PHOTOGRAPHY OF EDWARD C. COLVER

GROUP SEX

PHOTOGRAPY BY EDWARD COLVER - CIRCLEJERKS - 1980

DOCUMENTING THE EPICENTER EDWARD C. COLVER BY MATTHEW HUTCHISON

You’ve seen this picture before. Or maybe it’s your first time. A black and white photograph of some 30 punks standing in an empty pool with various expressions on their faces: agitation, excitement, and even detachment. Add neon coloring for graphic purposes, and the cover

force in Southern California underEnd of the Funnel, showcasing hundreds ground music. The record and its imof his shots. If you snagged a copy in its agery are as relevant today as ever, a first run, good for you—the first edition landmark release in punk rock. now fetches four figures. He is currently planning a second book of unpubThe photo on the album cover is the lished work for a future release. work of Edward Colver, an important name associated with the hardcore Colver’s acquaintance with the Cirpunk explosion in Southern Califorcle Jerks dates back to the beginnia. He was at the epicenter of the ning, when he would photograph the nascent scene, documenting it for Jerks’ gigs at various Los Angeles-areveryone who wasn’t, or who missed ea clubs. After showing the band his it completely. prints from a set they played at the Whisky A Go Go, they asked him to Five nights a week between 1978 and shoot the cover for Group Sex. The al1984, Colver trekked to clubs, auditobum cover was shot at the Marina Del riums, and halls from his San Gabriel Rey Skate Park on a summer evening Valley home, across the counties of at a Circle Jerks, Adolescents, Venus Riverside, Los Angeles, and Orange, & Unit 3, The Stingers, and Dead Hipwith a Canon AE-1 35 mm and an pie show in 1980. Perched on a mearsenal of Kodak film. Colver built a dium-sized ladder set in an empty portfolio of some of the most iconic skate pool, with a bird’s eye view of and visceral images of the American punk rockers moving into his frame, underground. His tall, wiry frame beColver snapped with his camera, and came recognizable by people who the rest is history. He reflects on that went to gigs regularly, and his knowlphoto 40 years later. edge of venue layouts, mixed with his studies of applied art, gave his visu“Looking back, I thought it was a pretty als the striking feeling that you were shitty picture [laughs]. It was shot on alongside him, witnessing everything. color film that was slightly blurred, and the one that got chosen was Group Sex was Colver’s first LP cover. slightly blurry itself, but it worked. He went on to shoot over 500 more, It was always an embarrassment including the iconic cover for Black it wasn’t in crisp focus; that’s what Flag’s Damaged LP, and the murder bothered me about it, but it came out scene pictured on China White’s deand worked okay.” but Danger Zone EP. His name is affiliated with some of the biggest names Colver reveals there’s a final twist to in the genre—but Colver is quick to this story. point out that there was far more going on at that time than just a handful “Get this,” he says. “I almost got my of bands. legs chopped off below the knees after taking that photo. I went back “I feel people only affiliate me with to my car to load some more film, shooting Black Flag, Dead Kennedand I’m standing between the open ys, and TSOL-level groups because door when I hear someone scream, that’s what they see from me,” he “Look out!” and look up to see this van, says. “The truth is, I shot every band some drunk idiot named Reno was that was around and paid attention behind the wheel and was backing shot for the Circle Jerks’ Group Sex to everyone on that scene, no matter the van straight towards me. That was LP reveals itself. This marks 40 years the crowd size drawn. Some of the so scary.” since Group Sex was released, 14 small bands were just amazing too, minutes of blistering hardcore punk and they never cut a record. That’s “Hey, I went back to shooting though, that made the Circle Jerks one of the a shame.” and got some great pictures of the fiercest bands of the movement. The bands that night.” album also established Lisa FanchIn 2015, Colver released his first phoer’s Frontier Records as a seminal tography book of the era, Blight at the Like a pro always does. �� �� ��