Naud Fire: The Chinatown Eviction Story
After my yearlong pandemic hiatus from Monster Children magazine, I wanted to return with a bang.
That bang turned into an eviction notice.
As it nears the first anniversary of my return—and with another MC Annual just around the corner—it seems appropriate to tell the story of how my first post-pandemic photoshoot got us kicked out of 1700 Naud.
A few years prior, we’d talked about doing something with the ever-evolving and always-stylish Erik Ellington, but it never came to fruition. Upon my return, that seemed like the first and best thing I should sink my teeth into—the perfect cover story for the 2021 Annual. MC Art director Campbell Milligan and I put together a mood board, and I met up with Erik to brainstorm what we could pull off. There was an array of images on the board: big landscapes, horses, cowboy hats, and some dude on fire. As we went over everything, I asked Erik what he would be willing to shoot, and he responded, ‘Let’s do it all.’
Yes, let’s definitely do it all. I got excited.
We got to planning. Erik had a friend with a horse, I had a friend with a view, and we had a spacious Los Angeles office (1700 Naud) to contain a fire. I’d recently worked with pyrotechnic designer Anthony Delzio, so we really had all our ducks in a row to make this happen safely.
1700 Naud had been around for a couple of years, and after a handful of absolutely raging events, Monster Children was not the favorite neighbor in the complex. The landlord was ready to get rid of us for even the slightest infraction.
We carefully lit a couple of flame throwers and a few indoor fires on shoot day. A behind-the-scenes video made it back to Campbell in Australia. We were all very excited about how well the shoot was going, so when Campbell thought it was a great idea to post an Instagram story with the caption ‘Seems legal,’ no one flinched.
Sure enough, one of the nosey neighbors saw the post and began stirring the porridge. They forwarded a screenshot of the IG post to the landlord. A day later, an eviction notice was sent, explaining how we had clearly violated the lease terms and were expected to vacate the premises within the month. Luckily the photos turned out, and we got a cover out of the shoot, which is all that matters, really.
There are only so many pages in an issue of Monster Children magazine, so there were a ton of photos that never saw the light of day. Now that some time has passed and the trauma from losing the space is a distant memory, here is what got left on the clipping room floor.
Our days at 1700 Naud were already numbered, and it probably turned out to be a weird blessing in disguise. It was a great event space, but events had become a thing of the past—time to move on to grander pastures with friendlier neighbors in Echo Park.