled on us because they thought we were gonna do a drive by, but we were just coasting, trying to find the spot, and the guy came up to the passenger side and put a muzzle on Roc's face. Once he saw him, once he had the gun up in his face he recognized him.

OK, so in gang-etiquette, do you apologize to your bro? Like, "Gee, sorry for almost blowing your face off"?
No, they don't really apologize. He was just like, "You're so lucky right now, I almost shot you." It's just the way life is down there. You're driving around slowly in a car that no one knows, and you're in this neighborhood where no one knows you, it's sort of like "What the fuck are you doing here? You shouldn't be here." Also, they were Mexicans, like a Latino street gang.

Did they say anything about you being there?
Obviously I'm with their good friends, but there were definitely guys in there who didn't want me being there. They didn't want to shake my hand--I could tell from the vibe that they just didn't want to know me.

So they were all Mexican?
Yeah, there was one black guy in there, which was ridiculous because as far as gangs go, Mexicans and black people hate each other. In prison it's more about Mexicans and blacks fighting each other. If you look up Mexican vs. blacks on Youtube, you'll find all these prison riots. But in that one gang that I shot, they did have a black member. He's lived on that street since he was 13--he's got the street name tattooed on his temple and his throat, so it's fine. It is weird though, you have to be super down to have a black guy or a white guy in your gang.

You must have been stoked to be accepted.
Well I wasn't accepted into the gang. They were cool with me taking photos and stuff. They don't know that I'm just a regular-ass kid. They see that I'm not a hired person to take photos; they see that I'm with my friends and I just want to take photos

What is it about LA that you're so into?
It's so far removed from home. LA is so different. I'm into Latino culture--the food, the language--I want to learn how to speak it because I feel like I'd get more respect if I could have a conversation with them. It's the only place like that in the world. I think Toronto is trying to be New York. New York is trying to be London or Paris. LA isn't trying to be anything else. Oh, and I love Horchata--I finally found Horchata in Toronto at Mexi Taco. It's pretty good, but not as good.

You shoot a lot of girls with giant tits.
It was that one girl. We're not going to talk about Elyda though, I don't want to glamorize Elyda.

How do you get the girls to agree to some of those shots?
I don't know, I shoot my friends, so it's usually people that I know a bit. In the "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS" thing, there were tons of different kinds of girls: big, really skinny, tattoos, no tattoos, super hipster, vintage clothing, heshers. You know what I mean? All different kinds of girls. I think that's the strong thing about it, I didn't shoot the same type of girl over and over again. Not everyone likes the same shit.

So you've got your first photo show coming up.
It's going to be all my LA stuff. I think it'll appeal to a wider range of people than those who just go to my site.

Will there be snacks?
Yeah, we're having Baby Cakes flown in from LA… no.

What is on your Photo Show playlist?
West coast stuff--maybe I'll play some Mexican hip-hop like Delinquent Habits, Psycho Realms, Cypress Hill. The photos are going to be all black and white. Everything's shot on film.

Think you'll be a Mexican gangster in your next life?
That's a funny thing I talked about with my friend Scott recently. We were talking about Morrissey--the one thing he wishes he could change in his life: he wanted to be born Mexican.

Mexicans really love Morrissey.
Mexicans fucking go nuts over the Smiths and Morrissey--it's the weirdest thing. I met so many people down there who love Morrissey, because he'll do week long runs in California and Mexico. He's a fucking legend to them.

NADA ALIC