Estevan Oriol and studio

I met with Mr Revelli of Upper Playground at a studio in downtown. It's not anything ordinary, it's the studio of artist / tattoo artist Mr Cartoon and photographer Estevan Oriol. Conventional wisdom says that it's dangerous there, but no, Estevan is the nicest guy around, and didn't hesitate to show me a cross section of his work including some folks who are no longer with us. He even photographed the portrait for the poster. I'm sure he freaked out the two big stars, since Estevan isn't an ordinary photographer. Part of what you get is his raw style and eye. The weird thing is that a part of his youth was spent very close to my house. His day lived 4 or 5 blocks up, while he lived in Santa Monica. He said, the kids of the old school gangs are back.

See his site and his works.

Here, he shows me what camera he likes to use. It's a simple Canon. He was showing me other cameras too. His first one that he liked using was an old Polaroid. 

That's a Mr Cartoon thing.

Yeah he hates being photographed. The more you hate it, the better it is. This is what a CEO looks like.

The cars... a bunch of them. The studio is like a car shop.

Evidently, Mr Cartoon was in their shop tattooing Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns. The high profile may happen in their new shop on Skid Row. There's an Upper Playground there too.