Shawn Mortensen documented popular culture so others could vicariously experience his own journey through life, a journey that has sadly and unexpectedly come to an end at the age of 43.

 

“My art is the experience,” he told me two years ago after dropping in to the Dazed offices to talk about his book Out of Mind. “The photography is merely a souvenir of that experience. I’m making it everyday, every moment. The photographs I’m leaving are a historical reference of our time and I feel very strongly about that. I never wanted to be defined by the art establishment – I wanted to define myself.”

 

A painter, writer, skate fanzine innovator, MTV award winning video director, actor, and, of course, cult photographer, Shawn’s artistic talents knew no limits.

 

“People would get pissed off with me for walking away from what they perceived as ‘success’,” he said, dressed like a fashion shaman in a multi coloured Mongolian kaftan. “I acted in Robert Altman’s film Ready to Wear but it just wasn’t where the future was for me. Instead I went to go and live with the Zapatistas in Mexico because that was where my heart was.”

 

He was a contemporary of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, best man at Gwen Stefani’s wedding, roommate of Joe Strummer, and peer of Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola. His thirst for documenting cutting edge cultural movements led him from the roughest Jamaican ghettos to the homes of Bjork, Ice Cube, 2Pac, and the Wu Tang Clan. He put Buzz Aldrin in a Helmut Lang space suit, shot Kate Moss on the catwalk, and told Timothy Leary that the aliens were coming to get him. He even asked a teenage Snoop Dogg to point a loaded glock into his camera lens.

 

“It’s not about me, it’s about the people in my pictures,” he said while looking at his portrait of Biggie Smalls, which was shot days before the rapper’s own death. “When you’re looking at my picture of Biggie you’re looking at me. I’m reflected in my art. That’s how I want people to see me.”

 

Shawn’s unorthodox style of photography and larger than life personality made him a regular and much loved contributor to Dazed, i-D, Spin, Rolling Stone, and many other global trend setting publications.

 

“I see my camera as an extension of my hand and my finger,” Shawn explained when I asked him about the secret of his success. “People laugh at me when I hold my camera feet away from my face and take photos, but after all these years I know what they will look like. I’ve shot with everything from a 8x3 camera down to a disposable camera. It ain’t the size of the wand – it’s the magic that it makes.”

 

It’s so sad to think that Shawn won’t ever shoot another picture or sweep through Dazed’s offices again in his kaftan brandishing his ever-present Polaroid camera. We’re just thankful he left the world such a thrilling archive of images. They will never grow old.

 

“I could have made a fortune, but I think I’ve had a really good life,” he said as we came to the end of our interview. “I decided when I was 18 that I really didn’t want to start showing my work until 20 years had passed. I didn’t want anyone to corrupt my aesthetic. I felt really strongly about keeping my work pure and honest and intimate. Whenever I try to make art, I make it as if it’s my last because you just never know in this life, you could be hit by a bus or something.”

 

Text Tim Noakes

 

RIP Shawn Mortensen (1966-2009)

shawnmortensen.org