Moving 'Pictures': Pat Graham

Map It  Dupont Circle 

IN JANUARY 1992, Pat Graham moved from Wisconsin to D.C. and hit the ground running.

Having established long-distance friendships within the local indie-rock community, he took up residence at the Positive Force house, a nexus of politically engaged post-punk.

Three months later, he snapped the iconic riot grrrl pic. His photo of Bikini Kill at the Sanctuary Theatre (above) captures the band's knack for political and sexual confrontation.

Graham kept shooting — L7, Fugazi, Nation of Ulysses, Slant 6, Built to Spill — but it is Tobi Vail and Kathleen Hanna who sit splay-legged on the back cover of "Silent Pictures," Akashic's new collection of Graham's work.

Now based in London, Graham will be introduced at Olsson's by Ian Svenonius.

» EXPRESS: A lot of your pictures evoke the performer in motion. How did you do it?
» GRAHAM: It comes down to the lighting and the venue and everything. ... I had a pretty simple 35mm SLR, and I had a flash that actually wasn't connected to the camera. So ... if a moment was coming, I could hold the shutter open on the camera and ... when I wanted to freeze something, then I'd pop the flash off with my other hand.

» EXPRESS: You've always been careful about the use of your photos. Do you straddle the line — half in the scene, half out?
» GRAHAM: I think you want to be in that position. ... A lot of the photos that I got are because the people were my friends, and they respected and they trusted me.

» EXPRESS: You've toured with Modest Mouse, taking photographs, for years. What are you doing now?
» GRAHAM: Me and [my wife] Melanie [Standage] came up with the idea for the photo blog, the first stage for modestmouse.com. ... I'm just out on the road, taking pictures of daily life of the band on tour.

» EXPRESS: I take it you're not still driving and selling T-shirts.
» GRAHAM: No, I'm officially a photographer. Which is amazing, 'cause all the years before, first it was just me and three band members in a van, driving hours and getting into accidents or whatever. And now it's, like, two buses and a semitruck.

» EXPRESS: In the '90s, D.C. had a reputation for stare-and-nod crowds. Is that justified?
» GRAHAM: Not necessarily. Every city, every group of people's different. It could be a Sunday night and everyone's really tired. Being out with Modest Mouse, there are some nights where the crowd — maybe they're just into the music. There's other nights where people have a few drinks, and they're just all stage-diving, not even paying attention to the music. What's better, really? Maybe the crowd looks cool, but they're actually just somewhere else. They wanna get their picture taken.

» Olsson's, 1307 19th St. NW; Sun., 6 p.m.; free; 202-785-1133. (Dupont Circle)

Written by Express contributor Glenn Dixon
Photos by Pat Graham