Gestern sind wir über das Cover des neuen CRUNCH Magazins auf sehr schöne Aufnahmen von RICK INDEO gestoßen und ein VICE Interview von Patrick McGuire mit dem Fotografen aus Australien. In dem er von seiner Serie mit Fotos aus bspw Indien erzählt, oder seinem 3monatigen Aufenthalt in einem japanischen Gefängnis plus einiges mehr.
This photo series is basically a travelogue of international danger of vandalism. How did you get started on this?
The work basically started in India. Some people came through while I was living in Mumbai, and I documented them painting the metro systems in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Calcutta. The missions were pretty hectic. Obviously as three white kids, we stood out. People were just curious as shit there. We would be planning to climb a light post to get over a wall, and a crowd would form around us. We would just stand there and wait for them to get bored and leave, but they wouldn’t. That was pretty frustrating. Sometimes we would be scoping out a train yard and people from the area would try to pull the authority card on us, and tell us to leave… I’d have to make something up, like I was a National Geographic photographer and had permission from the governor of blah blah blah. Young people would know National Geographic and nod their heads and basically confirm my story. We would be left alone after that. In India, people are scared to fuck with a connected dude. Anyway, once we were finally near the train yards, a lot of them had rifle towers and super crazy walls or fences. It was like breaking into a high security prison. They have a serious problem with terrorism in India, and no history of graffiti at all, so if we were spotted breaking into the yard we would most likely be shot. It’s a crazy feeling knowing that a bullet could tear through your head at any moment, but that’s how the whole trip started. It was really fun, and I saw a story developing that I wanted to pursue.
Where does your time in Japan fit into this? Can you talk about that?
You’re referring to my time in a Japanese jail, right? That had nothing to do with a metro mission actually. I was just with a subject on the street and he was drunk and did a tag in a shitty place. We got chased and got away but I was living in Japan, so they eventually tracked me down. I was held in a police holding cell for three months while they tried to get me to rat on the guy. I basically told them to get fucked and in the end they charged me for the crime. Because they knew I took photos of graffiti, they felt I was promoting it and therefore was somehow guilty of it myself. They couldn’t understand how a photographer could be interested in this, and that I was just following people to document it. They have a scary legal system over there.
read the complete interview here at VICE.com
