IN CONVERSATION: ACTOR, MUSICIAN & PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD EDSON
“I remember the day I was introduced to Actor, Musician, Photographer and Author Richard Edson. He was sitting outside a café in Los Angeles with David Hershkovits, the founder of PAPER magazine.”
When I was 21 years old, I was living with David Lowrie, an ad executive for Paper. I would hang out at the offices on Broadway in Soho practically every day. One day an intern was sent on a delivery by David Hershkovits, and I accompanied her. To make a long story short she was late with the delivery and David Hershkovits was pissed. He told me I wasn’t allowed to hang out at Paper any longer. I responded: “You will regret it! You’ll see, one day I will be somebody and you’ll be begging me for an interview!” Fast Forward 34 years I never became a somebody by celebrity standards, but I did become a Publisher. I have David Hershkovits to credit for inspiring me. When I thanked David in person that afternoon on Spring Street, he asked me to return the favor by offering Richard opportunities regarding his art practice. This guy looks familiar but why should I let him slip to the front of the line? Hold on a minute. Why didn’t you say this was Richard fucking Edson! What real New Yorker, middle aged person, music, or film addict doesn’t know Richard Edson? Sonic Youth’s first drummer, Vito in Do the Right Thing, Smyznyk, the Garage Attendant in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pvt. Abersold in Good Morning Vietnam, Nelly the Nose in Bloodhounds of Broadway, Bill Maharg in Eight Men Out, Bernie Carteez in Tougher Than Leather, Sal in Platoon and my all-time favorite role and his first as Eddie in Stranger Than Paradise. I agreed because I respect this man not to mention his contributions to music, film, and culture. Then I started running into Richard everywhere I went. The universe was putting us together for what I didn’t know at the time. Then the pandemic struck, and Richard started posting his journalism, stories, poems, sentiments, and images on Facebook. He posted every day what was happening in his life surviving as a resident of Downtown Los Angeles. His posts were cathartic - a release from the traumatic events that were happening to him and all of us. When he arrived at Day 165, I contacted him and said when he gets to Day 365, I want to discuss making a book. Year Zero Lockdown Journal was born.
Over the next couple years of working together to bring this book to fruition Richard and I have become close friends and collaborators.
Terrence Sanders Smith - When did you make the conscious decision to pursue acting as a profession?
Richard Edson - When I realized it pays better than being a musician. That’s kind of glib and mercenary sounding, but there’s some truth in it. Being a musician is a tough life. It’s gig to gig, scrap and hustle, never ending. I felt like I’d reached a turning point with music after Stranger Than Paradise came out. The people I was involved with, the things I was doing weren’t fulfilling or satisfying like they were. I felt stymied, stuck and frustrated, both musically and socially. Stranger had done really, surprisingly well, and people became interested in working with me. Film and acting opened a whole new way of being creative and self-expression. I didn’t actually pursue it, but I embraced it. And I was embraced in turn. Yet the high of playing music with other people is so direct and immediate. It is still second to none. Acting is a different beast. There’s the artifice to it in that you’re playing a character, someone other than yourself. Music is purer. There’s no persona to hide behind. Except if you’re a rock star.
I’ve discovered I have many artistic outlets – writing, music, photography, and acting. I like and appreciate each and all, and each demands a different way of being in the world. When I get bored or stuck in one form it’s easy (and necessary) for me to switch to another. I’m lucky this way, because I find I never lack for inspiration or ideas. In fact one feeds off another.
I never intended to be an actor. I was involved in the music and club scene in lower Manhattan in the early 80’s, where and when I crossed paths with Jim Jarmusch and John Lurie. They asked me if I’d like to be in a little thirty minute film they were making. I said, “sure, why not?” My approach was to take the direct, intuitive, honest approach I had with music (and life) and channel that into acting. After showing the short version of Stranger Than Paradise at the Rotterdam and Berlin film festivals, where it was received extremely well, Jim was offered money to turn it into a feature. So we did. It was an Indie hit. I really enjoyed acting, and I seemed to have a natural gift for it. I never studied, which may have been a good or bad thing. Looking back there are things I should’ve done, approaches I should’ve taken, which I didn’t, but life is a one way street, isn’t it?
TSS - When did you receive your big break so to speak?
RE - In the traditional sense of the phrase, it was Stranger Than Paradise. I wouldn’t really call it a big break because, like I said above, I never intended on being an actor.
TSS - How many films have you appeared in?
RE - Combined with TV shows, over a hundred.
TSS - What film roles are you best known for?
RE - Combined with TV shows, over a hundred. I’d say Stranger Than Paradise, Do The Right Thing, Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are the big five. There are many, many smaller ones I’m proud of (as well as some, which will remain nameless, though I’ll tell you in person, I’m definitely not).
TSS - What Films and or Directors had the biggest impact on you personally and professionally?
RE - I’ve been lucky to have worked with some major and very talented directors. Jim Jarmusch, of course had the good sense to cast me in Stranger Than Paradise, and then had the talent to pull off that little gem. Definitely Oliver Stone Platoon, a maniac, though in the best sense of the word. Pushed everyone to the limit, no one more than himself, and brought out the best in everybody. Barry Levinson (Good Morning Vietnam) had the uncanny ability to get great performances out of people by doing very little direction. (Billy Wilder said that directing was 90% casting). Barry would lay back and let us do what he hired us to do, and had great appreciation for what we did. He was our best audience. Spike Lee was tough, but great, too. He was like Barry in that he knew exactly what he wanted but would also let us go with a minimum of direction, just letting us do our thing. He wouldn’t say much, except if you messed up. In that regard he didn’t pull any punches. With Spike we knew we were in good hands. Wim Wenders and John Sayles were great, too. I guess this answer doesn’t exactly answer the question, but it’s a way of saying that just casting me in their movies and giving me enough rope to hang myself was the way they impacted me the most. There are many I didn’t mention – most, in fact – who were equally amazing directors, and people.
TSS - Are you a photographer or a photojournalist? How long have you been taking pictures?
RE - I was drawn to photography years before I considered acting, or in my case, acting considered me. I’ve never thought of myself as a photojournalist, though definitely a photographer. I remember looking through ‘Life Magazines’ when I was a kid (which is photojournalism in the strictest sense of the word.) I always loved B&W though I’m not sure why. It was just so stark and real. Didn’t pretty things up. It seemed truer to life than pretty technicolor saturated photography. Maybe because growing up in a middle-class suburb where everything seemed sugar coated and real life, and real feeling, seemed repressed, hidden and always elsewhere. These black and white photos showed the world with all its problems, complexity, depth and complications. It seemed like a truer window into the world. It was more an immediate, visceral thing. This was brought home to me when I later discovered Robert Frank. His photos are raw and beautiful. And B&W. When his book, The Americans, was first published he was roundly condemned by the photographic establishment because it didn’t conform with the narrative of a sunny, ideal of America. To me life was so much more complicated, richer, deeper and more dangerous (at least I thought it should, and could, be). Photographically, for me and a lot of people, Robert Frank showed the way. His was a photography of impression and moments rather than “journalistic” story telling. It wasn’t the story of the day. It wouldn’t fit into a newspaper. It would never be yesterday’s news. It was the moment and, paradoxically, timeless.
Street Photographers like Henri-Cartier Bresson, Gary Winogrand and Lee Friedlander were also inspirations, and they also worked in this vein. The freedom and adventure of grabbing a camera, a couple rolls of film and just going out into the world was, and still is, exhilarating. And that’s what I did. Being curious, observant and inquisitive helps. Unfortunately, my apprenticeship took a long because it took me forever to get the basic technical aspects of photography – depth of field, exposure, composition, movement, light, shadow, volume, form, etc. For whatever reason, I’m the type of person who is too proud (for my own good) to seek out teachers, or to ask for help, so I had to learn everything on my own. It took me a long time to get to a real and confident level of technical competency. When I finally did, about twenty-five years ago, my work really took off. I’ve never stopped shooting since.
TSS - What was the defining moment when you decided to start documenting the pandemic and its relation to you and your community?
RE - On the first day of lockdown in Los Angeles, March 20th, 2020, I decided to take my bike and camera and go out because I just couldn’t stay in. I live in a corner sixth floor apartment and the sun streams in all day, southern California breeze blows through open windows. It overlooks an industrial area just east of downtown LA. There I was, and there was the hushed, empty, silent city just outside my windows. I write, take photos, and ride bikes so it seemed like the most natural (and necessary) thing in the world to document and memorialize this monumental, world-historical, mind bending moment. I realized soon enough that the journal would also give my pandemic a purpose, meaning and structure.
TSS - What is the purpose of this book and who will benefit from its content?
RE - Originally, I did the journal as just something to do, to occupy my time and energy and imagination, mostly for family, friends, and strangers on Facebook who weren’t going out and were wondering what was going on in the world, even though it was my very small and subjective slice. Then after a while I realized that it might turn into a pretty interesting book, and thought that it would be a record of my year which might be of some interest to people (including myself) who could use it to think back and reflect on their own experience. More significantly, it was for those people in the future who might wonder what it was like to have lived through this unprecedented global event. Thinking of it this way was incredibly freeing and inspiring because I didn’t have to worry about what I was doing, whether it made sense or not, or whether it was good or not, and just let my thoughts and inspirations go and flow and to take the ideas where ever they may carry me.
TSS - Many people believe that the pandemic is over and why should anyone be interested in 2023?
RE - That’s a good question, though one I would never ask. To me, history matters. Where we came from matters. It informs who we are, where we are, and where we’re going. A corollary question is, why would anyone NOT be interested in the past? I know that some people turn their backs on it. No curiosity about it at all. It makes people live in the perpetual present, which is not necessarily a good thing. It happens on a cultural level, too. But that only produces cultural amnesia. I love history. I read and research it all the time. It broadens, deepens, and expands, and prevents the illusion that you’re really more important than anyone else. In other words, it humbles you.
One of the conceits of the book is its title, YEAR ZERO LOCKDOWN JOURNAL. The idea of Year Zero is that it’s the beginning of a new era in human history. When the Revolutionary Khmer Rouge in Cambodia took over in 1973 they declared the first year, Year Zero. It would be the beginning of the new and TRUE history of Kampuchea, their new name for Cambodia. Never mind they were murderous madmen perpetrating one of the greatest massacres against humanity in history, but the idea is the same.
This new era is beginning because the pandemic is such a vast, far-reaching and significant globalized event, one that humanity has never experienced before. The changes and ramification will not necessarily be appreciated or understood until some future polling. At least that’s the conceit. Either way, the pandemic and lockdown is, and will be seen, as tremendously significant. The effects and repercussions will continue for years, decades and centuries.
TSS - Then, why you? Why should anyone care about your opinion, your voice, and your interpretation of the pandemic?
RE - Why not me? I was perfectly situated, and I had a fine bike, strong legs, a good eye, a way with words, a healthy body and mind, and the motivation and opportunity to make this journal. I was posting my entries on FACEBOOK and people were immediately responding. I think it’s human nature to be curious and empathetic, and a sucker for a good story, especially enhanced with photos. Why would I do it? Like I mentioned earlier, it gave my pandemic life meaning, purpose and structure.
I’d like to think people would be interested because the photos and texts engage on both an immediate level, and on a deeper one, one that asks for a more reflective, considered and personal engagement.
TSS - What did you learn during the process of creating the book? What insights did you gain from the people you included in the pandemic portrait series?
RE - I learned to trust my instincts, and to trust the process. I had a very clear sense of what it should be, but it was in the making that it became what it is. It was exciting and encouraging to see it take shape. It took about seven months. A lot of it was trying particular things out, testing particular ideas, seeing what worked, what didn’t, and just keep the ball rolling. I like to go with my gut, my intuition, then refine and sculpt things until it’s right, or as close to right as possible.
The inclusion of the forty or so people who make up the Pandemic Portraits was important to expand the scope of the pandemic experience to others than just myself. It was a reminder that each of us had our own lockdowns, that mine was just a single perspective among many, and while I hoped people would get something out of my world, my photos, my words, I also hoped it would inspire people to reflect on their world, and ours. And since I was posting it on Facebook and getting feedback in real time it was a way to be social and to be a little less lonely.
TSS - I believe ‘Real’ artists are never influenced by Fashion, Trends, Political Correctness, and or Fear. If I want to know the truth I look to art and or artists. Do you believe yourself to be a photojournalist of this high caliber?
RE - First, I don’t consider myself a photojournalist. (Even though Journal is in the title). I was thinking about the earliest “photojournalists” when doing this. It was mostly a European thing (as far as I know) of people going too the far-off, exotic lands of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, keeping a journal and taking photos of what they were seeing. It was both subjective and objective. Then they’d go back home and publish it in book form. It wasn’t until the late 1800’s that newspapers were able to print photos, so it was only books until that point. It was simply the impulse to go somewhere, document it and share it with people who weren’t there, or had no means of getting there. That was the idea that I took on, not the sense of how we mean photo-journalism now, which is to take photos of the pressing, immediate and important stories and issues of our time. I used so many different modes of both writing – stories, reflections, poetry, first person you-are-there type reporting, and photography – street, snapshot, abstract, fine art, portrait, and some that might be considered straight up photo-journalism, so I’d be hard put to designate the Lockdown Journal as just one type of book or journalism. I’d say it’s a “journal” that crosses multiple genres and cross-pollinates them to come up with something different.
TSS - Thank you for taking the time to discuss this very important and relevant book. I’m very fortunate that you decided to collaborate with us to bring this timeless book to fruition.
RE - I owe a lot to you, Mr. Terrence Sanders-Smith, for seeing the potential of turning the journal into a book, and for having the faith and foresight to get behind it. You were a tremendous source of strength and inspiration through the process of seeing it through to completion.
Actor Richard Edson and Publisher and Editor-In-Chief Terrence Sanders-Smith discuss Richard’s book YEAR ZERO LOCKDOWN JOURNAL released on Artvoices Books.
Richard Edson has been acting in films for 38 years appearing in over 100 movies. His more notable roles include a disreputable parking garage attendant in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Howard the Duck (1986), Jim Jarmusch's cult film Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Eight Men Out, and Joey Breaker (1993). He also appeared in Platoon (1986), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Tougher Than Leather (1988), Let It Ride (1989), and Do the Right Thing (1989). He starred in the 1993 movie Super Mario Bros as Spike( 1987).
As a photographer he has had four solo exhibitions in Los Angeles and has been in countless group exhibits. He has also appeared in Juxtapose, Puta, and The Propagandist magazines and photography assignments for Wax Poetics and American Apparel, and many others. Until recently he had a monthly photo spread/column in the Los Angeles downtown arts magazine, Citizen LA.
In addition to acting and photography he was a founding member and first drummer for the seminal art rock band Sonic Youth, and drummer/trumpet player for the legendary New York Afro-dance band, Konk.
TO PURCHASE THE LIMITED EDITION FIRST PRINT OF RICHARD EDSON’S YEAR ZERO LOCKDOWN JOURNAL PLEASE VISIT THE LINK BELOW:
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