Tyler, The Creator Photographer Brick Stowell on Documenting the “Mystical” Lore of Odd Future and His Flog Gnaw Exhibit

A few weeks ago at Tyler, The Creator's annual Flog Gnaw festival, while the rapper was looking to the future—performing his brand new album Chromakopia in full—elsewhere on the Dodger Stadium grounds fans could step inside a tent and be transported into his past.

The architect of this time machine was Brick Stowell. Tyler once famously approached Stowell on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles and asked him for the Supreme shirt on his back; Stowell agreed on the condition that Tyler and his boys come by his studio for a shoot. From that moment on, he served as Tyler and Odd Future's main photographer during the height of their time as a collective featuring the likes of Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, Syd, Lionel Boyce—artists whose solo work has defined the last 10 years of music and culture. Odd Future's heyday remains one of the most fondly remembered, achingly pined-for micro-eras in contemporary hip-hop, and on the occasion of Flog Gnaw's tenth anniversary, Tyler and his manager Christian Clancy reached out to Stowell—who parted ways with the gang around 2016—to come back to the fold for a gallery show.

That initial idea morphed into a full-on exhibit called Almost Famous. Lucky festival attendees got to walk through a special space filled with rare photos but also 3D memorabilia, like Tyler's bike from the Wolf album cover, international arrest records, seminal stage outfits, and even Tyler's go-kart. Some of Brick's photos have been collected into a coffee table book, Almost Famous, of the same name, currently for sale.

But in a phone interview with GQ the week after the festival, a newly reenergized Brick said what he'd put together so far was just the beginning. Below, Brick reflects on the reaction to the exhibit, his time with Odd Future, and why the group meant so much then and now.

Jasper and Tyler, The Creator.Courtesy of Brick Stowell

Brick Stowell: Can I be fully transparent with you?

I mean, look, man, the weird part about it is I removed myself from the situation. And when I say I removed myself from the situation, around 2015 is when I had my daughter, and then I rocked it out for about another year and a half with them. And then I just... No weird things at all between me and Chris and Kelly [Clancy], or Tyler, or the band. It was just, like, the job is done.

So it's like, I dipped out 2016 and then basically went into hibernation. I removed myself from socials. I wasn't posting anything from that era. I was a manager at Jon and Vinny's. And so, from 2016 to now, I've been sitting on this shit. And it's literally just all been hella organized in all my negative sheets. All the fucking ephemera's been organized in little folders and labeled all correctly, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Everything has been in these black cases in my house, and it's just constantly traveled with me when I've moved over the last eight years.

And so then, again, full transparency, around July, I was about to move to New York to become a tour manager for Fanatics—like, roll around with athletes to do meet and greets. But that rug got pulled from underneath me, and I was low-key bummed, because I was excited to start a new journey.

Two weeks later, Clancy calls me and he goes, "All right, brother. You ready? 10-year anniversary. It's time for you to get your flowers. You got to do a gallery." And, if you would've asked me a year ago, "Hey, you think you'll do something at the 10-year anniversary?" I would've been like, Hell no. Just because I wasn't even thinking like that.

The reason I tell you all that is because going into this weekend, Frazier, I knew people were going to like it. But one, this is my first time doing this, showing this work. Two, I don't really consider myself an artist. I consider myself more like an archivist, if that makes sense, because I was more running around just documenting… a lot of this stuff in this work, bro, was just the boys being the boys.

And so, going into this weekend—I know what I have because I know how special it is to me. But after this weekend, this ain't no ego shit, but something changed over the weekend, like from an Odd Future historical standpoint. The fans really ate that shit up, homie. And so, if you're going to ask me how I'm feeling, I'm feeling like I'm filling a void that no one else is filling right now with the musical culture. That's how I'm feeling.

Frank Ocean.Courtesy of Brick Stowell.

Let's just talk about that real quick, though, because, again, transparency. Thebe didn't even pull up on me, bro. Not in a bad way, but that's just how it goes with Odd Future. Not every member always comes through, bro. And there's no qualm.

If I’d have seen Thebe, he'd be like, "What's up Brick?" And it's all good. But, he just didn't come through and that's not a problem. Left Brain didn't come through. Hodgy wasn't even at the carnival. And that's what Odd Future is. That's the beauty of it. It's a collective. It's like everybody can participate, but not everybody has to participate at once. You know what I mean?

Earl Sweatshirt and Lionel Boyce.Courtesy of Brick Stowell

I mean, it was a slow fizzle to be honest, because you kind of saw it happening internally with the trajectory of the success of certain artists. And, unfortunately... well, not unfortunately, but what's going to come from an Odd Future example, is a group that goes, “No, we're not going to break up. We're going to beat everybody.” And be kind of more like how Wu-Tang survived.

And I'm not comparing the boys to Wu-Tang. That's not what I'm saying. But, the difference is that the time of Odd Future holds so much core memory for a certain generation. So, watching that fizzle out was a bit, it was a little frustrating because still, at that time, if I'm going to be honest with you, I knew what was going on when it was going on, meaning I knew how special it was. And if they would've just rode the wave a little bit more, who knows what would've happened? But shoulda, woulda, coulda, it is what it is, bro. Now it's even more special, the lore. The lore of OF is so mystical and magical. And you saw what happened with what I did over the weekend. So it created that even more now, dude, even more.

Domo Genesis.Courtesy of Brick Stowell

Syd.Courtesy of Brick Stowell.

Now it's crucial. But, photo-wise, this is just the tip of the iceberg, homie. Projects all year, new stuff, not stuff you guys have seen and not stuff in that book that's out. At the point when I was on Instagram, and at the point when I was on Tumblr, yes, I was putting stuff out. But, I went into hibernation with it after because I saw what was happening with social [media]... people are just on copycat culture and it’s just, burn it out, burn it out, burn it out."

And so all these kids are kind of surface level now. They don't have any... It was a full-on history lesson all weekend. I felt like a kind of college professor in there, explaining these things. But in the best way possible, I kept saying to them, "Yo, this is for you, dude." Because I got to experience it. I lived my dream—all I wanted to do was roll around with a hip-hop crew and take photos, and get in trouble.

Bro, there's so many war stories, meaning what the fuck just happened? type of stories. Baller ass hotels, Tyler, Jasper and Taco slide off fucking paintball grenades. We were in London and Tyler insisted to Clancy, "I'm not doing interviews unless all of the press comes to interview us while we play paintball with each other."

And then they brought some of the paintball grenades back to the hotel room, and they called me and they're like, "Dude, Brick, we fucked up. We just lit the grenade off."

So now, what I'm getting back from them is low-key high-school-reunion vibes. That's what it feels like because I've been gone for so long, and I didn't burn it out, and I didn't ask them for fucking passes to their shows for the last nine, 10 years, and wasn't thirsty. And so, I come back, present this show of them—it's not me. It has nothing to do with me, it's not a bunch of pictures of me.

Odd Future, A Bathing Ape Mook 2010.Courtesy of Brick Stowell

MellowHype.Courtesy of Brick Stowell.

I never went to my high school reunion. But that's what I think what it would feel like. You're hugging your homie that you haven't seen in hella long, but you fought with that person. You've argued with that person. You've had to wake them up. You've had to say, “Yo, buddy, it's fucking showtime.”

I mean, dude, this was so crazy one time. I remember we were all so excited. It was Odd Future, Trash Talk, Frank Ocean, and we were taking a plane from, I think, Paris to Sweden. And we were in this like this small country airport. It was so ill bro, that there was a Gagosian like on the hut on the outside. I remember this vividly.

These fools didn't even know about it at the time. Matt McCormick, who was my tour assistant, and is now an ill-ass artist, was on the tour and we were both just standing there like, "Oh, this is so ill." The boys are like, "I'm fucking hungry." I was like, "Dude, there's a little bar over there. Go get some yogurt." They roasted me for two hours about eating yogurt. And I'm like, "Bro, we're in Europe. That's what they eat in the morning here." And I bet you these fools fucking eat yogurt now.

So the antics and the funny shit with them was so silly and ridiculous at times that, just linking back up with them was very, very, I don't know—it was just surreal. They would look at the things and say, "Man, thank you, Brick, for doing that."

Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and Jasper.Courtesy of Brick Stowell.

Frazier, Frazier. You can't say that to me, bro. Wow, wow, wow. I mean, dude, you saying that, this is all I want. The fact that you're saying my exhibit at a fucking carnival where it was all dusty, you're saying it looked like Jay-Z at the public library? Come on, dog.

So, look, let's talk about that real quick. I'm so fucking glad you said that, because who, contemporary, has done what I've done? What artist has had somebody in their crew present an archive at this moment in their career. Tyler's about as big as they can get, right? Usually when these types of things are presented, it's post-death. So, the fact that we're presenting an archive of a band when they're all not burnt, yet. Who knows if they'll ever get burnt. I hope they don't. I don't think they will.

Frank Ocean.Courtesy of Brick Stowell

MellowHype.Courtesy of Brick Stowell

When I met them and I started taking photos of them… do you know the feeling of when you're kind of scared but you're kind of excited? t's always been like that with the crew. So, I'm always ready for the pivot. So right now we're in this whole new era of Tyler.

If you don't know how to pivot with Odd Future, then you're never going to be able to keep up. But you have to constantly be pivoting with them. And when I say fear and excitement, that's a really good feeling. It's like, what's going to happen? What's the next wave?

I always knew that these motherfuckers were going to be famous. They just had it, bro. And when Tyler and Taco and Earl, and Syd and Frank, and everybody, when you would step into any setting with them, they could speak the language. It's not easy to do, man. Not everybody can do it. There's not many that exist nowadays like that.

I guess what I will say is, he was who I was… not stressed, but concerned about the most to get validation from upon walking through it. Because when I was working through the show, I linked up with him at his studio when he was in album mode. And, at the end of the conversation I was leaving and he was like, "Just really just go for it, man."

And, most of the time, full transparency, we just talk about girls the whole time. When I pulled up, I was like, "Who you fucking right now?" Like, "What's good?" Straight up. That's how he and I talk. When he said, "Really just go for it," I've never heard those fucking words out of his mouth. To me, I'm saying.

Yes, there's been many cool creative moments. Yes, he's given me the keys. "Hey, Brick, go... You can shoot this." And then I shoot it and he's like, "Nah, those don't work. Reshoot it." There's been so many learning moments. Tyler and I have this interesting trust between each other. He pushes me creatively, and I don't put him on a pedestal. I'm just straightforward with him. I'm not saying I'm combative. I'll take his criticism on the chin and I'm going to fucking bounce back up and be like, "All right, let's do this."

Because he's going to do that to me for me to learn from the situation. He's not doing it to be critical and be like, "Fuck Brick. This fool's a buster." Because I know he knows that I know what I'm doing. He wouldn't let me do what I did over the weekend if he didn't trust me. And so, walking through it was like one of those punch-the-sky moments when you're like, "Fuck, yeah!" Like, yes.

He was like, "Brick, good shit, homie."

Lionel Boyce and Earl SweatshirtCourtesy of Brick Stowell.

The instant replay machine. A lot of people don't really understand that machine, and that machine is a pivotal piece in hip-hop history, not just for us. It's for large collectives that have many, many songs and they dump their instrumentals on there and it's very easy to travel with. And many crews back in the '80s and '90s would use those. So I would say probably from that realm of things, that is one of my favorite pieces.

Tyler, The Creator.Courtesy of Brick Stowell.

Okay, so the plan is is travel with the show and take it on the road to some capacity. And then what I can promise you is that there will be Almost Famous as a [multi-]volume series. So, this is the first edition, and then as the books come out, there will be volumes to it. I'm going to be doing stuff like "Almost Famous" behind the music videos, behind the scenes, and it's strictly music, video stuff.

Almost Famous... I mean, I could put out a full book of Frank if I wanted to. I have that many photos of him. And when I go on the road with the show, the photos are going to change per city. So let's just say we go to Tokyo, all the photos will be all Tokyo photos.

The reception is off the fucking chain, homie. It's fucking gnarly. And so, it's now time to super-serve the fandom. Now it's time to give you guys this whole archive. You guys are all pumped up about it. Fools are receiving it. The reception is the way I hoped it would be received in the terms of musical history, not so much content. Does that make sense? I know it is content, but I want it to be portrayed more as like if you don't know about it, here's your chance to learn about it. You know what I mean?

The fandom is one of those things where it's like you can see how loyal and how much it helped form some of their early youth and how inspiring it was to people. It was very a pivotal time for them, whether they were going through something or whether they were trying to learn to be creative. And really the goal is for some little fucker out there to go and do this with their homies.

A Bathing Ape Mook 2010Courtesy of Brick Stowell