Estevan Oriol's 2012 "L.A. Woman" Calendar Is Out Now

You can’t discuss the influence of contemporary West Coast culture on America and Japan without mentioning the work of renowned photographer and director Estevan Oriol.

STORY: Estevan Oriol Is Just Like His Dad: Dope!

Some of the earliest images of West Coast art and lowrider culture to hit NYC, and beyond, were made by the 30 something Chicano who has an eye for unsettling detail.

Iconic photos of Danny Trejo and Cypress Hill, to name a few, were made by him and have been embraced by hip-hop and L.A. enthusiasts since the late 1980s and onward. 

When we spoke to Oriol a few days ago we talked about his new project, a calendar for 2012 called L.A. Woman which is comprised of shots of women in Los Angeles.

Women featured through the 12-month calendar include XXL’s 2009 Eye Candy of the Year, Rosa Acosta; models Justene Jaro, Jeri Lee, Megan Daniels, Rachel Sterling and Erica Ocampo; and TV host Emily Rose, Angela Copeland, and Amiee Josellia, among others.

We also spoke about his dad Eriberto, also a noted photographer, and their two man show which received critical and financial acclaim when it went up at the Carmichael Gallery several months ago.  

Here’s some of what was said!

GlobalGrind: Congratulations on the calendar! Tell us about it.

Estevan Oriol: Thank you very much! I did one in 2009 and, basically, I did it to test the waters, to see how much interest there would be in the L.A. Womens book that I was doing. I released that at the same time and… and the reason why I didn’t do one in 2010 was because I was promoting the book so much. I didn’t really have time to put out another one.

But this year I thought, I got to come out and keep the movement going. I put a bunch of pictures that have never been seen before (or girls I never shot before) and then I put a couple that were in the book for people that didn’t get the book for whatever reason; they get to see a little of the book and see some new stuff.

Was it difficult making the choices you made for the calendar?

Oh, yeah, it always is! Because I’ve shot so many girls, it’s really hard to pick 12! I have so many pictures of each girl that it’s hard to pick one of each of them. It’s as if I’m battling with 10 rolls of film, each roll has 36 pictures: which one do I pick? That’s the challenge for me.

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It’s interesting you mention film; you’re still shooting with film?

Yeah, I have to.

What’s the appeal? Are you just not interested in digital?

Just the texture. I like to be able to hold something. I like to have something tangible and I’ve had a few situations where I started shooting digital and I was hired by Rock Star Games to shoot all the locations for San Andreas, and they brought me a digital camera to shoot the locations and send them the digital file. It was cool for that but my main, everyday work I like to do? I still like the look of film and I still like that you have the product that you can grab with your hand. I’ve lost stuff, I’ve had memory cards go corrupt, I’ve had hard drives go bad. Everybody says you have to back it up three times and then back those up three times and then back those up three times. Now, I have 50 hard drives with a 1000 pictures.

I have all my photos in these file cabinets and  you would think that the digital world be more accessible and easier, but for me ,my file cabinet … I can tell somebody go to the fourth file cabinet, second drawer down, half way through it that’s where that negative will be.

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Many of your images are black and white. Is shooting in black and white your comfort zone or is it your aesthetic?

I would say both because I started shooting only black and white and it wasn’t till later, when magazines started requesting that we did some color images also, that I started shooting color. So I was comfortable with the black and white, that’s been my style.

Does the calendar have color images or is it strictly black and white?

No, I switched it up on this one! I went straight black and white, all the way through. Last time I had half and half but this time I want to do something different. I used the same format I did on the last one, but this time I went straight black and white.

Are you shooting 35 millimeter?

Yeah, I do both. I do Canon 81 and large format.

You recently did a show with you dad Eriberto, what was that experience like?

For me it was the best yet. It was called Like Father Like Son, we did it at the Carmichael Gallery and I had just gotten out of a museum show called Art In The Street in the MOCA in Los Angeles, so I figured I’ve got to either come out doing something bigger than that, or something more special.

There were so many people who often get lost in the shuffle, so many big names. There was a lot of big shot artists in that show so your work really had to make you shine if you didn’t have a name like that, and I got a lot of shine out of it. But to me, that was the biggest that it had gotten to me on that level. To me, the Father and Son show was bigger for personal reasons. We didn’t sell much at the museum so at this art show we had the most attendants that they’ve ever had at that gallery. We sold the most work they’ve ever sold and I believe the most money they’ve ever made from a show. That was a really cool response.

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Can we expect another Oriol team up? What future project can we look forward to featuring you and your dad?

There will be a book one of these days. I’m not sure when because I want to put out like six books. I feel like the way Borders went out of business, and the way the music industry flopped, Virgin, Towers, Warehouse, Sammy’s all those store closed down. It seems like the book and the magazine world is going to do the same thing real quick, so it’s only a matter of time. Before books are obsolete, I want to get these books out and get them into people’s hands with the quickness. My dad and me, that book is in one of those six. I’m just not sure of the order that we’re going to get working on these things.

How are things with you and Mr. Cartoon?

Good. We’re at the office everyday, at the studio grinding. He’s tattooing everyday. He just did a thing with Diesel that we worked on together. He sold perfume, he’s doing a car care line that we did some videos for. I did some photography on that.

You guys stay busy!

Oh yeah! We have a few things that we work on together and then he has tattoos that he does on his own, and I have my photography or videos, my shirts, calendars and all that kind of sh*t I do on my own.

Estevan Oriol’s 2012 Calendar is out now. Get yours here!