"I'd e-mailed Eon McKai after seeing Kill Girl Kill and we formed a mutual admiration society," Naz said.
In fact, McKai liked Naz' work so much that the Vivid-Alt honcho gave Naz a movie without first checking if Naz knew how to work a video camera.
"I spent some time on Winkytiki's movie (Rebelle Rousers) and Eon actually taught me some camera basics the day before we started shooting Skater Girl Fever," Naz said.
This will probably infuriate some people, but that ire will probably be directed toward McKai instead ("My heart is too big for this businesss," McKai said). Naz has a sterling reputation among Valley talent, with his banner popping up on the sites of some of your favorite porn stars.
Naz does a lot of fetish work, regularly shooting for publications like "Tight", "Leg World", and "Panty Play". A Native Angeleno, Naz credits an early big break in the business to photographer/video director/Richard Kern.
"People guard their jobs in Los Angeles," I said.
"Richard was very generous with his time," Naz said. "He didn't have to be. I got one of my first big jobs after assisting Richard on one of his, and I asked him if that was OK. People are sometimes gatekeepers, it's true, but he wasn't.
"In fact, a lot of people wouldn't be working if it weren't for him."
A great deal of fetish photography is about two people in the room, the model and the photographer. The easy poses and comfortable atmosphere apparent in his stills indicate a rapport with his subjects that makes Naz a sought-after photographer.
"Like a lot of other people, I started out doing content trades (the photographer gets pictures of the model and the model gets a set of pictures)," Naz said.
"(But) I've gotten to the point that setting up a shoot is much easier," he said. "There aren't too many variables beyond the model herself. It's actually a lot harder shooting movies."
I asked Naz if, after Skater Girl Fever, he would continue shooting movies.
"(Shooting SGF) was fun, but if I continued, I wouldn't be one of those guys shooting four movies a month," he said.
Naz' work seems informed by collaboration, and he has travelled with a photographers' collective that also includes Carlos Batts.
Naz has put together several collections of photographs, all published by Goliath and all representative of his day gigs. "Lust Circus" (2002), "Panties" (2003), "Legs" (2004), and "Fresh" (2006), feature a lot of models he shot for similarly-themed magazines, most of whom are familiar to video porn audiences.
Not being an L.A. native, I'm often guilty of being surprised when someone not only says they grew up here but that they love it here. My experience has been that it's either one or the other, with few exceptions.
"All my books say 'L.A.'," Naz said. "I love it here, and I've been everywhere" (he co-founded pop-punk band Chemical People in the late '80's and toured the U.S. and Europe intermittently for several years).
"So the idea of a Skater Girl movie definitely reflected what I knew, or what I saw," he said.
"Can you skate?" I asked.
"No. I'm a huge klutz. Only Nadia Styles could actually skate in the movie."
Previously: At home with April Flores and Carlos Batts; Skater Bloody Skater; ReBelle Rousers and their genomes
See also: Dave Naz Photography
