Pat Graham (born 1970, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American-born photographer living in England. Graham first earned an international reputation for his photography of indie rock and punk rock musicians. His work is featured in the artwork for several notable recordings, and is also in the permanent collection at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, WA. [1] Recent years has brought the expansion of his oeuvre into commercial photography.
Pat Graham holds an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the University of Westminster in London, [1] and is currently an MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (expected 2020). Previously he attended the University of Wisconsin for two years before leaving for Washington, DC to document the independent music scene thriving there and continuing his studies at the Northern Virginia Community College. His interest in photography however began in high school in Waukesha, WI and his grandparents gave him his first camera as a gift. [2]
In 1990, Graham was a co-organizer of a Fugazi concert at the Waukesha Expo center (see http://www.dischord.com/fugazi_live_series/waukesha-wi-usa-61590). The band stayed at Graham's family home and their visit proved inspirational for Graham, especially as Ian MacKaye introduced Graham to the Positive Force DC activist house and the people who lived there. Later that year, Graham and his friends traveled to DC for an animal rights protest march. While in DC, Graham stayed at Positive Force befriending the activists, artists, and musicians living at the house. [3]
In January 1992, Graham relocated to Washington, DC, becoming immersed in the local underground music community. [4] It was in Washington that Graham first earned wide recognition for his efforts documenting the riot grrrl movement, including his seminal photography of Bikini Kill. [5] Over the next ten years, Graham toured internationally with bands such as Modest Mouse, Tortoise, June of 44, and The Make-Up, capturing their traveling experiences, as well as shooting promotional photographs for the artists. [5]
In 1997, Graham collaborated with photographer Cynthia Connolly and created an exhibition called DC People with their Cars and on Stage. The show featured Connolly's portraits of DC musicians with their cars and Graham's pictures of the same musicians playing live. [6] The exhibition traveled throughout the US and Europe from 1997 – 2000. [7]
In 2001, he was Artist-in-Residence at the Grange Hall in Wakefield, RI. [5]
In 2000, Graham relocated to London, England, and established with Melanie Standage the non-profit gallery 96 Gillespie, a converted post office. [2] The mission of 96 Gillespie is to “...establish dialogue between US and UK artists.” [5] Concurrent to the development of the new gallery, in 2003 Graham began to expand into commercial photography by collaborating with Anomaly NYC and Umbro on a series of works pertaining to each of England's football teams’ away shirts. This work led to shooting sporting events and professional athletes. [8]
In 2007, while at 96 Gillespie, the band Modest Mouse again hired Graham, this time to provide a photoblog for the band for their next two year's worth of activity. As the band's popularity was at its greatest during this period, the photoblog generated considerable attention for Graham, and his own reputation expanded into a new audience. This did not prohibit Graham from publishing his first book of select works, Silent Pictures (Akashic Books, 2007).
Chronicle Books published in 2011 Graham's second book, Instrument. Graham describes the book as documenting “...musicians and their instruments and the stories behind what they mean to them”. [9] Amazon awarded the book a Best Book Cover for 2011. [5] In that same year, the guitarist Johnny Marr (The Smiths, Modest Mouse, others) and the sunglasses company Ray Ban selected Graham for the Ray Band Raw Sounds Project, a collaboration between notable rock artists and the company. [5] The work was exhibited in Hong Kong, New York, and in London.
Further select commercial photography clients include Anomaly, Apple, BBC, CABE, Converse, Darling Dept, Focus Group, Hard Rock Hotel, Less Rain Design, Libre Design, Not Actual Size, Poker Stars, Raen Optics, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, Umbro, The Victoria & Albert Museum, and Wolff Olins. [3]
Graham continues to work with Johnny Marr and other musicians. powerHouse Books (Brooklyn, NY) will publish Graham's third book, Modest Mouse 1992-2010, in fall of 2014. [5]
When interviewed, Graham has stated that he has used or uses:
“It really comes down to being in the right place at the right time and knowing how to compose under pressure.” [10]
Minor Threat was an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Washington, D.C., by vocalist Ian MacKaye and drummer Jeff Nelson. MacKaye and Nelson had played in several other bands together, and recruited bassist Brian Baker and guitarist Lyle Preslar to form Minor Threat. They added a fifth member, Steve Hansgen, in 1982, playing bass, while Baker switched to second guitar.
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality have made him an enduring icon.
Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye is an American musician. Active since 1979, he is best known as the co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label, and the frontman of hardcore punk band Minor Threat and post-hardcore band Fugazi. MacKaye was also the bassist for the short-lived band the Teen Idles, and frontman for Embrace, and Pailhead, a collaboration with the band Ministry. MacKaye is a member of The Evens, a two-piece indie rock group he formed with his wife Amy Farina in 2001 and in 2018 formed the band Coriky with Farina and his Fugazi band mate Joe Lally.
Calvin Johnson is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, music producer, and disc jockey. Known for his uniquely deep and droning singing voice, Johnson was a founding member of the bands Cool Rays, Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic Sound System, The Go Team and The Halo Benders.
Fugazi was an American post-hardcore band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consisted of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They were noted for their style-transcending music, DIY ethical stance, manner of business practice, and contempt for the music industry.
Guy Charles Picciotto is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer from Washington, D.C. He is best known as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist in Fugazi and as lead vocalist of Rites of Spring.
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent music" since the 1980s.
The Argument is the sixth and most recent studio album from the post-hardcore band Fugazi released on October 16, 2001, through Dischord Records. It was recorded at Don Zientara's Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA and the Dischord House between January and April 2001. It was the band's last release before going on hiatus in 2003, until the release of First Demo over thirteen years later.
Embrace was a short-lived American hardcore band from Washington, D.C., active from the summer of 1985 to the spring of 1986. Along with Rites of Spring, and Beefeater, it was one of the mainstay acts of the 1985 Revolution Summer movement, and was one of the first bands to be dubbed in the press as emotional hardcore, though the members had rejected the term since its creation. The band included lead vocalist Ian MacKaye of the defunct hardcore punk act Minor Threat and three former members of his brother Alec's band, the Faith: guitarist Michael Hampton, drummer Ivor Hanson, and bassist Chris Bald. Hampton and Hanson had also previously played together in S.O.A. The band played their first show on July 28, 1985, at Food for Thought, a former restaurant and music venue located on Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle; their ninth and final show was held at the 9:30 Club in March 1986. The only recording released by the quartet was their posthumous 1987 self-titled album, Embrace, being influenced by the Faith EP Subject to Change.
Embrace is the debut record and the only release by the American post-hardcore band Embrace.
Jeremiah Martin Green was an American musician best known as a founding member and drummer of the indie rock band Modest Mouse from 1993 to March 2003, and again from May 2004 until his death in December 2022.
Steady Diet of Nothing is the second studio album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi, released in July 1991 by Dischord Records. Although a persistent rumor alleges that the title is an allusion to a quote by the late American stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, the album title predates the Hicks quote by several years and was actually thought up by bassist Joe Lally.
Washington, D.C., hardcore, commonly referred to as D.C. hardcore, sometimes styled in writing as harDCore, is the hardcore punk scene of Washington, D.C. Emerging in late 1979, it is considered one of the first and most influential punk scenes in the United States.
Jem Alan Cohen is an Afghan-born American filmmaker based in New York City. Cohen is especially known for his observational portraits of urban landscapes, blending of media formats and collaborations with musicians. He also makes multichannel installations and still photographs and had a photography show at Robert Miller Gallery in 2009. He is the recipient of the Independent Spirit Award for feature filmmaking, and has received grants from the Guggenheim, Creative Capital, Rockefeller and Alpert foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Cohen's films have been broadcast internationally, and are in held the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the ACMI in Melbourne.
Glen Ellis Friedman is an American photographer and artist. He became known for his activities within rebellious skateboarding and music cultures. Photographing artists Fugazi, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Minor Threat, Misfits, Bad Brains, Beastie Boys, Suicidal Tendencies, Slayer, Run-DMC, KRS-One, and Public Enemy, as well as classic skateboarding originators Tony Alva, Jay Adams, Alan Gelfand, Duane Peters, and Stacy Peralta, among others.
Lync was a 1990s post-hardcore band from Olympia, Washington.
Jerry Busher is an American drummer and multi-instrumentalist. He is known for his work with Fidelity Jones and Fugazi.
Cynthia Connolly is an American photographer, curator, graphic designer, and artist.
The discography of Fugazi, an American post-hardcore band, consists of six studio albums, four EPs, a compilation album, a soundtrack album, a demo and a series of hundreds of live recordings. All of the band's releases have been published by Dischord Records, the independent record label co-owned and operated by Fugazi singer and guitarist Ian MacKaye.
The single play record "Me and You", also known as Egg Hunt, and 2 Songs, is the first and only stand-alone release by the American experimental post-hardcore duo Egg Hunt.
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