all words: Jeff Jetton
all photos: Shaun Harris
When he's not shooting Katy Perry's wedding in India or Lady Gaga's coming out show for Polaroid, you just might find him snapping photos at the Adult Entertainment Expo for BYT. He's The Cobrasnake, and we caught up with him at the Grand Lux Cafe, his favorite restaurant, for some pizza, some pills, and some personal time. If you don't know much about Mark, he's basically the guy who invented nightlife photography. His L.A. blog, The Cobrasnake, has become an iconic brand, and paved the way for thousands of others such as Last Night's Party and Dakota Fine.
BYT: Let's get straight to it, Mark. Tell me about the pills...
The Cobra Snake: I have some powerful vitamins and meal supplements that I have been taking lately. Oprah has been talking about the Acai berry lately so I have some of that and "One A Day Men’s" and green tea fat burner pills which are awesome because they give you energy and they help you metabolize things better.
BYT: So how long has this health thing been going on?
The Cobra Snake: I am from California, so I have been on this health kick -- the vitamins are about two months but I have been doing a lot of hiking and drinking a lot of alkaline water, and getting in touch with my spiritual side lately.
BYT: These are not the revelations of the nightlife photographer that I had pictured. I imagined these being uppers and Vicodin.
The Cobra Snake: And Viagra. The thing is, I’ve been in the game for a minute, so its hard to function on drugs and alcohol and stuff like that. I am really passionate about the things I do and sometimes I do drink and then my photos don’t come out as good and my emails don’t get responses’ as fast.
BYT: So you are a big fan of the Grand Lux Café it seems.
The Cobra Snake: Yes, I take my family here in Los Angeles, and you are my family here, so yeah.
BYT: It’s like a high-end version of The Olive Garden.
The Cobra Snake: When you’re here you're family!
BYT: Yes and unlimited soups, salads and breadsticks!
The Cobra Snake: And kids eat free.
BYT: So how long have you been doing this? From what I hear you pretty much invented party photography.
The Cobra Snake: I started this in 2003. I'll give you a brief story, in 2003 I started a website called “Polaroid Scene," and a year into that it was getting a lot of traction. Then I got a cease and desist email from Polaroid saying "Yo, you can't use our name." Flash forward years later, I am actually here in Vegas working for Polaroid. They have just done some great collaborations with Lady Gaga, and I am happy to be in bed with them a little.
BYT: Did you shoot Lady Gaga?
The Cobra Snake: Yes, at the Consumer Electronics Show they did an announcement about the products they were releasing and I took some photos.
BYT: I saw that on the news the other day... You’ve shot a bunch of celebrities, who is your favorite person that you’ve shot?
The Cobra Snake: That is so hard... probably Carl Lagerfeld because he is so stylized.
BYT: So explain to our readers what exactly you do and what your website is about. We are from D.C., so our readers might not be as familiar with your website.
The Cobra Snake: That is completely fine, I don’t expect anyone to be familiar with my website. Basically since I was a young kid I was very passionate about photography, and I also love marketing and creative expeditions. I got all these awards for photography when I was in high school but I was taking pictures of buildings, and all that other boring art school shit. I was thinking "no one is going to remember this," so I started taking pictures of, and working for Shepard Fairey, who helped get Obama elected.
The Cobra Snake: So through him I was introduced to this interesting underground scene and art shows and concerts and punk rock parties in warehouses, and I was like "this stuff is so cool, I am going to start taking pictures of this" and at the time it was very rare to have a digital camera and even more rare to be taking pictures of random people (not just your friends), and so people became very interested in what I was doing. Or if they forgot their digital camera and wanted photos of last night or if they band was really good and they wanted to see the photos that I shot... So in a very organically growing and manifesting way, that pop culture was sort of surrounding itself into... so now here we are seven years later and it is still going strong.
BYT: Have you noticed any backlash against party photography? I mean, I know at least in D.C., there is a nightclub that doesn’t allow any photography -- now maybe this is just a D.C. thing -- but have you noticed any backlash with all of this "going out to get your pictures taken" kind of attitude?
The Cobra Snake: Yeah, definitely as soon as something becomes popular it's no longer 'cool', but to me … something like photography is just so timeless that it shouldn’t get that way. Photography has been around for what, hundreds of years, or something (I probably should know how long its been around for.)
BYT: A hundred and fifty years or something like that.
The Cobra Snake: You know there is something to say for documenting what is going on, it is capturing a moment in history and it is just about a balance. Like are you going out to get your picture taken, or are you waiting around for someone to take your photo, or are you actually going out to have a good time and are you actually having fun while you are out? It's just a real sort of compromise and I think it is always good to capture the moment because we aren’t always going to look this good, we are going to get fatter we are going to start losing our hair. Things are going to change, it will be good to look back on these times.
BYT: Absolutely, so the scope of your public photography is all parties, and bands and the nightlife area. Do you branch out and, well obviously are doing a corporate event now, but do you shoot weddings or photos shoots or set up anything like that?
The Cobra Snake: Yeah I was actually just in India, shooting Katy Perry’s wedding, and I did that just for her, I didn’t post it anywhere or anything.
BYT: Her wedding to Russell Brand?
The Cobra Snake: Yeah, and I've been friends with her for a long time. I’ve shot everything from NASCAR rallies to Hawaiian Tropic Bikini conventions, to dog competitions. All in a documentary format-style, and a lot of times I'll get asked to do something for a magazine and it will be a fashion editorial or it will be a corporate company to do an ad campaign. It is kind of awesome because companies like T-Mobile or Sony will let me do all the casting, and I will have all of my friends being used in it doing the coolest stuff. So I get to do a Robin Hood kind of thing to all the kids who have been too busy partying to pay their rent.
(Steve Aoki calls The Cobra Snake)
BYT: Damn Steve Aoki interrupting my interviews!
The Cobra Snake: I’m sorry.
BYT: Where did you grow up?
The Cobra Snake: Los Angeles, mostly Santa Monica.
BYT: Have you lived anywhere else?
The Cobra Snake: I had an apartment in New York, but I would go their like once a week out of the entire month, I went to Australia for a month and I felt like I was living there.
BYT: Oh wow, so what is next? What do you see yourself doing five years from now?
The Cobra Snake: I mean, last year was pretty cool. We opened a store at Hollywood and Highland Mall; it's pop up so it’s closing in a couple weeks. So that was pretty neat, I am grateful for all of these interesting opportunities and that all of these people want to get involved so I am completely open to new ideas
BYT: Do you ever see yourself putting together a coffee table kind of book or anything like that?
The Cobra Snake: Yeah, I am meeting with some book agents next week actually. I have been real lazy about doing something like that.
BYT: So, by doing that would you have to get permission from all of the people you’ve photographed?
The Cobra Snake: Honestly, I am not a lawyer so I have no idea but I feel like there is some sort of easy way to figure all of that out.
BYT: So when you take photos for somebody like Polaroid who owns the photos?
The Cobra Snake: I think they have usage rights so they can use the photos for whatever a year or something but I still have the copyright.
BYT: So who are some of the photographers you look up to and who are some of the photographers that influence you? Your idols or mentors or whatever you would want to call them. Role models.
The Cobra Snake: Definitely the epic nightlife photographer Patrick McMullan who photographed Studio 54 back in the day and he is still kicking and snapping away -- he’s cool. I mean everyone loves Terry Richardson for his badass style and whatever. I like Laurie Richardson who photographs youth culture and stuff of that nature. I really like The Selby…
BYT: What about Richard Kern?
The Cobra Snake: Kern is okay.
BYT: Talk some shit!
The Cobra Snake: Nah, I am not really a huge fan of naked photos.
BYT: Why?
The Cobra Snake: I don’t know, I don’t really take that many and I don’t really look at that many.
BYT: Nothing left to the imagination?
The Cobra Snake: Yeah, pretty much.
BYT: Alright, which metal bands are the biggest pussies?
The Cobra Snake: I mean... I have a lot of respect for any band. It is hard to tour and sometimes you play in front of like 5 kids and you sometimes don’t sell merchandise and your on the road and its cold, so yeah -- I respect all musicians. It’s hard, it’s a tough business
BYT: Have you ever played music?
The Cobra Snake: I used to play the bass but I kind of sucked so I quit.
BYT: Well I think you found your calling with the nightlife photography.
The Cobra Snake: Well, yeah I am pretty happy with it. I like it and it lets me be creative.
BYT: All right well this is Mark, The Cobra Snake and we are signing out!
The Cobra Snake: Adios Amigos.
You can follow the Cobrasnake on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/thecobrasnake
Previously in BYT interviews:
- 5/18: INTERVIEW: Jasmine Solano
- 5/18: Interview: Richard Linklater
- 5/17: Interview: Penguin Prison
- 5/16: Interview: Brian Regan
- 5/15: Richard Davies (Cardinal) Interviewed by Archie Moore
- 5/11: Interview: Horse Feathers' Justin Ringle
- 5/10: Reflections on a Conversation with Mickey Avalon
- 5/9: Inside the STYLELINER
- 5/8: The Politics of Mastodon
- 5/4: Preview: Mucca Pazza @ The Kennedy Center's "Look Both Ways" Festival
God loves a cheerful giver.
Pro tip: you can get combo green tea and acai berry vitamins at CVS. I buy in bulk.
Village Green Apothecary in bethesda is awesome too. And walking there is probably faster than waiting in line at our friendly Shaw CVS.
fuck this dude.
Does that stuff really work?
I visited his store in Hollywood & it was a cool concept/space. I think I mentioned to Svet that BYT could do something similar here.
Seriously, FUCK THIS GUY. Two questions in, he had me wanting to throw my monitor out the sixth floor window of my office. He takes vitamins because Oprah talked about them and is hiking a lot lately. Everything about this fucking douche is annoying schtick. There must be a god, because he's going bald. FUCK YOU, DICKHEAD.
Wow on the balding comment. God must have a lot of time on his hands, because he's not the only balding person out there.
Party photographers; meh.
Yeah, you must have a lot of time on your hands to hate a party photographer. Should have just tossed the monitor & saved bandwidth.
Fuck this guy for hiking. I hate hikers. You hiking piece of shit. Stay off my trail or you'll get whacked, knowwhatimean?
I was home sick when this episode came on http://www.oprah.com/health/Everybody-Poops
note the comment about the diver from Acapulco.
God is good and God is fair. Some men he gives brains, the others he gives hair.
way better than green tea or acai is Hempseed!! Photogs gotta stay healthy!
Gee whiz, his beard actually connects to his chest hair. Or is it that his chest hair grew into a beard? Either way, I just want to give him a little waxing strip removal line of distinction.
Why do you think I have a lot of time on my hands because I hate this stupid douchebag? Is that really all that time consuming? No. I see him on the Internet, and it irritates me. I wasted all of 5-10 minutes reading the stupid interview here and looking at his goofy pictures, then I posted a comment. Now I'm posting this comment. I still have time to go about my life, numbnuts.
Hey, "onbaldies," with respect to your comment, there must be a god, because he gave this motherfucker neither brains nor hair.
168223 @hot karl: I still don't understand what's so irritating? His vitamins or his male pattern baldness? You're not making a great case, Karl.
Everything about him is irritating. Just look at him, with his goofy irony clothes and what's left of his hair looking like Stephen Wright's hair. Everything about him is schtick. Even if it isn't, one assumes it is because he is obviously trying so hard. Which is why when he mentions he's taking vitamins and drinking alkaline water and watching Oprah, it seems like another cute irony hipster stunt. A normal person taking vitamins, watching Oprah, drinking alkaline water (whatever the fuck that is), hiking, etc., is unremarkable. This dude talking about the above while posing for pictures (at a shitty Olive Garden style restaurant which he picked out--more irony! He eats at shitty chain restaurants even though he is mega hip and cool!) with his wacky hair and beard and Perfect Strangers t-shirt and Alf fanny pack just comes off as totally contrived. With people like this, you just assume every single aspect of their lives that they put out in public is part of an act.
I mean, in one picture the dude is wearing a fucking Home Alone 3 knit hat and acid washed jeans. Yeah, we get it, you like awful movies because it's, like, totally funny and different to do that. Fuck you.
i heard that he wears that home alone 3 knit hat because he was an extra in that movie and thats kinda cool
I'll bet you fuckers don't care but I'll tell you anyways, I sunk a year of my life into writing and producing that movie. My blood, sweat, tears and even a few other bodily fluids went into that film. And you can throw your rotten tomatoes and even some golden rasberries at a portion of my life's work, but I don't care because:
a) I'm dead
and
b) It pulled in $79,000,000 at the box office.
Are your kids going to private school? I don't think so. They'll probably end up products of this country's fucked up public school system, working minimum wage jobs, whilst my children will probably follow in my footsteps like Sean Lennon and Jason Reitman followed their fathers'. So seriously, kiss my dead ass.
Especially you, Hot Karl. You wouldn't know irony if Henry Winkler strangled the last breath from your pathetic lungs with a leather jacket. You're probably the biggest hipster of the bunch. I hope you die of emphysema from the Parliaments that you smoke, chump.
John Hughes' ghost is correct: I am a self-loathing hipster. I wear t-shirts with Balki from Perfect Strangers doing the "happy dance" with Cousin Larry and pants I have to squeeze on with a shoehorn. And a pair of my grandfather's old dress shoes. I rep Jean Claude Van Damme movies and smoke parliaments. And drink High Life exclusively. As long as people are around to see.
Your sarcastic, hate-filled retort only further proves my point. Irony is the hipster's sword, Karl, and you seem to be a samurai. It's ok, though, nobody is faulting you for making daily comments on brightestyoungthings.com, it's what hipsters do. Alright, I'm going back to my grave now to make revisions to the script for Seventeen Candles.
It's ironic to rep my movies? Didn't you see JCVD?
Nothing ironic about that.
I love how dated Hot Karl always is with his hipster bashing, it's cute.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/12/the-evolution-of-the-hipster-2000-2009.html?p=3
Didn't he get the memo? Hipsters are no more. Indie is mainstream. So I totally want to hang out with his sarcastic hipster parody guy tho, where can I find that dude? Keepin' the dream alive brotha!
http://nymag.com/news/features/69129/
U mad? Worrying about whether making fun of annoying turds is "dated" and going off and finding links to post in response to something I said about the ultimate hipster tool is a pretty good sign that you are a hipster yourself. Why would you get all defensive otherwise? How does "indie being mainstream" somehow make it okay to wear a New Kids on the Block t-shirt and go to TGI Friday's and order blue alcoholic drinks and take pictures of it for your blog because it's cute and funny to go to shitty chain restaurants and laugh at all the "normal Americans" sitting there eating a shitty meal? And countless other affected contrived activities, like, I dunno, riding around on the Metro in your underwear and dressing up like it's the 1920s with a bunch of other fucking idiots and riding a unicycle around town? The shit is still stupid and annoying, no matter how many people in the "mainstream" do it.
You want to hang out with my "sarcastic hipster parody guy"? You are him. How's that $50 Stryper shirt treating you, you Brigitte Nielsen in Rocky IV lookalike?
Hot Karl FTW. PWNED. John Hughes hates him some tweed riders.
Oh Karl, I was just teasin' to get you riled up. It's just that you parrot all these anti-hipster sentiments from 6 years ago that nobody really does anymore, so you come off as silly. You're all angry over stuff that's just not happening. I'm sure youth culture is out there doing new stuff that you can get angry over and your points might hold a little more validity.
Real talk tho: For the record I've never once suggested I wasn't a hipster. I like hipsters. I'm thrilled you think I'm one. That's always been my argument with you but you've always ignored it. I think it's ok to wear NKOTB shirts (I have one). I think it's ok to make fun of normal Americans (since we're better than them). I have a unicycle (then again I used to be a professional juggler so I guess that's not really contrived). I have a fucking $350 hot pink pogo stick. Even though I genuinely have fun bouncing on it (it can get like 8 ft high) and do it when nobody's watching, I'm totally ok with using it as a contrived activity done only when people are watching as well. I like irony. I'm proud to be a hipster and my life is awesome. But dude, I have good taste and think for myself and like a lot of quality stuff un-ironically, and I bet some of it (maybe even a lot) overlaps with what you like. There are shitty people who are sheep in every social group, hipsters are no different, so why freak out?
Real talk 2: But actually I'm not sure I'm a hipster anymore, I don't think you can be a hipster when you're over 30. As for the Stryper shirt, since turning 30 I've retired a lot of the hipster fashion. Not because I don't like it or don't think it's cool anymore, just, when you're old you gotta phase out the tees man.
The realest talk: But I would never fucking eat at TGIFridays, that shit is nasty, what the hell are you talking about?
I just watched Rocky IV last month actually, you are right, I used to look like her. That's pretty funny. My hair is all long and brown now tho. (remember, I got old)
Wait, but what am I talking about - there is only one person you should be mad at: girls who fuck hipsters
Hipsters wouldn't do that stuff you listed if they weren't getting laid. Your strange anger is misplaced my frienemy.
Jean Claude Van Damme was definitely a hipster...
I expect to see pics of someone with that outfit/hair in photos of the next BYT party.