Blood Out

In the movie BLOOD OUT (out now on Blu-ray and DVD) Luke Goss is a small town sheriff who has to go undercover in a vicious Baltimore gang to avenge the murder of his brother.

To make it convincing, he gets his entire body inked in gang tattoos. We spoke to leading gang tattoo expert and photographer Edgar Hoill about his exploits in the American underworlds...

INTERVIEW WITH EDGAR HOILL

What inspired you to start taking photos in the first place?
I went to a chicano/latino school  and I wanted to get the people I hung around with in to the year book and the school newspaper. The kids that were running the yearbook and the newspaper would only put their friends in and they were mostly white. Even though the school was 80% latinos you would never see that portrayed in the yearbook and newspaper. When I asked the teacher why they don’t cover the soccer team or the artists or the latino community, she told me to take a photography course then I can put in there what I think is right. She challenged me, basically.
They were only showing the nice and glamorous side of the ducation system but I wanted to show the guys from the ghetto and from the hood.

How do you gain people’s trust when you are documenting them?
I’ve always been a very fair person. Sometimes people looking in don’t know what’s going on but I was always looking out with people, so I could really show what was going on the neighbourhood and stuff like that. People recognised me for doing something a little bit different. I was getting the love and respect , not just in school but in the community and in the area. People liked having me around as I was always taking pictures. People trusted me.
One of the greatest things for me about being a photographer is taking someone picture and them identifying themselves with it, y’know? This is one of the reasons I got into it in the first place. Sometimes people are happy sometimes they cry, but as long as they identify with the pic then I think I have done what I intended to do.

What do all your pictures have in common?
Real-life. It’s true, it’s gritty, sometimes it’s beautiful, sometimes it’s cute; but it’s always realism. My photography always shows the truth, too.
In my Day of the Dead collection I went to Mexico for 3 years and actually celebrated the Day of the Dead. I’m not mimicking it, I’m going out in the field and doing the stuff. When I do my chicano stuff I’m not building a stage for my subjects I’m shooting everything how it is. My stuff is very real. I don’t re-enact moments in different places, I capture the truth where it happens.

What’s the most dangerous assignment you’ve ever been on?
Drawing up in any alien neighbourhood is dangerous. But I’ve done the Yakuza and I felt comfortable, I did the stuff in Colombia in Medallin and I felt comfortable, I did a lot of dope stuff in Cuba and I was always comfortable – I never felt like I was in danger in any way.