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Another photo blogger takes his prints to a museum.

With friends like his (Chloe Sevigny, Benjamin Cho, Ryan McGinley, Cat Power, and Jerry Hsu), photographer Patrick O'Dell could have easily exploited his connections and become a club promoter. Instead, O'Dell has used his sharp eye and close relations to transform his favorite people into raw art.

In To All My Friends, O'Dell's newest show at Toronto's Studio Gallery, intimate portraits and scenes of his life--from documenting skateboarders to capturing late-night revelry--are on display. The curators will also update the walls with newer images to mimic O'Dell's popular photo blog, Epicly Later'd, so the space will become a hard copy of his online journal.

Arguably, O'Dell's images are some of the best visual slices of American youth culture today: cinematic frames of tattoos, cigarettes, and disheveled hair with all of its imperfect beauty.

But don't just take our word for it: He recently directed a music video for Morrissey, and Altamont Clothing collaborated with him on a fashion line.  Next up, club promoting?  Probably not.

Catch To All My Friends until July 23rd.
SABRINA COOPER

studio.to/patrickodell.html



This story was published on July 7, 2008.