Charles Dean Hood photos

here are a few Charles Dean Hood photos I took in at the Texas Death Row Polunsky Unit in Livingston last week while shooting a doc video for Texas Monthly.

Unfortunately the story of Charles Dean Hood is going south - you can follow the details and see some of the video footage on on Evan Smith's Blog













Brian Birzer is a freelance photographer based in Austin TX
all images are © 2008 www.birzerphoto.com

Paramore and Jimmy Eat World in San Antonio

Here are a few photos from a gallery I shot for Rolling Stone last week. It was the tour kick off for Paramore and Jimmy Eat World.













Brian Birzer is a freelance photographer based in Austin TX

launch: HalfJapanese.info

I was first introduced to the music of Jad Fair and Half Japanese in 1991 when I was living in California, drinking lots of coffee and tequila (usually not at the same time). I instantly became a huge fan of their timeless and pure approach to being in a rock band. Around 1993 Jeff Feuerzeig made a full length documentary (excerpt) of this mostly unknown band. I was also able to see Jad Fair play in San Francisco that year and got some photos of him at the Paradise – and once the infranets were invented a year or so later I went on to build a first gen html fan site.

Fast forward to 2008 and the original line up of Half Japanese is back – they played 5 shows in Austin at sxsw earlier this month. Inspired by these shows I felt it was time to shake the bad html off the site I made 10 years ago and put some new life (and a new domain) into it. It's a good opportunity to post a very extensive collection of album art that I got directly from Jad. It’s still a work in progress, but I hope to add more photos and video that I shot in the near future.

…so I give you: Half Japanese.info

media links to sxsw photos

Rolling Stone is using a couple of my photos from sxsw: Link 1 Link 2

You can also see some of my Lemonheads photos at pensatos.com as well as some Yo La Tengo photos from last saturday.

Lou Reed photos at Now Public

Mic to Mic Money mark photos

and an Ezra Furman photo in the Bostonist

SXSW 2008

I've started what will be a long (and fun) week of shooting for sxsw last night.
So far hilights have included sitting next to Morgan Spurlock at the Alamo South as the power went out and beers became free...and seeing Yo La Tengo at the tap room..again free beers...

here's a collection of photos that will continue to grow as the week moves on.

the Burn Ups

Did a photo shoot with the Burn Ups last weekend, masterminded by Bill Ogden, we went after a post Kiss comic book aesthetic (they actually have a comic book). These guys will be at sxsw also.







more photos here

Obama - Clinton Debate in Austin

CNN ran the Clinton/ Obama debate like a military operation. The photogs were lined up single file into two groups - the Regualar photographers (ie. Getty, NYTimes, etc) and the other 20 or so they let in to shoot "the Spray" - and the rest were turned away. Security was tight, anyone who "touched" the stage would be taken out by the secret service. In the end we had about 2 minutes to get our shot while everyone posed formal wedding style. I did feel like I was in the middle of a Clinton sandwich with Chelsea 2 feet behind me and Hillary 2 feet in front of me! YIKES! I'll always have another chance tomorrow at the Obama rally on congress.







see more here