Interview by Aaron Cometbus and Anna Brown, from MRR #321: The Photo Issue
Murray Bowles has been a ubiquitous presence at punk shows for 25 years. You will know him as the bearded and bespectacled man behind the camera in the middle of the dance floor, shooting pictures of the crowd, the band, and the scene around him by holding his camera over his head and pressing the shutter. In this unlikely manner Murray has documented the Bay Area punk scene like no one else. His pictures capture the spontaneous energy that makes punk so unique. No one is ever depicted lying in the gutter covered in her own puke—or throwing punches in the pit.
Punx at Eastern Front (photo by Murray Bowles)
Murray is not a voyeur. Rather, as an insider, Murray is privy to the intimate moments of fun, freedom, and release: stolen glances, toothy grins, and uninhibited dance moves. When he isn’t in the pit, Murray works as a computer programmer in Silicon Valley, and plays the viola in the Peninsula Symphony and with the country punk band the Shitkickers. Aaron Cometbus and Anna Brown sat down with Murray in November 2009 over Vietnamese sandwiches and Anchor Steam.
Murray Bowles: I got started as a backpacker, taking pictures of nature. I moved to the Bay Area as a student at Berkeley from 1973 to 1976. Then I began working as a computer programmer in San Jose and some of the people who worked with me were into the punk scene. Tim Tonooka from Ripper enlisted me to write reviews for the magazine in 1982. Some other people at my job volunteered at Target (CAPITAL V)ideo. Tim used to take all the pictures for Ripper, but one day he asked me to do it when he couldn’t make it to a show. I had fun and I started bringing my camera to every show I went to. It was addictive.
MRR: How did you learn photography? Didn’t you have a darkroom in your kitchen for 25 years?
My grandfather taught me the kitchen developing technique. He used to do amazing trick photography, like making us look like midgets, peering around coffee cans.
How many cameras have been destroyed at shows?
No cameras have been destroyed, but lots of flashes. They get smashed, and the batteries tend to fall out and fly all over the place.
Crucifix (photo by Murray Bowles)
Stage divers must know to avoid hitting you by now.
I learned some things. Like never to hang the camera strap around your neck, ’cause stage divers feet get caught in it. And how to protect my face. That’s how the point and shoot method evolved—you have to avoid holding the camera up to your face.
You are always in the audience, never on the side of the stage or in the front row and so your pictures capture the audience perspective, in the middle of the action.
Yeah, I have never liked those guys who shoot metal with the ultra wide-angle lenses and a huge flash taking dozens of the same shot.
How did your style evolve? Was it a moral or aesthetic choice?
Tim Tonooka taught me to move around a lot, to go for variety. I try to get shots of everybody. Drummers are hard because if you’re in the audience lots of things get in the way. I have gotten good at shooting the singer without the microphone in their mouth.
At a certain point you switched from a manual camera with black and white film to a digital camera, in color. The pictures separate the olden times from the modern times for me. Murray BCE—before the color era.
I tried to hold off switching to digital until they made a full frame camera. I bought a digital point and shoot but they have an intolerable delay. I switched to color in 2000 when I got the point and shoot. Now I use a Nikon D300. When I started I bought the same camera as Tim Tonooka—a Canonette Rangefinder. The first shows I went to were at places like the Mab. I went with the Target Video guys to all sorts of obscure shows at strange venues. Al Flipside was very influential, too. He encouraged everyone to be more than just a witness to the scene. To do something useful. Taking pictures got me more into things. I wasn’t just a record collector that went to shows anymore.
How was it seeing your work published?
My pictures moved from Ripper to MRR. I did guest DJ spots of MRR radio. And bands started contacting me for pictures. Tim Yohannan was often looking for something specific, and he would go through my pictures. I also started printing 4×5s and selling them for 15 cents at shows—the cost of a sheet of paper divided by four.
How did people respond? What surprised you about their reactions?
Well, it always surprises me when people want copies of crummy photos. They don’t care if it’s barely in focus if it’s of the right people. Bands always want pictures with all the members showing, but it’s really hard. It never even looks like they’re all playing. I tend to take pictures of one to two people. People bought a lot of pictures of crowd shots, depending on who was there that night.
SNFU (photo by Murray Bowles)
You must have learned a lot of secrets—the secret social life of the scene.
I don’t know about that, but you do begin to notice who reacts in what way to other people in pictures. I sold multiple copies of certain people. Over time I moved off the stage and started focusing more on individual people and less on the stage. Stages are still kind of ideal, though. They are usually elevated, wide, and provide a natural view. But pictures of people playing pool in the back of the club, for example, can be as interesting as a band playing.
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