Right Time at the Right Place

Mark Hunter is a true Hollywood kid, born and raised in a place most people only know from the movies. He began working as an assistant to Shepard Fairey which granted him access to hip parties at a time when digital photography became accessible to everyone but before most understood its possibilities. “I was at the right time at the right place,” Mark says in hindsight. People he photographed at parties would increasingly email him about his pictures, so in 2003 he decided to start his blog, The Cobrasnake, in order to provide easy access to his photos to anyone who was interested in them. It turned out that a lot of people were, and his website became a huge success. Mark became a celebrity himself, and these days he flies around the world to snap party pictures for a number of brands and musicians. Meanwhile The Cobrasnake has come to define a certain style. "I was always complemented on my clothes, and people would email me and be like, ’Oh, that’s such a cool t-shirt; where did you get that thing?’ Mark says. "And then we started to sell it.” At his Hollywood home, Mark and his friends, who also happen to be his staff, gather heaps of vintage clothing and offer them online. His own second-hand wardrobe actually occupies the largest room in his house. “What’s so groundbreaking and innovative for me when I think about vintage clothes is that you end up finding these pieces and next season they are created for the runway,” Mark says. “When you shop vintage, you are going to be ahead of the curve because you are finding things that have already been creative, and if you interpret them in the proper way, they can be very groundbreaking. When you can go to the original source, that’s the most unique way of presenting it. When that person had the idea to create a jacket in a certain way or a certain print – that was the purest form. Capturing that instead of recreating it is more exciting for me.”

Learn more about The Cobrasnake HERE.

Editorial Lead: Kitty Bolhoefer / Filming & Photos: Fridolin Schöpper / Sound: Kevin Pate / Editing: Konterfei / Music: Bunnystripes