Features
An Honest Thought
Words by Benjamin Trager “To be honest I don’t think I have a choice, it’s just who I am.” These are some of the first words Beth Hoeckel shared with me to help understand her creative process. Hoeckel’s thoughts come across as genuine and straightforward, thoughtful and frank, and reach into a place beyond creation closer to inspiration. Hoeckel dabbles in an array of styles and media, demonstrating a wide breadth of artistic ability. Her collages join classic imagery with [...]
Finding Now
Words and illustration by Ryan Michael Commins Before you get to the “ow” of “NOW” the idea itself is already in the past. It’s a unique word in that way, the only one I can think of that negates itself as it is said. NOW is a difficult thing to truly define. Maybe it takes practice. An exercise: Take your thumb and forefinger and press them into each other as hard as you can stand. Think about that sustained pressure, that almost-pain, and hold it. Your body is telling you [...]
Now That’s What I Call Music
Words by Justin Wilson Photography by Tommy Kearns The stone driveway crunched beneath the '91 Suburu Legacy as it eased into the Oyster Harbor job site where Rick was hired to hang drywall. The sheetrock dubiously ratcheted to the Legacy's rackless roof slid so far forward Rick had to bend and tilt his mulletted head sideways to see. He always rolled into work with the grace of a sodomized wolverine, blasting Top 40 music that served as the ironic soundtrack to his depressing life. He [...]
Cosmic Surgery
Words by Megan Martin London-based artist Alma Haser’s work requires much more than a first or even second glance. What initially looks to be a family portrait or school-day snapshot is actually something quite different. Haser’s portraiture is a blend of new and old technique — the lighting, the colors, the gazing subjects that leave you with a feeling of slight discomfort. For Haser, that’s the intent. “I don’t want the viewer to come to one conclusion,” says Haser on the [...]
Obsession #4
Photography by Tommy Kearns Words by Justin Wilson Pouring coffee down the drain on this cold gray day should inspire me to write this 800-word essay for Working Class magazine. The same magazine you're holding in your hands right now. The same magazine for which I am typing the words you are reading. You exist several weeks in the future and you are, perhaps, at the release party for this issue. I'm there with you. The first three writers of this story don't exist anymore. I killed them. [...]
The Upside of Anonymity
Photography and words by Ryan Michael Commins He was set up right on the sidewalk, amongst the many other vendors, offering copies of his paperback novel. Prominently displayed was a framed quote, sharp text in a well-chosen font, “MAD MEN MEETS FIGHT CLUB”. There was a matching advert across the table, catching the reverse traffic, that said something about how being Irish can be mistaken for having Tourette’s Syndrome. This is a story of a man who discovered how to live off of his [...]
Leo et Pipo
Words by Ryan Michael Commins Walking down a street in Paris, you see a man coming towards you. He has a smirk developing on his face as he walks right out of a black brick wall. He is colorless. This is an image pasted onto the wall in a faint grid. This man’s classy whitewall shoe will hang in the air, until somebody scrapes him off or paints over him. He is what you might picture when someone mentions, "a real man." Who is this man? From the look on his face, the person behind the [...]
Dark Matters
Photography and words by AA Bronson Tuesday, June 11, 2012, 7:10 p.m. I am flying over the Atlantic on my way to Basel, Switzerland, from New York City. This morning I received an email from the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, the museum that owns the photograph reproduced here. It seems they are exhibiting it in an exhibition titled Dark Matters. The photo is a kind of visual puzzle. The question is, how was it made? It has the appearance of a montage or collage, and yet it is not. [...]
Darkness and Light
Illustration by Erin Cullinane Words by Megan Martin From the four upper corners of a small, four-cornered room Rested a thin, quiet Darkness. With curtains drawn Light seeped through a sliver of uncovered glass on a windowpane. Pain, thick in its despondence, Black in its shade, Occupied this perfectly square space and sat squat Unmoving Welcomed by its hostess She slept Deeply and soundly, Escaping into dreams that escaped into nightmares Filled with faceless intruders Halls [...]
RECRUIT
Words by Megan Martin Tomoko Sawada continues to turn perception on its side. Viewing Sawada’s work is an existential journey through self-expression, literally. Her portraits capture a number of subjects: Ganguro, kogal, grocer, aspiring recruit. However, they all have one thing in common – they are all her. Though she has drawn comparisons to artists like Nikki S. Lee and Cindy Sherman (both well-known for conceptual photography and self-portraiture), Sawada is not a woman under [...]
A Girl and Her Room
Photography by Rania Matar Words by Ryan Michael Commins To a teenage girl no space is more sacred than her bedroom. The room becomes an extension of who she is at that time. A fully functional visualization of her hopes, fears and desires fun-tacked to the walls. What struck me most looking at A Girl and Her Room is just how much these rooms tell you about the girl occupying it. The details allowing for an impromptu short story to take place, shaped by your own memories. The cluttered [...]
Girl Talk with Britt Lower
Photography by Charlie Rubin Words by Nicole Bailey Britt Lower is an actress and artist who hails from Illinois and now resides in Williamsburg. She can currently be seen as Tanya Sitkowsky on the CBS drama "Unforgettable." We sat down over a cup of coffee (well, she had tea) and chatted about girlie things, face painting and the time she met Patti Smith. WC: So Britt, where are you from? BL: Twenty minutes south of Normal, Illinois. It’s a town called Heyworth. There were like [...]
AA Bronson
Photography by Tracy Morford Words by Michael Fensom “Troublemaker” is a word AA Bronson uses to describe himself, and it is apt. A torchbearer in the 1960s counter-culture movement, Bronson has always maintained a sort of rebellious streak. His art -- originally with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal as part of the conceptual art collective General Idea, and on his own since Partz and Zontal died in 1994 -- has reflected a level of shrewd honesty and social involvement that became lodged [...]
East Village Boys
Photography by Ignacio Lozano for EVB Words by B. Mawson In a world where a show like Logo's 'The A-List’ is presented to us as the template for the modern, successful gay male, and the clone-like productions of most Top-40 pop princesses rule our nightclub dance-floors, some may say that the golden age of a diverse and visible 'gay cool' has breathed it's last breath. “So much of the gay media focuses on the same people, the same ideas, the same tropes, over and over that our [...]
Confessions of a Serial Beater
Photography by Tommy Kearns Words by Justin Wilson Should I put my hand on her leg or her arm? Do I just go in for the kiss, or is it too soon? Why is George Lopez on TV and why do people like pretzels so much? If I'm gonna do this, I've gotta make my move right now. I've got enough blood in my penis to offer multiple transfusions if the opportunity, or crisis, should arise. The only way to get rid of this bulging, bulbous, throbbing tent pole is to evacuate the children. Evacuate! Make [...]
Grace Before Dying
Photography by Lori Waselchuk Words by Kristy Ann Muniz “There is a common ground in death. It’s the one thing that can unite us,” states a former Louisiana Correctional Facility nurse in Lori Waselchuk’s new book, Grace Before Dying. Through a series of heart-wrenching photographs paired with brief explanatory text, Grace Before Dying explores a program at America’s largest prison that allows inmates to volunteer in the penitentiary’s hospice, to remarkable results. Hard [...]
Art of Loving
Words by Adriana Rizzolo Tara Glazier is the co-founder and owner of Abhaya Yoga in DUMBO. She has been practicing yoga for 14 years and is a certified teacher of Anusara yoga, a school of yoga designed to unite life-affirming Tantric philosophy with therapeutic and strengthening principles of alignment. Over the past year, I have had the honor to learn from and befriend this truly luminous teacher. May this interview serve as a window into the art of yoga. WC: What are the biggest [...]
Mono No Aware
Photography by Lucas Millard Words by Megan Martin In the film world, the concept of time – and the deconstruction of it – is an artistic opportunity. While in reality, we view it as something inevitable, uncontrollable even, in motion pictures it is something to manipulate. Slow it down, speed it up, maybe even force it to stand still. Steve Cossman approaches his work with this philosophy in mind. It led him to one of his most notable projects, Mono No Aware, a film festival [...]
The Journey Within
Photography by Taryn Longo Words by Adriana Rizzolo With over 300 yoga studios in this city, yoga has become an ingrained practice for New Yorkers. This ancient art brings an awareness to our bodies, minds and hearts that is irreplaceable. Beyond the physical, there is an awakening to be utilized in our lives: The limitations experienced in your body during yoga exist to juxtapose expansion as you move past them. As you create more space inside your body, a lightness of being surfaces. [...]
NEVADA ROSE
Words by Ryan Michael Commins I arrived at Roebling Tea Room a little early to meet with photographer Marc McAndrews. They weren’t open yet so I waited outside, looking at a defaced mural by Australian artist, Lister. I wondered what this guy was going to look like, what he would be like. I stupidly realized that I had no idea of his age, race, etc. I began picturing a balding white man in his forties, touch of a gut, five thousand dollar camera slung around his neck. Eventually one of the [...]
Cheryl Dunn
Words by Megan Martin Cheryl Dunn has spent the last two decades proving that she’s just as good as the guys, if not better. From legendary films like the art-documentary “Backworlds for Words” capturing Mark Gonzalez’s choreographed skate ballet to endless photo stories of graffiti artists, homelessness and heavyweight boxers in their most vulnerable form, Dunn managed to elbow her way into a crowd that was clearly designated as "boys only". And once she was in, they welcomed her [...]
A Night in the Tombs
Words by Marcel Dagenais 11:15 PM "Hey motherfucker! We're going to kick your ass!" This was the first thing I heard before being shoved up against the wall and handcuffed by two undercover cops while I was standing outside Heather’s bar in the East Village. They seemed to appear out of nowhere as I tagged “workingclassmag.com” on a single brick on a wall covered in graffiti. I arrived about an hour prior to the launch party for Working Class Magazine’s “Free Issue” on [...]
Tunnel People
Words by Luke Koz As a war photographer, journalist and anthropologist, Teun Voeten has courted extreme circumstances. For How de Body, he traveled to Sierra Leone to report on child soldiers just in time for a ceasefire to end, leaving him stranded in the Bush, hiding from warring rebels. His work in progress focuses on the drug war in Mexico. To write it, Voeten's spent much of his recent time in the most dangerous areas of conflict. His A Ticket To is a catalogue of his experiences [...]
Community Service
Photography and words by Paul Kwiatkowski It was my final semester of high school, the last hurricane season I’d ever spend in South Florida and the skies were an endless toilet-hued white. I had just undergone my final transition from amorphous punk/freak, to hardcore kid/d-bag, to finally fixing up and putting in a decent effort to getting laid. Before I could leave for college, I had to do community service for financial aid and probation. I saw it as the last in a series of [...]
Family Portraits
Photography by Allan E. Schoening Whether it be by way of lovers, roommates, co-workers or friends, life surrounds us with our own chosen extended families. Working Class took a deeper look into these relationships by getting to know some local families from Brooklyn. The Artists Names: PERU ANA ANA PERU Occupations: Visual artists, wanderers. Years in New York: Coming up on 8. How did you guys meet? We were both working on the same private eye case at the same time, [...]
My First True Love Was 7-Ply
Words by Chris Kent Photography by Aileen Kent My shins are a very ugly place. If you were to run your finger from my kneecap to my ankle, along the rocky topography, you would recoil in disgust. The single most important relationship of my life began brutally when I was 11. And I nurtured it. Every day I’d ride my bike to the bottom of my street to watch in awe as the older kids rolled from driveway to driveway on wide, flat, neon colored Nash Executioners, the most popular [...]
Homo Thug II: the Greatest Book I’ve Never Read
Words by Seizures R. Fake I like to do my thinking at fast-food joints along 14th Street. There’s something about people waiting in line in the middle of total chaos that appeals to my well-honed false sense of entitlement. I like pushing through the crowds and being handed bootleg CDs that I have no intention of buying. I get a mental erection when confronted with the sheer number of people crushed together along the sidewalks outside my air-conditioned calorie palace, each nimbly [...]
Interracial Couples & Dating in the USA: The melting pot is boiling
Photography by Winnie Au Words by Moni Briones Both initial attraction and racial stereotypes, as they pertain to relationships, often act as gateways to new and unexpected life experiences. McNulty, Neff and Karney noted in their latest study for the Journal of Family Psychology, “ that attractiveness accounts for process and outcomes in new relationships is not surprising. Physical appearance is frequently the first thing people learn about one another and thus may be the only [...]
The Embodiment Project
Photography by Molly Landreth Embodiment is a collection of short films and photographs that explore the varied experiences of queer lives and relationships across the United States. Filmmaker Amelia Tovey and photographer Molly Landreth set out to capture the essence of queer America. In their new multimedia project Embodiment, they are looking to show the many faces and personalities that make up the LGBTQ community, from Los Angeles to small town Missouri. "We really hope that [...]
He Said, She Said
Words by Melissa Burgos and Josh Shaw In every relationship, it's inevitable to have questions for your partner. Questions that are not necessarily scandalous, but more quiet wonders- maybe something small that nags at your subconscious, or a deep set fear that you would never say out loud, a nervous tick that presents itself only in the throes of a knock down drag out fight or intimate post-whatever pillow talk. A subject you wouldn't dare breach in worry of highlighting a fear that you [...]
Summer in Winter
Photography and Words by Megan Martin Kathleen Malay overlooking North Bondi in Sydney, Australia. When I think about free, I think of no boundaries; the ability to take life in whatever direction you please without restrictions or limitations. Last January I set out on a month-long journey that further expanded my ideas of freedom. Spending a month in a foreign country – one as beautiful as Australia – can certainly do things to the psyche. I left winter for summer, the northern [...]
If Only I Loved New York
By Megan Cahn Megan Cahn overlooking Manhattan, 2006 Living in New York was one of the hardest things I have ever done; leaving it was harder. There are two standard New York City days. The first, a little more common than the second, may start with you waking up to your teeth chattering in the dregs of August because you passed out with the A/C on full blast battling the humidity that last night started to feel like it might swallow you whole. Or maybe it's February and even as the [...]
Costa Rica: Escape from New York
Photography and Words by Adriana Rizzolo As much as we all love New York, I'm sure we can all agree what a drag it is in the dead of winter. After two months of hibernating and doing sweaty yoga just to feel some warmth, the decision to break away finally came about. Here are some photos from my trip to the southern Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica with my friend Matt Dwyer. I didn't take a trip, this trip took me.
Yo amo Guatemala
Photography by Marcel Dagenais My chance for freedom came when I booked my ticket to Guatemala for eight days last month. After climbing a volcano, staying in a small town on a lake filled with chill hippie folk, my friends and I ended up on the beach of Monterrico to chill out and burn our buns on the hot black sand. It's nice to know that there is a world outside of New York City, and it's beautiful. In these photos: Aaron Osborn, Adriana Rizzolo, Maureen Walsh, Carla [...]
i.a.a.a.s.
Photography by Andrew Tyson This issue has brought about many interpretations of what the word "free" means to people. We are all aware that we are in the midst of a war with no real resolution in sight. The distraction of our day-to-day routine makes it easy to forget that there are people dying everyday for a questionable cause. Photographer Andrew Tyson, who was active in the military and is now on the reserves, asked new recruits going through army officer training why they [...]
Free on Craigslist
It's always interesting to see what people are willing to give away for free. Here's a couple of things one of our contributors Caroline Bach found free on Craigslist here in New York. tampax tampons scented - opened box - (brooklyn) Tampons are expensive so I don't want to just throw these away. The box is opened and a few have been removed but a majority are still in there. Our ex-roommate left these and nobody in our household uses scented tampons. Serious replies [...]
Style Wars
Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's historic PBS documentary Style Wars tracks the rise of subway graffiti in New York in the late seventies and early eighties. At the peak of its popularity, graffiti was as much a part of B-boy culture as rapping, scratching, and breaking. The filmmakers present a sympathetic, but well-rounded portrait of their subject through extensive interviews with taggers—notably Seen, Kase, and Dondi—art collectors, transit authorities, and even Mayor Ed Koch, who would [...]
The Porch
Photography by Whiskey Gone Bad Words by Sean Welsh You can always smell the fresh seasons and mark them with symbols that will last as long as your time. Winter and jazz, autumn and Neil Young, summer becomes whatever starts or finishes sweat, exasperating under a hazy or clear night. Spring however, licks everything with possibility making that stale St. Paddy’s day liver clean. It makes a session of catch a reality, puts a coat of vibrancy on things lethargic, let’s the sexy [...]
Circa ’97
Photography by Whiskey Gone Bad Words by Seizures R. Fake If someone told me how fucked 2009 was going to be I would have done a couple of things to prepare myself better for the spirit crushing listlessness that will forever define the end of this decade. After 10 months of wasted purpose and constant rejection by a steady stream of automated human resource department response emails, my poor ego can be found mending at a hospice on Kingsbridge Avenue in the Bronx after enduring the [...]
Beeper Code Theater
Words by Craig Berger I had a beeper once that my mother gave me my freshman year in college. It was a fine beeper. About as black and sleek as Motorola made them those days. When I didn’t call back within five minutes she would start to worry. After ten minutes she would start to cry. After fifteen minutes she would start to search the obituaries and calculate all the money that I owed her. That is why I had to throw my beeper in the lake, and it skipped well. My love [...]
Vultures
Words by Raimy Nurit Rosenduft There is a part of the movie Mean Girls that, if I still had a VCR, I would rewind to and play again and again. It’s the part of the story, after they discover the burn book, where Miss Norberry and Mr. Duvall gather all the little beyotches in the gym. The girls stand on a platform and apologize to one another. As Karen tells her friend Gretchen, “I'm sorry I laughed at you that time you got diarrhea at Barnes & Nobles… And I'm sorry for telling [...]
Make Loveland
Words by Caroline Bach Detroit is on sale, inch by inch, and for just a dollar you can own a piece of it. Welcome to Loveland. Loveland is the brainchild of futurist entrepreneur Jerry Paffendorf, and the first project of the Why Don’t We Own This? (WDWOT) division in his even larger ambition, The Crazy Company (yes, Crazy Company.) WDWOT explores the notion of enabling the general public to collaboratively create what would not be possible in a solo effort. Through the [...]
Bright Light
Photography by Jaime Martinez Go to brightlightbrightlight.com to see more of Jaime's work.
Summer In Savannah
Photography by Andrew Zellmer Words by Marcel Dagenais A couple friends of mine and I went out to Savannah, Georgia for a week this summer. I've never been down to the low country, so it was really cool to absorb the culture of the good ol' dirty south.
The Ageist and The Pea
Words by Raimy Rosenduft Leslie broke it off after a few months, two weeks short of when I planned to say, “I love you.” She was in Union Square and I could hear the snot bubbles coming out of her nose through the pay phone. I think the conversation went something like: “I’ve had a breakthrough today in therapy… and I’m straight. I’m breaking up with you.” Those are the only two words you cannot argue with. You can debate someone falling for someone else, you can yell [...]
Waterpod
Photograph by Marcel Dagenais If you've looked out at the water this summer and noticed a barge that looks a little out of place, it's most likely the work of artists, permaculturists, and architects who have come together to collaborate on a floating eco-habitat called the Waterpod. The Waterpod is focusing on the lessons and teachings of how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. The project launched it's journey in May, 2009, navigating down the East River, exploring the waters of the [...]
I Heart Heartland
Words by Megan Martin Photograph by Michael Lanzano The commute out of the city was quite simple, hop on a couple of trains through a couple of stops and some beautiful scenery. Then there was the hike through a long windy highway across a rural town in upstate New York, and the nice, young man who stopped to pick us up and drove us to our destination. The journey was well worth it. Sometimes after being surrounded by city and all it has to offer – all you want to do is get out. The [...]
Summer of Love
Photography by Marcel Dagenais Words by Megan Martin This photo was taken on one of the first hot days of summer. By hot I mean sticky hot, where you can see the thickness of the air and walking becomes more like wading. A beach trip with Marcel turned into a miniature triathalon. We rode to the train on a BMX and a beach cruiser then lugged said vehicles to the F train and out to Coney Island. But we didn’t stop there. The mission was Fort Tilden. After riding for what felt like quite [...]