Interview: Photographer Joseph Cultice Brings "Pop is Personal" -- Including Shots of Bjork, NIN and Marilyn Manson -- to Maplewood

Joseph Cultice/courtesy of S. Carmody Photography

Gary Numan, London, 10/1997, by Joseph Cultice

You've seen photographer Joseph Cultice's work before. Marilyn Manson's iconic Mechanical Animals album cover? That's him. Jonas Brothers' retro Times Square scene on the cover of its 2008 disc, A Little Bit Longer? That's also Cultice. But besides these shots - as well as upcoming album covers for 3OH!3 and Korn - the LA resident has photographed just about any musician you can name, from Bjork, Beck and B-52's to Garbage, Gary Numan, Nine Inch Nails and No Doubt.

Cultice originally got into photography while living in Phoenix. Although he was playing in bands, he was also enrolled in photography classes and taking photos at punk shows. When his pals (and neighbors - they lived on the same street) the Meat Puppets needed photos for a record, they asked Cultice to shoot them.

"I said, 'Sure, I'll do it. Give me some money to do it. Just don't tell anybody I shot it,'" Cultice recalls now. " That was the first band photo I did, was of those guys. I remember thinking, 'I could do this for a living.' I liked being in bands, I liked performing, but I didn't like the fame part of it at all. It was irritating to me. Because people treat you differently."

A to Z caught up with Cultice via phone from California, while he was driving to scout a couple of mansions for a shoot with Donald Trump's The Apprentice. His work is currently being exhibited at Maplewood's S. Carmody Photography (2707 Sutton Boulevard) through July 31, in a show called Pop is Personal. The exhibit is free and open to the public; gallery hours are by appointment. Cultice will be at S. Carmody Photography for its artist reception from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight. For more information, call 314-401-8089 or email info@carmodyphoto.com.

How did you end up having S. Carmody Photography exhibit your work?
Sarah [Carmody] is old friends with my wife, Soo-Hyun Chung; they went to school together when they were kids. Sarah's been asking me to do this for awhile, she came out to LA probably about six months ago for a job, and we talked about it more. And I just did it. I got it done. I haven't done a solo show in awhile. At this point in my career, I'll probably be doing a lot more, it seems like it's the right time.

Cultice's 3OH!3 Streets of Gold album cover

What exactly is in the St. Louis show? What else can people expect?
There's three Nine Inch Nails images from the first couple weeks I shot them. There's the new Korn [album] packaging, the inside and outside. There's this new band called 3OH!3, their packaging. These are things that are just hitting the stores right now. It's nice to see them out of their context of the little packaging and iTunes. There's Nine Inch Nails, there's a couple famous Manson pictures...[and] the stuff we did for Antichrist Superstar. Each one kind of represents a different little chunk of my career. Then there's the Jonas Brothers album cover, which is all CGI [computer generated imagery]. And there's Ozzy's last album cover he did [for Black Rain], and it's all CGI in the background.

As a photographer, what's the biggest difference for you now working with CGI as opposed to the more, I guess, natural way of shooting things?
You have to be able to pre-visualize it a lot. I've been lucky...I've [usually] had at least a frame or a reference of it put together, so I can actually place the people into the shot on the set, like I do a quick Photoshop version of what it's going to look like, so you can see the proportions and where someone's standing. You're a lot more of a director, because you're relying on the techniques of the actual CG artists, I don't know how to do CG very well at all. I can do it real rudimentary, but it's a real art form, just like retouching's a real art form, or printing. You have to give it to the pros if you really want to get a really high-end piece. When you look at the Jonas Brothers, that's a really amazing CG, a complete scratch.

It's very cinematic, too.
They told me on the phone that they wanted to be in Times Square in 1960, in the rain, with umbrellas that lit up underneath. So I researched lots of pictures of Times Square in the '60s, we stole lots of signs and plottage from that. But no one had a real clear idea of what the signs would say, because you can't put Coca-Cola or anything. It has to be all fake. So basically the whole thing was - it's all song titles or inside jokes from the band. Or some inside jokes from the fans, that I read online.

But CGI is a lot of fun. I'm working on packaging now for this guy T-Pain, and he's got plenty of money to do what he wants in CG. So we're gong to build crazy, steampunk futuristic suits on him - and all in CG. All fake.