Snap Shano Rogue, C-Type Photograph, 1. They didn't ride bikes, but they quickly developed all the trimmings of an outlaw motorcycle club: patches, club colors, and a fiercely violent process of initiation. They came to be known as the Mighty Mongrel Mob and today they're the largest gang in the country, with around 30 chapters across both islands.
Media access to the Mob is rare, which is why this photo series by Jono Rotman is kind of a big deal. Jono, who is a Wellington born photographer now living in NYC, cut his teeth capturing New Zealand's prisons and psychiatric wards, before he took on gang life in We asked him how he convinced hardened gang members to sit for large format photography, and what he learned along the way.
Notorious Snapshot 24, Jono Rotman: Initially I called the gang liaison officer at the NZ police and got a list of numbers of people who communicate between the gangs and the police. How did you convince them this was a good idea? I explained that I wasn't trying to "tell their story," expose them, or some shit like that. Instead I told them I wanted to take martial portraits. And you know, regardless of where the Mob are viewed in the social hierarchy, these men have committed to a creed and fought battles, sometimes to the death.
Basically the more they thought it was honest, the more they understood I wanted to produce something more complex than a cultural postcard. Then once there was go-ahead from the top, the guys down the bottom were happy to cooperate.
These guys are hierarchical. Did you feel intimidated? Of course. Mob history is very bloody and NZ is a country with few guns so these guys don't earn their stripes without putting their bodies on the line. Perhaps because of this, they have little to prove and are very upfront to deal with. There was always a tacit understanding that they could kill me if I fucked with them. Denimz Rogue, The first place I went to was in Porirua to photograph Denimz, the guy with the dogs on his cheeks.
