Nate Harrington is a DJ, photographer and creator of the zine Constantly Pregnant. He grew up in Southern California and has lived in LA for 6 years now. He works at the selectively curated Family Bookstore on Fairfax Ave and is a frequent contributor to ANP Quarterly.

More from Nate Harrington

Oil of L.A.

Photo Gallery

Interview

So how did you get involved with this Palladium shoot?

I met this guy Ben, who works with Palladium, at the bookshop I work at and we quickly figured out we had mutual friends. A few weeks later he called and said he thought I might be good for this project he was putting together.

The project was about urban oil drilling and hidden wells. Where did you guys go?

We went to Farmer’s Market on Fairfax and 3rd street, the Beverly Center Mall, Beverly Hills High and Signal Hill Petroleum, which is outside of LA but still part of LA county. They were all very different from each other in their oil rig set ups but they were all similar in that they’re very normal locations where something a bit unusual takes place every day and we don’t notice it until it’s pointed out to us. I definitely got into that. We also shot outside of LA, at an abandoned refinery in Ojai.

How long have you been living in Los Angeles?

I grew up in Orange County and moved up to LA in 2006 after years of coming up to the city to go to shows and stuff.

Did you have any idea that the city was actually sitting on a huge oil basin?

Nope. I work right up the street from the Farmer’s Market, and I had no idea that it was built on an oil field, same thing with the Beverly Center. It was really interesting to learn all this stuff - all this stuff that is basically happening in our backyard.

What do you think about having a building in such an open location clearly made to look like something it’s not? Sneaky?

I don’t think it’s sneaky. It’s not hidden knowledge from the public, anyone could find out about it. We met a guy outside Beverly Center who knew it had been there for 20 years and was like, it used to be a pony track – I don’t think it’s sneaky at all.

But you couldn’t go in.

At one location they gave us an excuse that we couldn’t go in because of vandalism. At THUMS [the fake island off of Long Beach - Ed.] it was because of safety – I mean you could think and make a story up if you wanted to, but I just took it as what it was.

Those buildings had doorbells. How come you didn’t ring any of them?

Yeah – there were people inside too! I was just tripped out. I wasn’t sure if it was OK or not OK to be there. We weren’t doing anything bad, but they might perceive it as bad. It was like Day 1 and I didn’t want us to end up getting in trouble for some bell. I kinda regret it now.

Tell me about Don Clarke, the guy who showed you around some of these drilling sites.

He’d been a geologist since the early 70s and he taught at USC. I expected some guy in a lab coat. He was cool, and he had a good attitude and a really great talent for taking complex things and explaining them in a way that everyone can understand. He even told some geology jokes.

Oh yeah? Hit me with his best geology joke.

We were in the car, and he’s like, “They say to be a geologist you really have to know your schist.” Then there was this pause for a few seconds, and then he said really quickly, “Schist is a type of rock.”

Have you been telling everyone about all the hidden oil, like the LA town crier?

It’s my party conversation now! Like ‘Hey, did you know there’s oil under the Grove and at the mall?’ Everyone has the same reaction I have. I haven’t met a single person that knew about it already. It really reinforces the plain-site factor of it all – it’s there, but no one sees it. I didn’t know about it. My peers don’t know about it. But it’s there. It’s interesting.

What was it like working with the photographer, Peter Sutherland?

Peter is a good friend of mine so going into it I knew it’d be fun but I didn’t realize how much work a photo shoot was. I know to some that might sound silly, but for me it was definitely a new challenge.

You used to have your own photography zine, Constantly Pregnant. Did you take any of your own photos on the shoot?

I don’t really carry around a camera, but I have an iPhone and took photos with my phone at the abandoned refinery in Ojai. It was this crazy, post-apocalyptic looking thing that hasn’t been working in over 25 years. There’s graffiti, it’s all rusted and dirty, and there are piles of rubble all around.

Did you ever just ask these oil guys what they’re going to do when it’s all gone?

When you ask them that question directly, they all answer it in the same way. They never say it will never run out. Yet they’re optimistic that it will keep producing, at least for the near future. I mean, I guess then we have to figure out something else.