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He has a name, but we shouldn’t really utter it. The Cobrasnake will do. It might be two words. It might be one. We're being told it's Three. The "The" is deserved. To us it’s THECOBRASNAKE with those Spanish upside down exclamation marks in front of it.
The Cobrasnake is half myth, half rumor, and half genius. Legend has it that he’s a prodigy and built a camera obscura with his legos while in the crib. The relatives were all “you can’t put Legos in an infant’s crib – he’ll swallow it!” But sometimes what comes out is beautiful.
Mark The Cobra Snake is an LA treasure hiding in plain sight. There’s no reason he’s not the most famous man in town. He goes everywhere, he portrays things precisely the way they are, he uses no gimmicks other than a semi fishy eyed lens and a magical flash he sold the devils soul to Robert Johnson to get.
We met him at the Shortstop and we knew we were in the right place. Then the celebs poured in. We met him in the streets of Austin and then 1,300 bands showed up. We met him at a film debut with two incredibly young “interns” which normally you’d say uh but somebody is posting those sweet ass pictures of his up on his website the morning after, and somehow we don’t think it’s the curly haired genius with the headband and fake glasses.
THE COBRASNAKE knows no peers, he walks on water, he breathes fire, he shapeshifts and break dances and plays the guitar just like he was ringing a bell. He simultaneously puts the I in team and fights terrorism by letting them hate us so much they love us. But mostly he snaps pics of the LA in a way that Walter Iooooooos Jr. did for Sports Illustrated back when people read SI.
If Ansel Adams’ BFF was Kid Millionaire he wouldnta been taking pictures of any damn trees.
We’ve never seen him use the viewfinder. We’ve never seen him account for lighting. We’ve never seen him not smiling. We’ve never seen him in the same room as Harpo Marx, Ron Jeremy, or Har Mar Superstar.
He is the chosen one, the unforgiven, the girl next door. If the LA Times was worth the paper it’s printed on it would have a photo by the Cobrasnake on the cover every day. Duh.
We have seen him surrounded with the ladies, we have seen his shit up on the LA Weekly and we definitely go to his page every damn day to see how he’s livin, and as they say, the man is livin large.
He is the Magic Johnson of everything and right now he’s playing center in the finals.
But most imporantly he does what every reporter or journalist or blogger or bro should do : go where you can't, and tell you what you missed.
photo used with permission by the cobra snake, from this ridiculous day in las vegas recently
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problem with cobrasnake is he only portrays the shallow fucking stupid trust fund party mostly girls who are fun but give a pretty narrow view of L.A. cobrasnake's L.A. is the L.A. you see in the pictures real L.A. is a little more varied works for a living and is populated by people who aren't always white and full of tats
rock star boys and eastside girls are great but there is much more to this city than them
but you wouldn't know it from the cobrasnake
i think thats the typical criticism, normally from people who are turned off by the hipsters he often photographs. but artists can really only show you people who they hang out with.
personally i dont really like the music played in clubs, i dont like the scene at clubs, and i dont like the attitude - but bro's pictures of it make me want to be there. thats a serious gift.
plus how cant you love this shit:
http://www.thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos/sidsekicktres/IMG_0655.html
yeah she is great but i'm tired of skinny girls
they sure do give you the run around
I hate this motherfucker. He needs to slither back up into the hills to whatever suburban gated community spawned him and take up the mantle he was supposed to carry into life, that of hanging by his parent's pool and smoking pot until he's forty.
I never used to believe that jejune was a real word until he came along.
hall is hilarious!
Cobrasnake takes some ill pictures and all, but I'm sick of seeing his bullshit self-promotion around town.
He covered up a huge thought-provoking anti-war poster I'd drive by everyday in the westside with another one of his dumbass snake posters. Don't be covering up some other dude's shit, especially if you're not going to say anything but pushing your own image.
empty,
worthless,
throwaway,
hollow,
meaningless,
futile,
insincere,
vain.
All in all, you have to credit Cobrasnake for consistently staying on point. Years from now, those looking at his collection WILL be transported to a particular time and place with this subculture...and be very happy they didn't have to bear witness to it in person.
Prolific maybe, and he does manage to capture a certain hipster joie de vivre when he's at his best, but come on—Ansel Adams? The reason you've never seen him look in the viewfinder or account for lighting is because he doesn't. He just puts that thing in burst mode and sprays it like a fire hose.
No gimmicks? Seriously?
i've seen some shitty stuff on the laist recently, but this has to be the worst. give me a break.
i don't find his hipster subjects very interesting, in fact they're boring, cliche and don't deserve the attention. party pictures are rarely interesting unless they're your friends.
from a pure photography perspective, oliver said it best - "The reason you've never seen him look in the viewfinder or account for lighting is because he doesn't. He just puts that thing in burst mode and sprays it like a fire hose."
the only thing he's got going for him is access and money.
nothing better than jealous haters who have no alternate examples of others doing it better than Cobrasnake.
and Ed, if LAist is so bad please realize, nobody is begging you to stay.
What happened to the LAist? No comment on the sudden worship of hipsters in LA (this blog is actually the first time I've ever heard anyone praise cobrasnake), but when did laist get so defensive?