In this technicoloured social experiment, director Alli Coates films performance artist Signe Pierce parading in stripper garb and wearing a mask along the popular ocean-side street in Myrtle Beach. The pair agreed not to communicate until the experiment was finished, but never expected the horror that would unfold in under an hour. ‘Whether it’s race or gender, or class or anything like that, we just had no intention going into this video about any of those things… It just inherently happened because that’s how real society works.'(Coates)

Some of the comments from the public in the video:

Will you do me in that later?

That’s a man

What is she doing? What’s up with that?

Here are some of the comments on YouTube, leave us your own at the bottom of the post

Christopher Franko (Sr)
One thing is for certain, this short film made me feel. It made me feel angry, sad, disgusted, terrified, ashamed, helpless. The shot of her on the ground as a hoard of degenerates collectively cheer on and perpetuate her abuse by sharing to social media, was probably the most powerful thing I’ve seen in an incredibly long time. BRAVO!

luxlagerfeld
This made me feel nauseous, and scared. People are terrifying. Reminds me of one time two guys followed me home from a liquor store, shouting homophobic things all the way. Then they knocked the phone out of my hands when I was trying to call the police and knocked me to the ground. It’s not safe out there. People are disgusting.

Daniel Sonnentag
The United Savages of America!

Watch Roger Ballen’s “Outland” & Find out more about his work with Die Antwoord

Making use of our digital magazine features, we have been able to breathe new life to previous print content – and everything has truly come together, just how we always envisioned! Please take your time to go through this magazine (all at once or a little bit each day) as a lot of work went into producing every edition and every page, since we first launched in 2005. This issue is a superlative balance of content, comprising of traditional and contemporary art, photography, fashion editorials, exclusive interviews, videos, feature articles, music, and the best of one small seed TV.
 
So, without further ado…
 

 
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Pieces of Joburg from one small seed on Vimeo

‘When you decide to stab someone in prison, you pick a basic area to aim for and then rely on your anger. One. Two. Three. Then you hand the knife to someone behind you who makes the knife disappear as the person you stabbed lies on the ground, bleeding out.’

Job ‘Joburg’ Gallie joined the 28s through such an act. An enemy of his from outside had come into jail and Joburg had not wanted to join the number until then. The problem was that no violent acts could be committed in prison without the go-ahead from the gangs. He went to the senior members to ‘look for work’. They provided him with a knife (handmade, of course), and he stabbed the man twice in the head and once in the back. Joburg was dating the man’s sister on the outside and her brother forbade her to see him, telling her that Joburg was no good. She broke up with him. Joburg vowed to get his revenge.

During the interview Paul asked Joburg what happened to the person he stabbed. His reply was:

We became good friends after that… I never got back with his sister though.

top photo: KOPE | FIGGINS
originally published in Issue 22 of one small seed

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Run Jose from Dave Meinert on Vimeo.

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Vodafone & Balasz’ First Skate Revolution

Balazs’ #First Skate Revolution:

Since its humble origins as ‘sidewalk surfing’, skateboarding has always been about being individual, about self-expression and – most importantly – about being creative. ‘It has never been about what you can do, but how you do it,’ is a quote by LA skater Arian Chamasmany that sums it up pretty well. From finding the most adventurous spots to ollie, managing a killer kickflip or finding your downhill style, skateboarding is more than just a sport. But how do you keep that magical 360 flip nosegrind down the rail of the city hall with you forever? By filming it of course! Like a spray can belongs to the street rebel, video belongs to skateboarding.

Vodafone & Balasz’ First Skate Revolution

Vodafone & Balasz’ First Skate Revolution

In The #First Skate Revolution – The Full Story Balazs says,

When you start to skate, you suddenly see everything in a different light. Everything that seems to be normal architecture and things you haven’t noticed suddenly become interesting. Every crack in the road, every corner, every ugly post-communist structure, suddenly becomes a little pretty.

It’s exactly that – the art of capturing that special perspective, the beauty of that otherworldly view and participating in the subculture’s style that is the essence of skate videos. It might have started in 1978 with Hal Jepsen’s Skateboard Madness and further developed with Spike Jonze’s Video Days in 1991, and evolved in 2014 with deeply stylish films by, for example, Takahiro Morita of the Tokyo Z-Boys, but the urge to ‘collect a memory’ was always there. The Sony VX 1000, the Mark 1 Century Optics fisheye lens – also known as the ‘Deathlens’ – or more recently of course GoPros have been utilised to their capacity to perfectly capture the art of skateboarding. But what if drones did the tricky angles for you? It would look like this bad ass video by The Science of the Sick!

Vodafone & Balasz’ First Skate Revolution

Not only have Octocopters been used to record the first skate revolution, but drone technology has the potential to revolutionise skateboarding videos entirely. If you can afford it, the creative freedom to shoot from any angle you want to is yours. On top of that, Balazs also used Vodafone Cloud technology to connect with the hundreds of ‘revolution skaters’ across Budapest by taking photos – without worrying about data storage – to check the skate spots before putting them into context for the actual shooting of the film.

If used for the right reasons, the right technology can mobilise a revolution. In this case, it’s Balazs’ and Vodafone’s #First Skate Revolution, an initiative to give creativity back to the community!

Words by Christine Hogg

What do you think? Does drone technology enhance innovation and creativity in skateboarding videos? Share if you agree!

Visit Firsts.com for the full story.

Vodafone & Balasz’ First Skate Revolution

Vodafone & Balasz’ First Skate Revolution

Everybody Street

You can buy or rent the film here or future viewings include Nitehawk Cinemas in New York on 16-17, 22-26 November, Raindance International Film Festival in Berlin on 20 November, Cinefamily in Los Angeles on 2 December and Miami Beach Cinematheque as well as Miami Street Photography Festival on 6 December. Below is the trailer and some of the work of the featured photographers. Be inspired!

Everybody Street Official Trailer from Alldayeveryday on Vimeo.

Jean Michel Basqiuat & Andy Warhol by Ricky Powell

1984, Image by Bruce Gilden

‘Crip Signs’ by Boogie

‘Good Rat’ by Boogie

1959, ‘Brooklyn Gang’ by Bruce Davidson

1968, Image by Joel Meyerowitz

‘Lower East Side’ by Martha Cooper

Images by Ricky Powell, Bruce Gilden, Boogie, Bruce Davidson, Joel Meyerowitz and Martha Cooper

As African youth they realised that the media does not portray Africa the way Africans see it. Often the stories are negative and are told by people who don’t live in Africa. There are so many of these stories that we end up believing them ourselves.

When did this concept evolve into something concrete for you? When did you decide to use photography and fashion to change these ideas?
When we were growing up, often/always the media’s point of view towards our Soweto was very different to the one we experienced. It’s always been a problem amongst us because at school when you said you came from Soweto, immediately the people’s reactions changed and most of the time all those people have never been there. Only late last year did we see how we were going to tackle this issue, when Innocent went to Kenya he took a photo of a local who was on a bike and he looked so cool. We didn’t believe the amount of cool the guy had because when ‘they’ spoke about Kenya on the news we never saw that side of it. We were blown away! So, that’s when the direction started.

When we were young, were very creative. We used to make cars out of bricks and try to find places to do somersaults and and we used to skate a lot… What we experienced was fun, but the media showed kids that were starving and studying in bad situations. I went to a school that was exciting! We did a lot of sports and I designed a lot… it was fun. I never saw any crime. (TEDx Soweto)

Tokyo 2013, image: iseeadifferentyou.tumblr.com

Bilene, Mozambique 2013, image: iseeadifferentyou.tumblr.com

How did TEDx Soweto go?
It went very well because the people related to what we were saying, but scary too because it was the first time speaking in front of an audience that big.

Tell us a little about each of your members; where you’re from, what you like, how you decided to work together etc…
We are from the same neigbourhood, Pimvile in Soweto, and we all met at church! Justice and Innocent were 13 years old and Vuyo was nine years old. We were all singing in the church choir. Justice loves drawing but enjoys design and illustrating posters… Innnocent loves his fine art and Vuyo loves singing and music. We pray every time before we shoot, then we will go out and pretty much just drive around and if we can find a place that talks to us, then we will shoot it. Sometimes we will just drive and talk to each other and end up not paying attention to locations,then end up having to go home without any pictures!

The music on the I See a Different You video is pretty decent, apparently you sing, Vuyo… Is that what you guys do in your spare time? Where can we access any more of it, if there is any?
First and foremost thank you so much! Yes, it’s Vuyo on the vocals and we’ve been doing music for sometime now. We do have more music but it’s not online yet. We are creatives; photography is just one of the platforms to express what we feel.

St Louise, Senegal, image: iseeadifferentyou.tumblr.com

Paris 2013, image: iseeadifferentyou.tumblr.com

So Innocent and Justice, you guys are twin brothers. Does that make it easier to work together, because you’re of the same mind, or are you quite different?
It doesn’t really make it easier or better because we don’t look at each other like brothers, we are more friends than we are brothers. We have similar interests but different personalities.

We see you’re very much involved in styling as you are in photography. What are your favourite styles/brands to work with and where do you like to shop?
Truly speaking we are into a whole range of brands, we can’t really say we only wear a specific brand. With regards to shopping, we don’t only shop in one place because its hard to get a whole outfit in just one store. We love fashion, it interests us because we grew up with stylish grandparents; every time we look at our photo albums all you will see is happiness, fashion and style. It’s really inspiring you know, we design some of our clothes but mostly we buy. The tailor is the one who makes sure we all look nice, his attention to detail is remarkable and he loves what he does. So if you ever need a tailor, send us an email!

So with all of the support and RVCA and Markham and GQ and all of that, do you guys find yourselves being recognized in the streets a lot? Do you ever miss just being regular guys?
Nothing has changed actually; we are still the same old guys, we still walk freely in the streets.

What do you think South Africa needs to do to realise the same pride that you have in your heritage?

We just need to bring back that interest that makes people want to know where they come from, their roots. That way we will preserve our heritage.

 
To see more of their work, head on over here to access their archives and get in touch!

Paris 2013, image: iseeadifferentyou.tumblr.com

interview: Shiba Mazaza, originally published in 2012 for one small seed.
images: I See A Different You

You have lived in so many places and have friends that live far and wide. Where is home? What makes a place home?

I’d say home is the birthplace in which I was born. My idea of what makes a place a home is not so easy to explain. I would like the place where I was born to be a place where I can go to relax and be with friends and family.

Which are your most memorable photographs from the exhibition and why?
The one Benjamin took where my pants are ripped and my board is broken is a pretty memorable moment! I can remember trying to get in a positive mode, but everything negative Firstly I ripped my pants, then I broke my board but eventually I was able to pull what I was going for. Ultimately it was memorable because it was both good and bad.

You have spent a lot of time with each of the photographers in the exhibition. Can you briefly describe each of them?

I shot with a lot with Gabe when I was living in SF. He reminds me of a non-nonsense kind of guy. If you’re going for a trick, he will stay there until you make it. But he doesn’t just want you to waste his time by just posing. He doesn’t want to mess around.

Gaberman is really cool and likes skating a lot. When he is shooting photos, I feel like I want to skate with him instead of shoot photos – it’s a trippy situation. You know he skates and you want to skate with him and see all the moves that you saw him do in the skate mags, but you know he’s taking photos so it’s kind of a catch 22.

Joe always makes you feel comfortable and you never feel under pressure to make moves.

Whenever I go out to shoot with Skin it’s almost certain that I will take a gnarly spill and more chances then not, I’ll end up getting up right away and acting like it was nothing.

Sem is very easy to shoot with. You just skate and he snipers off shots from a distance and you barely know he’s there.

Benjamin is really fun to shoot photos with. The reason that it is so fun is because, no matter how ridiculous the thing is that you want to do, he’s willing to photograph it. The circle board at the Trocadaro in Paris is a perfect example.

What was the drawing factor to becoming part of he adidas family all those 15 years ago?

I had the idea to make it red white and blue and then heavy on the black much like the wardrobe of the 1700’s of France, like Louis the XIV.

Sem Reubio, Skate Photographer, on the Gonz:

Well generally he makes you smile whenever he is having fun, which is pretty much all the time. If he’s not having fun, he’ll be gone in two seconds, that’s for sure. Something that still makes me laugh is this funny shaking he does sometimes when he is skating – like totally freaking out. He does it for the laughs of course. He did that in Melbourne while trying to skate a bank in the middle of a crowded street. I still laugh when I think about it and the look of the people that passed by.

“15 Years of Gonz and adidas” exhibition | Video from adi three leaf on Vimeo

Photo by Sem Rubio

image: Joe Brook

image: Skin Phillips

image: Gabe Morford

image: Benjamin Deberdt

Photo by Brian Gaberman

Images: Sem Rubio, Benjamin Deberdt, Gabe Morford, Joe Brook, Skin Phillips

Interview c/o adidas Skateboarding