The portfolio of local photographer Roberto Badillo has the desolate landscapes and interesting juxtapositions you want from a documentarian with an artist’s eye. But when it comes to shooting bands live, he’s one of the best working in South Florida today. Badillo’s first group exhibition, “Punx N Pix,” is proof.
“It’s hard to say it’s art but I guess it is,” he tells PureHoney while reflecting on a childhood immersed in Circus and Creem magazines. “I think it appeals because I see things in an old school way and that classic concert shot never really gets old. I just see it through my eyes.”
Badillo’s been taking photos since his high school days and it has been his daily passion since he turned 20. Those hours spent flipping through music magazines and cutting out images to form ever-evolving collages on his walls became his education and training to capture bands in action.
He is influenced by the punk rock freedom of “Fuck You Heroes” anthologist Glen E. Friedman and other music photogs like Neal Preston, Danny Clinch, Neil Zlozower and Lynn Goldsmith — a niche group of artists who in their ancillary roles are as important to music culture as the musicians.
At “Punx N Pix” he’s joined by Jesse Samuel and Matthew Faciana for a proper showing of rock photography, art and the collective record they’ve created of South Florida’s music scene over the last few years. “No one sees photos on a wall anymore,” As Badillio says. “Everything is on their phone. This gives us an opportunity to show these images and bands as they deserve to be seen.”
Badillo, who longs to travel and document a band a la Annie Leibovitz and the Rolling Stones in 1975, has the one impetus all photographers are fueled by: to capture the moment as it happens. While there’s no second shot at Led Zeppelin’s fateful ’77 tour or Bad Brains at CBGB in 1982, Badillo is capturing lightning in a bottle right here and it is pure visual poetry.
Punx N Pix is 7pm Friday July 12 at Inchoate Art Gallery in Oakland Park with visuals by Jesse Samuel, Roberto Badillo and Matthew Faciana, and live music by The Polaroid Notebook, the Vagnauts and Bruvvy. robertobadillo.com ~ Abel Folgar
