Rising from a bubbling miasma of metal and hardcore, a dauntless camerasmith by the name of Angela Boatwright has taken hold of the industry. Once a learned student of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Lady Boatwright forged her own path into the dark world of music and skateboarding upon landing her first album cover with Eyehategod in 1998.

With years of freelancing behind her at such noted publications as Jane and XXL, Boatwright tired of documenting the celestial lives of everyone from Redman to Rachel Weisz. Fortunately, the Lords of Mass Appeal magazine smiled upon Boatwright's photographic mastery, and invited her to perform in the capacity of Director of Photography. Her services were also requested at Women's Wear Daily, Arkitip, and Strength magazines.

This is her story...

I understand you're from New York, and I feel like this strongly affects your resulting work. There's a certain raw, gritty vibe that emanates from your photographs...

I'm actually from Ohio. I've been in New York for 11 years now though. I'm sure the grittiness of my images is one part my personality and another part my attraction to all the layers in New York. It's very lived-in here and just walking around, you can get a really strong sense of the passage of time. Nothing is glossed over and refined. Things happen so fast here that it's impossible to keep them refined and cleaned. New York is one of the most amazing cities in the world...

 

So how'd you get into photography? Give us your story.

My mother used to shoot photos for a hobby and her own darkroom in her apartment. Because of her I bought a crappy Kodak point-and-shoot camera when I was 14 or so and started shooting some bands that I was into and slowly graduated into shooting with more professional cameras.

Like everyone I was really into shooting photo of my friends at the time as well as bands that would come through town and so on. Some of my first published work was my live band photography...I did that for 7 years exclusively...

You're the Director of Photography at Mass Appeal, one of our most favorite magazines and some of the gnarliest/ creative/ cutting-edge photos in publishing. What kinda photos do you look for in putting the magazine together?

My taste in photography isn't all that different from my own style - however, I appreciate variety to a certain extent. I'm not a fan of digital imagery in any shape or fashion, nor am I into digital portfolios or digital prints. I hire photographers based on two things, more or less. Their images must be full of individuality and heart. I prefer very tight, strong compositions, vivid colors, a lot of emotion. I also look for photographers with a lot of positive energy, a desire to learn and a hard working attitude. So many of my photographers pull off amazing shoots out of nothing. They blow my away most of the time. I'm not a huge fan of settling for less than 100% and I feel that my photographers 90% of the time completely live up to my expectations.
What is your most favorite thing to photograph?

Friends, people I love.

What's the most challenging aspect of photography?

Dealing with people. The customer service aspect. Shooting different people all the time for different clients. I have met so many types of people which is why I do this but it can be challenging if someone is, for whatever reason, difficult to deal with. I still have days where I totally lose it and have to take a serious time out (smiles).

So what's next for Angela Boatwright?

I just started my own company called Killer of Giants. I'll be managing artists and photographers, out-sourcing creative talent, running press and publicity for various events and curating art shows among other things. Currently I'm working exclusively with Bobby Puleo. He's having a solo show at Los Angeles' New Image gallery which opened July 24th.

Check out more of Angela's work at www.killerofgiants.com and www.ihatephotography.com