LRM: Had you already been influenced by art or photography at the time?
EO: Yeah, my dad was a photographer in the `80s and I thought he just did fashion photography and newspaper articles, but what I found out was that he had done a lot of street life stuff. That's my whole style and documentary. When I told my dad I was in a car club called Lifestyle he said, "I shot those guys back in the `80s at a car show." I didn't believe him until he showed me the pictures. Then he laid the cameras down and started painting abstract.
LRM: Did he give you your first camera?
EO: Yeah. My stepmom and him said that I lived an interesting life and should document it with photos. So I took my first photos and have been stuck ever since.
LRM: You worked as a tour manager with House of Pain and Cypress Hill, was that the foundation for you documentary of your life with photography?
EO: Yeah.
LRM: How did you get hooked up with the tour manager gig?
EO: In the early '80s I used to work construction in the day and the front door at clubs in Hollywood at night. I was a part-time security doorman and DJ. When I was working the clubs, I would meet all the musicians and actors who came out of Los Angeles. That's where I met Ice T, House of Pain, Cypress Hill, Janes Addiction, Red Hot Chill Peppers, and a lot of others. I would see Cypress Hill at the club all the time and they liked the way I carried myself and how respectful I was to everyone. A few months later they asked me if I wanted a job as a tour manager. The bad part of it was that there was no money up front, so I asked my bosses and they both said, "That's a once-in-a-lifetime offer, I would do it if I were you. If it doesn't work out these jobs will be here for you when you get back."
LRM: What year did you start going out on the road?
EO: It was in 1992 with House of Pain.
LRM: How long did you tour for, and how many photos do you think you took while on the road?
EO: I toured for 13 years, went to 44 countries, some of them multiple times. I've been to every state at least twice and have taken about 100,000 photos of all that.
LRM: What was the craziest thing you saw happen at a club?
EO: The Boo-Yaa TRIBE beat the sh*t out of the Tone Loc tribe. It happened at this club called Hang Ten in downtown L.A. in the Little Tokyo district, upstairs on the second floor.
LRM: What happened?
EO: It was really ugly. It reminded me of a scene in a movie. The Boo-Yaa TRIBE came in the club and shortly after, the entire club came running out, including Tone Loc and his friends. They were all busted up and bleeding. So since I was the doorman/security I had to go up there to see what happened. When I got up to the second floor, the music was off, the club lights were still going, and all that was left were 10 Samoans behind the bar serving each other drinks and laughing. They were just having a grand old time by themselves. In all my days I still haven't seen anything like it.
LRM: Is there any one photo that stands out in your mind more than another?
EO: No, that's impossible.
LRM: What do you think of the digital photography revolution?
EO: I hate digital photography! The only digital I do is when a magazine makes me shoot in digital, or my camera phone. That's it.
LRM: Why?
EO: It compromises my style. The magazines say it's cheaper, but it's not a money issue to me. It's about the art and image that makes the difference. Anyone can take a digital photo and put in Photo Shop and make it look like they want by changing the color tones and all that. But not everyone can take film and produce a good photo. That's the difference. I think all that digital stuff and photo tweak is cheating. All these fake photographers should stop taking pictures with their digital cameras and stop using Photo Shop. It's disgusting, they take a photo with no effort and fix it up with a computer program.