Q&A With Blood Of The Young

We recently sat down for a virtual cup of tea with two Canadian born photographers and future publishing moguls Dimitri Karakostas and Reilly Hodgson, the co-creators of the Blood Of The Young zine (A Bastard Landlord tumblr favourite).We took some time to talk photography, the cons of online publishing , the stresses of buying smokes on debit and identity theft. I’d tell you more but what with a missing H key on a failing laptop, just creating this brief intro has been fucking ridiculous.

LG : Who are Blood of the Young? (name, age, where your from, what you did before BOTY,) who does what within the BOTY project

TRH: My name is Reilly Hodgson, I'm 23, I live in the suburbs north of Toronto. Before we started BOTY I sang in a bad post-hardcore band and went to University in Vancouver for printmaking and fine arts.

DK: Dimitri Karakostas, 23, Toronto... Before BOTY I skateboarded every single day, all day- except when I would go take photos of Reilly's bad hardcore band before we really 'knew' each other.

TRH: We make limited edition zines and update a blog.

LG: Do you guys have any other Projects outside BOTY

TRH: Blood of the Young has been keeping me pretty busy. We are putting in work on a new bootleg t-shirt line, but I don't want to say too much before it drops. I'm working on a t-shirt design for a white rapper right now too, but that's a different story.

DK: Well, I guess putting out work, whether through BOTY or personally, is a full-time project... that, and bootlegs have been consuming my mind constantly.

LG: How long has BOTY been going?

TRH: Since the winter of 08/09. We put the first website up in January of 09.

LG: How did BOTY get started, what inspired you to start your own zine?
Was it a reaction to the publications which were available or the state of the photography scene?

DK: No reaction on my side... it was just a good way to get to work with lots of dudes I like. I've been doing zines for a long time, I understand it's a niche thing... it's almost too small to really be a scene, as far as i'm concerned. It just exists.

TRH: I've been making zines for quite a while as well so it seemed to make sense. I knew Dimitri from shows and didn't know he made pictures or anything but as soon as I saw his blogspot when I was living in Vancouver I knew I wanted to make something with him. I was just starting to take my photos a little more seriously and the blog was a good way to share things with each other at such a long distance.

LG: How do you decide what work to feature on the site, is it mainly submitted by friends and colleges or do you look further a field?

DK: If I stumble upon a good portfolio, i'll usually post it up... I guess my eye is solely for something interesting or new. There are some cheat codes, though... bad kids and ugly punks usually pass 100%. I'm really sick of pretty girl photos, regardless of who takes it.

TRH: I'm sick of pretty girl photos too. Summer 2011 bring on the inbred mountain babes.

LG : Do you think digital publication is the way forward?

DK: No, not at all. We've done one PDF-exclusive zine and, well, it might as well not exist. I can't hold it, neither can you. I'm sure you can't find it online anymore. I think tangibility is our focus.

TRH: I think it is the way forward if you want to make a publication that someone will look at (maybe) once and then forget about. Tangibility is definitely a big deal for us.

LG : What are your feelings on the state of photography at the moment?

DK: I don't have any feelings... I don't really even care. It's like anything: lots of really bad work, some really good work. Obviously, you can't expect to have 100% amazing work... but I see a lot of photos every day and I rarely get psyched. There are maybe 15 photographers who i'm interested in and deliver consistently.

TRH: I think we're both feeling pretty ambivalent about it. I've been trying to remind myself to stop and take a look through some of the books and zines that got me excited about making work in the first place. Its good to have a reminder sometimes.

LG: Who are some of your favourite photographers?

DK: Patrick O'Dell, Dan Zev, Josh Blank, Angela Boatwright, Andrea Sonnenberg...

TRH: Yeah, those dudes, the Potes brothers, Templeton, McGee, Scott Pommier...

LG: What are some of your favourite magazines/web sites?

DK: http://facebook.com

TRH: *laughter* Someone is trying to steal my identity using the name Rensun Moreau, that profile is my favourite right now. The only magazine subscription I have is to Color magazine, based out of Vancouver. It's the best magazine in Canada and if someone working there sees this they should get in touch with us.

LG: What does the future hold for BOTY?

DK: Hopefully we make a lot of money really soon, i'm really into the idea of not stressing every time I debit a pack of smokes.

TRH: Yeah, lots of money. Lets go with that, I think we deserve it, right? Gotta keep that PMA, haha

Check out Blood Of The Young at www.bloodoftheyoung.tumblr.com

Worst Blog Of The Month: Answers For The Faith

Answers For The Faith is a blog that reviews current and upcoming movies and television programmes. Pretty handy right? We all like to read a little about what we might want to watch ahead of actually watching it. We like to find out the plot outline, the cast, the writers and director involved, and whether or not it might actually be any good. So Answers For The Faith should follow a pretty standard format for reviewing media – except the blog writers seem to go through the strenuous task of watching all these films and telly programmes just so that they can lay out the whole plot for the reader.

Paragraph by shitty paragraph, they describe every key event that happens in the story, so that you will never take pleasure in finding out for yourself. And they do all this with nothing but good intentions, even going to the trouble of highlighting the moral standings of the characters within their fictional communities and whether or not this might rub off on you spiritually.

Take, for instance, a review of the new Narnia movie: “Evil represented by a green mist in the movie preys upon the weaknesses and obsessions of the 3 children in particular.”

The reviewer then goes on to outline the entire rest of the plot (warning: will contain spoilers):

“Eustace ends up being turned into a dragon and everyone aboard the Dawn Treader ends up battling a sea serpent. Oh yes, along the way they finally meet up with Aslan who puts their whole adventure and lessons to be learn into a useful spiritual perspective. A great movie for the whole family.”

Well I’m glad everything was put into a ‘useful spiritual perspective’ by the end of the movie. I know these films are largely predictable, but after ruining my experience of figuring the plot out ten steps ahead of the characters, he has the cheek to drop in a recommendation for my family to see it. Thanks.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows is also partially condemned for being “way too long and emotionally exhausting”, and heaven forbid you take your young Potter-fanatic children with you to the cinema because “parents should really take the PG-13 seriously. At the showing I went to there were far too many young children”. I’m glad this guy was brave enough to sit through a children’s film full of – *gulp* – children so that we don’t have to.

Please, Answers For The Faith, keep spreading your moralistic plot-spoiling reviews through the internet so that more people won’t have to go and see films they would’ve liked to because you’ve given away the plot for their own ‘benefit’.

The Science Of Self Realization

Every week or so Hard Up, Hungover & the Bastard Landlord are bringing you a new feature by Simon Goodwin as he explores old, obscure and bloody odd books that he happens to stumble across as he eats his way through books like they were good food.
This week he writes about The Science Of Self Realization, by his divine grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.


This is The Science of Self Realization, originally released in the 70's, the book is comprised of a series of interviews, essays,
and lectures from an Indian spiritual guru named Swami Prabhupada who died in 1977.
The premise of the book is that of eastern philosophy, the main concept being enlightenment. Swami challenges the readers values,
lifestyle and very persona, questioning the root of anger, jealousy, loneliness and even happiness with the theory of the modern day ego.
The book is part spiritual suggestion and part an instruction guide to meditation and general congnitive trancendence.
This entails a theory on awareness that suggets awareness to not be the possession of the individual, but rather to be the individual him/herself.
Rendering personality a fallacy.
Obviously, this is deemed preposterous by the majority of Western society and quite easily shaken off as religious jargon, which is understandable.
I recommend this book to the open-minded, willing to explore alternative theories on the human being and existence.

Light Leaks Magazine

Photography has changed since the digital camera and Photoshop became readily available, most photographers no longer enjoy hours on end locked in darkened rooms fumbling around with film and chemicals, for some though this is where their true passion lies.

Analogue photography has a certain charm that cannot be recreated in digital form.

Light Leaks Magazine was founded by Michael Barnes (owner of www.toycamera.com) and his wife Rachel Morris. The Editorial content is handled by Steph Parke who is in constant search for the best low-fi photographers and writers to keep each issue unique and fresh.

Michael and Rachel’s love and dedication to analogue photography is undeniable, Light Leaks Magazine celebrates the artistry and creativity of lo-fi analogue photography and the photographers who use the cameras.

Light leaks magazine HQ is Ottawa Canada, with issues published quarterly in February, May, August, and November. Issues are available online for around $15 and are also available in a select few retailers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Each issue of the magazine contains 60 pages packed with features on photographers and their photographs. Light leaks magazine also runs a feature gallery in which readers are asked to submit their own photography and these submissions are selected by a guest gallery editor. The magazine also features regular columns, interviews, news, and special features on analogue photography.

Light leaks and Lomography are currently running a black and white photography competition titled, ‘Noir’. The 4 winning photographers will be featured in the upcoming issue of light leaks. They will also get their hands on a subscription to light leaks and a brand new Diana Mini Petite Noire.

Words by Lee Gallacher.

You can find out more about Light Leaks at www.lightleaks.org, and more about the Light Leaks & Lomography competition here.

"Who needs qualifications? Who cares about Thatcher and unemployment? We can do just exactly whatever we want to do. And you know why? Because we're Young Ones. Bachelor boys. Crazy, mad, wild-eyed, big-bottomed anarchists!"

taken by Toby Wilson