Photographer Pretty Puke Documents The Raunchy Underside Of LA’s Late-Night Youth Culture

The work of Miller Rodriguez, a.k.a Pretty Puke, is photographic foray into the raunchy underbelly of LA’s nightlife. An encounter with his work is often an experience of knee-jerk repulsion, followed by a driving curiosity; it is not uncommon to see people urinating in dark alleyways, devouring fast food, vomiting, or expressing themselves in shamelessly hypersexual ways, but you can’t stop looking. And even though his technique may initially seem lo-fi, this is part of his distinct style and brand: to document raw, unedited, unglamorous life by hyperbolically representing the experiences and vices relevant to today’s urban youth — those of Generations Y and Z.

When I spoke with Miller about his work, he was a bit vague. As a voyeur to insanity and subversion, so much of his creative identity is founded on a need to remain aloof; even his photo captions are encrypted with what has been accurately described as “an other-worldly hip-hop vernacular” (Source). He did, however, provide me with some glimmering shards of insight into his political and artistic goals, which add new dimensions and interpretive possibilities to his dark repertoire. His perspective on Generation Y (and Z) is particularly illuminating, in that he views their forms of (mis)behavior as symptomatic of their uniquely digitized upbringings, in addition to the reproachful influence of older generations:

“Gen Y lives on the internet, in an entirely different universe. We communicate and express ourselves online in a completely different sphere that older people aren’t aware of. […] Older generations may look down on Generation Y for being too obsessed with technology/internet, too sexually deviant, too entitled, but they are the ones who made us who we are. […] They raised us, and created the shitty economic situation in which we have come of age, and this is the result.”

In many ways, Pretty Puke can be seen as the “found footage” for Generations Y and Z. And even though it seems to only represent a small section of LA-based youth, his work appeals to people across various subcultures as a greater visualization of dissidence.

What makes Miller’s work even more engaging is his approach towards body image, or what he identifies as the “ugly aesthetic”:

“I want to create a world with people who aren’t flawless. […] I don’t have a reaction to perfection. I’m an advocate for the ‘ugly.’ I’m exaggerating and holding up a mirror to showcase how silly we are for making everything look perfect. We all have flaws, and that’s what interests me.”

Photography is often a medium wherein the subject is groomed, propped, and airbrushed to a level of unattainable, hyper-real perfection; for Miller, this artificial manipulation of the body is “more degrading than what [he’s] doing.” He continues: “The fact that you’re carving into a person via Photoshop is mind-blowing to me. I use shitty equipment so I don’t veil the flaws in my subjects. I want to see them how they are.” The moments of cultural rebellion he documents, then, are not only signified by unintelligible and obscene behaviors, but also by the bodies themselves, written on the skin as deviations of “perfection” and conformity.

Check out Pretty Puke on his Tumblr-based website and Instagram, and follow his burgeoning, self-titled genre of stimulating and ephemeral documentary photography. As his sociological insights reveal, his work is open to interpretation and analysis. And if you have contentions with his forms of representation and/or the politics behind them, you are encouraged to express them; the purpose and power of Pretty Puke is to provoke and engage — and not to simply placate.