King Kong Magazine: Pretty Sick

Glamcult described Pretty Sick’s sound as grown out of grunge, shoegaze and “the particular teenage urgency of Lower East Side DIY” (Evita Shrestha, Glamcult), so the research started there.

1950s–70s

Money drains out of the Lower East Side; buildings are condemned.

1960s

The Holy Modal Rounders mix anarchy and folk into proto-punk “freak folk”.

1970s

Artists move into the decaying buildings. CBGB opens on the Bowery; DIY becomes a way of life.

2026

Anarchy: “the collective search for meaning that comes with having to build those structures for ourselves” (Glamcult).

In Sabrina Fuentes’ Glamcult interview about Anarchy, the conversation turned to sleep: sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, dreams that came true and a grandmother who visits in them. That became the emotional core of the shoot: a body moving through rooms half-awake, between worlds.

“I would sleepwalk terribly, and when I got older, I had bad sleep paralysis every day for a year.”

The location was a huge, empty building with no one on site to guide us. I walked every floor, photographed each usable room and drew up plans with numbered sets for floors 2, 4, 5 and 6, so the whole crew could find base camp, each set, bathrooms and exits.

Every set got a shot plan: the image, the light, the kit and references for the photographer and stylist.