Gorilla Vs. Bear and Polaroids have gone hand-in-hand since the early days of the blog, so it only seemed appropriate to snap a few instant film shots at the festival on Friday night. Sadly, I didn't plan ahead, and all I had was a few shots of some expired film loaded in one of my 600 series Polaroid cameras. Luckily, local photographer and designer Garrett Harlan was thinking along the same lines, and he grabbed a few shots on the Impossible Project's new Color Protection film.
We both took a few shots of the fans (I caught one group posing for an iPhone photo), and we both snapped a shot of Sober, who after playing a great set with PICNICTYME under the Booty Fade moniker, DJ'd between acts for the rest of the evening.
But my goal for the night was to get a good pic of Danny Brown. I've shot him on instant film before, but only from the audience, so I hoped to get a good off-stage, behind-the-scenes shot of Danny being Danny. So, just before his set, I wandered around the back of the venue to see if maybe, just maybe, I could catch him grabbing a smoke before he went on stage. And, sure enough, the second I turned the corner of the building, I saw him taking a long drag off what looked like a cigarillo.
After introducing myself, and telling him that I had caught several of his Dallas shows but never got a Polaroid I was truly happy with, he struck a pose. The Danny Brown pose. He asked if I was "good," which I took to mean "Did you get the shot?" And I told him it would take a while to develop, but I thought so. He indicated that it was OK to snap another, so I raised the camera, he stopped puffing away and posed again.
And later, during Danny Brown's set, I caught Lorely Rodriguez (above right), of Empress Of, upstairs dancing near the bar.
More Polaroids, including the rest of Garrett's, are on the next page.
