Estevan Oriol is a legend in the game. The esteemed L.A.-based photographer has snapped pics of everyone from Al Pacino to 50 Cent, and he’s especially well known for his gritty black-and-white style. RESPECT. sat down with Estevan to look back on his career and find out what he’s been up to.
I know that you went from bouncer to promoter to photographer, how did that progress?
I was working at the clubs and got a chance to meet everybody in L.A. that was big in the music scene, like Cypress Hill, House of Pain, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ice-T and his whole crew. I started a friendship with Cypress Hill. Muggs from Cypress Hill said “Hey, you wanna work for us?” I said “Yeah, sure. What do I gotta do?” And he goes “Well, you’re gonna be a tour manager of a new group I have.” And I go “Um, okay cool. What is it?” And it turned out to be Everlast from Rhyme Syndicate, which was Ice-T’s crew. That led to House of Pain. I started tour managing House of Pain for three years, tour managed Cypress Hill for ten years right after that. The whole time I was just taking steps from here and there. I learned how to become a tour manager. I had to set up the interviews and all that kind of stuff as well as merchandising, all the accounting, and the travel arrangements.
Right, so were you always taking pictures?
I was taking snapshots here and there. Like I said, I did all the interviews and the press and I would tell those people “Hey, uh, if you guys want any pictures of them on stage or behind like backstage, I got pictures of that.” I used to have this photo album no one else knew about of pictures, and they’d be like, “Oh yeah, sure, let’s see them.” I end up showing them the pictures, and they were like “What the hell?! You took these? Can we use them?” That was the first time I ever heard about making money off pictures, so I was pretty blown away. Then I started offering them pictures of the other bands because at that time I was the only person backstage with a camera. There wasn’t any photographers floating around or guys with 5Ds taking photos and videos of every single group. My dad gave me a camera he wasn’t using, he’s a photographer too, and was like, “You should be documenting all the stuff you’re doing. You know, you live a pretty cool life.”
Did your dad teach you photography?
Yeah, he gave me like a five-minute crash course. It took me a while to want to do it because I thought photography was kind of goofy. Most people who are photographers were tourists and paparazzi. I didn’t really see that as being cool even though my dad took pictures. I thought he was different. I was like, if I could pull it off and do it like my dad does, then it might be cool. I just went from there and started showing my pictures to magazines pretty much from the gate and the rest is history.
What would you say your style is?
Rough, ragged, and raw.
What has been some of your favorite things to shoot? Who have been some of your favorite people to photograph?
Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, some of my homies from L.A of course, all of the touring with Cypress Hill. I love to travel and shoot so I love all my shoots when I travel out the country. They’re a lot of fun seeing how other cultures live and seeing new places and new stuff. But of course the girls, a few here and there. I like shooting sexy girls.
What is it that you like about shooting hip-hop?
That I come from that era when hip-hop started. As hip-hop grew up, I was growing up so was there since the beginning. I was in the moment, it was like, I was just hearing stuff on the radio. I was living it, touring, on stage. I was a DJ for Cypress Hill for two years, the live shows. I used to DJ in the clubs. I’d do security at the door and DJing at the after-hours clubs in L.A. So I’ve been there since the early ’80s with the hip-hop here in L.A. Being in the movement, of course I love being able to shoot all the artists.
I know you recently shot Lil Wayne for that DEWeezy shoot.
I shot him two times, once at a game video shoot and the other time was at the DEWeezy thing in the skate park in the 9th ward in New Orleans. My company did the PR for that, we have an agency. So they flew me out for that which was pretty cool because not a lot of people kick back like that.
We didn’t really hang out too much. It was more like his people just like hangin’ around and skateboarding while he was doing his thing. I didn’t hang with him one-on-one, say “what’s up” to him, or shake his hand.
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