Big Request To The Late Great Peter Dean Rickards aka Afflicted
And so this surreal year in which we’ve lost so many bright lights ends with the news that Peter Dean Rickards has passed away on New Year’s Eve. He battled cancer quietly, and with the same grim sense of humor that characterized all his work as a writer, film maker, photographer, cultural critic, and provocateur. Vistors to his AfflictedYard website today, who might have been searching for one of his groundbreaking pictorials—maybe something like, say, “Guns Like Dirt” perhaps—were met with the above image, even more shocking than anything else he posted—with the possible exception of those pig-slaughtering photos—and typical in its callous disregard for niceties of polite sentiment. If you couldn’t tell from his nom de guerre, Afflicted liked to keep it raw. I won’t attempt a proper obituary at this time, but I would like to send out this special request (not a dedication cause the man’s work lives) for my respected colleague turned cybercombatant and sworn nemesis. Yes there was a period of about seven years when we could not be in the same room at the same time, but thankfully we buried that particular hatchet long ago. And no matter how vexed I ever was I could not front on the man’s talent. In this post I’m sharing one of the last emails I ever received from Peter Dean. We were supposed to collab on a big project that I hope still happens but who knows?Right now all I can say is walk good bredren. Video After The Jump…. (more…)
