Glen E. Friedman and Ian Mackaye at Rough Trade NYC
Celebrating the release of Glen E. Friedman’s latest photo book called What I See: The Black Flag Photographs, Rough Trade NYC held a Q&A and signing featuring Friedman in conversation with Ian Mackaye. Friedman estimated that about 80% of the 300+ images in the 256 page book were photos that most people had never seen before of the band and were scanned from film negatives for the project.
Due to their friendship lasting decades, the event felt conversational rather than a typical Q&A with the moderator asking questions and the panelist answering each one. Ian and Glen told stories about Black Flag, Glen’s shooting style, stories of Henry joining the band, and more. An audience member asked about Ian’s appearance during the 10/31/81 episode of “Saturday Night Live” and Ian only told the story right before the Q&A session ended because we were in the same building (Rough Trade relocated from Brooklyn and opened at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the same location of NBC Studios, in June 2021). A very young audience member was responsible for one of my favorite moments of the night when she asked Ian how come he’s not wearing a shirt in the pictures. Ian responded that it was Henry and joked that they were very poor and implied they couldn’t afford shirts. He then answered her question seriously by explaining that the shows they would play would be extremely hot.
After the Q&A session concluded, Friedman signed copies of his book for audience members and Ian did as well (he served as editor on What I See plus Rough Trade had Glen’s photo book on Fugazi called Keep Your Eyes Open: The Fugazi Photographs of Glen E. Friedman for sale too). The Black Flag photo book will be released by Akashic on April 5th and you can order your copy from an independent bookstore via Bookshop.