Nick Haymes: GABEtm

by Nick Haymes (Artist), Gus Van Sant (Introduction)

Nick Haymes first met Gabe Nevins on an editorial assignment in the summer of 2007. Gabe had just wrapped up his lead role in Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park , in which he had played a teenage skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard. Gabe had never acted prior to starring in the film; he had heard about Van Sant’s casting call from a skateboard store and initially auditioned as an extra. Meeting the teenager, Haymes “Initially, Gabe was fairly shy, but it quickly transpired that he had seen some of my skateboarding images online and an instant friendship was struck. When the assignment was over, I approached Gabe about the possibility of working on more photographs as there was something entirely captivating about him and his energy.” This volume tracks the highs and lows of Gabe’s teen years, from stardom to emotional breakdown and homelessness.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published February 29, 2012

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park since it came out in 2008. I was watching it the other day, and I wondered if the lead actor, Gabe Nevins, has been in anything else. So I took to Google and found out that after this film, Nevins pretty much started living His Own Private Idaho.

Photographer Nick Haymes struck up a friendship with Gabe Nevins on the set of Paranoid Park, and they did some shoots, keeping in touch over the years. These pictures, as well as some correspondence, make up Gabe. The first half of the book is Gabe Nevins as we remember him from Paranoid Park: doe-eyed and youthful, a young, adorable skateboarding punk with shaggy hair. However, in the middle of the book, Nick Haymes shares some emails from Nevins that show us he's not been doing well. He's been homeless on the streets of San Francisco and doing drugs. Haymes meets with him again, and the second half of the book shows us a different Gabe Nevins. This one is hardened, covered in psoriasis from the stress of living on the streets, baby fat gone from his face. There's a particularly tragic video on YouTube of Gabe Nevins from around this time, rapping on the street for strangers, holding a sign begging for drugs, if one is so inclined to look.

I think the photographs are beautiful and though provoking, but I wonder if they don't cross the line into exploitation. To be quite honest, though, Gabe probably doesn't have much to offer anyone who isn't interested in photography or Paranoid Park. I probably will try to check out Nick Haymes' other work after this.