Through the Distorted Lens of Dr. Feelgood

So Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue fancies himself a photographer, huh?  What are his subjects – Girls, Girls, Girls? 

It’s almost too easy to dismiss Sixx’s photographic aspirations as delusional and only worthy of being appreciated by ‘80s burn-out Motley Crue fans.  That is, until you actually see the photographs. 

Lonely Boy.  India

Put aside your preconceived notions and whatever you read in The Dirt, and pick up Sixx’s book This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx.  If it helps, pretend you’re viewing a collection of photography taken by some random guy named Frank Feranna (Sixx’s real name).  What you will see are very stylized, at times almost gothic, and often heartbreakingly poignant photographs of the so-called “uglier” side of life – junkies, carnival performers, individuals with handicaps, homeless people, decrepit buildings, etc.  Yet through Sixx’s eyes, the ugly and downtrodden and decaying are compellingly haunting and uncomfortably beautiful.  You often want to look away, yet you can’t help but stare.





Blue Forest.  Tokyo, Japan



Mother's love. Homeless, Denver

Highgate Park.  London

Recently, Sixx began posting his photographs online, almost like a daily diary of his activities and experiences.  While there’s a good share of backstage Motley Crue photographs from their current summer tour, and beautiful shots of Sixx’s model girlfriend Courtney Bingham, the most compelling pictures are the ones of people and places from around the world taken during his travels.



If you define good photography as something that is capable of moving you emotionally, Sixx can be a master manipulator.             



"Edie Factory Girl" - Biography of Warhol's Femme Fatale

It’s probably a safe assumption that Edie Sedgwick – the original Reality Star – is probably someone that Kim, Kloe, Koo Koo, and whatever other Kardashians there are know nothing about. 

In their book, Edie Factory Girl (VH1 Press), writer David Dalton and photographer Nat Finkelstein give an insider’s glimpse into the dysfunctional, speed-fuelled, short life of Sedgwick during her brief but meteoric tenure as Andy Warhol’s muse and mid-‘60s It-Girl. 

In an appropriately pop-artsy, collage-like format with rare photos taken by Finkelstein, the biography is written from the authors’ perspective as inhabitants of Warhol’s inner sanctum at the notorious Factory.  Dalton writes in a colorful, wildly veering, and decidedly opinionated tone that captures the fabulous era, the avant garde circus that was The Factory, the Technicolor drugs, all of which mirror the trajectory of Sedgwick’s manic life.  The inclusion of interviews and quotes from many of the scenesters including Betsey Johnson and Marianne Faithfull adds to the immediacy of the biography. 

Whether Sedgwick was a unique product and footnote of the times or wholly a creation of Warhol’s or all of the above, for a fleeting moment she was America’s answer to Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, and Twiggy.  However, unlike her closest British and European counterparts, Sedgwick was famous only for being famous.  Her sole accomplishments were being Andy’s visually arresting female twin at groovy NYC happenings and for starring in Warhol’s art films, which were usually mind-numbing, plot-less, script-less, hours- or day-in-the-life documents in bizarrely contrived, stoned-out scenarios.  Her mere presence in Warhol's films inadvertently made Sedgwick the world’s first reality star.  In retrospect, the films were Keeping Up With The Kardashians minus the editing, plus the drugs.    

Edie Factory Girl is a fast read in a good-looking package befitting its subject.