{"id":799008,"date":"2019-08-29T19:54:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T01:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=878524"},"modified":"2019-08-29T19:54:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T01:54:29","slug":"how-kacey-musgraves-revived-a-quiet-los-angeles-photo-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/how-kacey-musgraves-revived-a-quiet-los-angeles-photo-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"How Kacey Musgraves Revived a Quiet Los Angeles Photo Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Kacey Musgraves<\/a> stopped by the half-shuttered building advertising one-hour photos on the outskirts of L.A.\u2019s Koreatown neighborhood Saturday night, owner Tom Nguyen thought it was just another customer coming in for portraits.<\/p>\n

Sandwiched between a pet store and discount hardware store, Tom\u2019s 1 Hour Photo isn\u2019t exactly the type of place you would expect to find someone like Musgraves, or most tourists for that matter. Faded posters, old calendars and sepia-toned photographs of families and stock models adorn the walls of the trailer-sized space, with signs in the front advertising cheap passport photos and camera repairs. In the back, there\u2019s a makeshift studio, where customers can book half-hour appointments to pose in front of their choice of vaguely-retro, Hot Topic-esque pull-down backdrops. The basic package includes a photographer, a set of photos (either printed out or as a digital file) and occasionally, if Nguyen feels inspired, a few video clips as well.<\/p>\n

Musgraves, who played two sold-out shows at L.A.\u2019s Greek Theatre over the weekend as part of her \u201cOh, What a World\u201d tour<\/a>, explained in an Instagram post that she was looking for a quick one-hour photo spot in the city. As Musgraves writes in her post, which has since amassed more than 165,000 likes, it was her sister who found Tom\u2019s, a blink-and-you-miss-it spot off bustling Beverly Blvd. The singer went in and posed for a series of vintage-inspired glamor shots, wearing a red, white and blue tracksuit and holding a red rose. She later shared a couple of the photos on social media, and they immediately went viral.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

Nguyen says Musgraves introduced herself, though as someone who doesn\u2019t follow music much, he didn\u2019t know who she was. His interest was piqued, however, when he noticed the \u201cpretty girl\u201d had arrived with her own makeup team. \u201cIt all happened very quickly,\u201d Nguyen says, recounting the experience less than 72 hours later. \u201cIt just took 30 minutes and then she was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as quickly as she had waltzed in unannounced, Musgraves and co. were out the door. It was only later, when Musgraves posted about her visit \u2014 along with outtakes of her photoshoot \u2014 did Nguyen realize who had been posing in front of his chalky, white rose print backdrop.<\/p>\n

Musgraves sent out a series of posts about Tom\u2019s 1 Hour Photo on Wednesday (the singer has 1.6 million Instagram followers and 800,000 on Twitter), and re-tweeted a number of comments about her experience. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those rare mom-and-pop gems that has lasted thru trends coming and going and weirdly has come back around again without even realizing it,\u201d she wrote in an Instagram post. She finished the post by encouraging fans to stop by the shop, writing, \u201cLet\u2019s keep this charming business afloat!\u201d<\/p>\n

Nguyen says the phone hasn\u2019t stopped ringing since. An \u201cappreciation\u201d account that Musgraves started for the shop<\/a> on Instagram gained 30,000 followers in less than two days. The singer later posted a screengrab of Nguyen\u2019s son thanking her for spreading the word about his family\u2019s tiny business, leading to more likes and retweets. The store has gotten so busy that Nguyen\u2019s wife, who works at a nail salon, is now coming in on her days off to help keep up with the demand.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, there were five people lining up to have their portraits taken before 11:00 a.m., including \u2014 curiously \u2014 the actress Maude Apatow, who showed up right as the store opened, wearing a blue dress with red lipstick and dangling earrings. After snapping some photos in the shop\u2019s back studio, Apatow disappeared down the street into her friend\u2019s Range Rover and just like that, she was off, one brief moment of whimsy spurred by another.<\/p>\n

\"tom's<\/p>\n

Courtesy Jack Platner<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nguyen was born in Vietnam, but left the country in 1979, settling into the scrappy Koreatown neighborhood that he\u2019s called home ever since. He worked odd jobs here and there \u2014 at a restaurant, selling newspapers \u2014 before saving up enough money to get married and open Tom\u2019s 1 Hour Photo in 1991.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been taking photos for more than 40 years and here for 30 years,\u201d he says, tapping his fist on the front counter. \u201cThis is my life; I don\u2019t know anywhere else. Monday to Sunday, I work everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s never had any attention before, he says, so he\u2019s still trying to figure it all out. He\u2019s going to ask a friend to maybe help him with Instagram, and he might put up a photo of Musgraves on the wall (\u201cNormally, if I know the singer, I\u2019ll print out a big picture and ask her to sign it for me, as a memory,\u201d he explains).<\/p>\n

He remembers Musgraves saying she hopes to see him again, but now that he knows who she is and has seen her schedule, he won\u2019t hold her to it. And while stories of Musgraves \u201csaving\u201d a down-and-out business may have been slightly exaggerated, Nguyen says he\u2019s still grateful for the attention she\u2019s brought to the small shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s normally busy here,\u201d he says, \u201cbut when something happens like this, it\u2019s a nice surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause she didn\u2019t tell me she was a singer, I just thought she was a regular customer,\u201d he continues. \u201cShe looked like she was having fun, she thought the photos were nice \u2014 I was just happy that she liked it. If the customer is happy,\u201d he says with a smile, \u201cI\u2019m happy too.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Kacey Musgraves stopped by the half-shuttered building advertising one-hour photos on the outskirts of L.A.\u2019s Koreatown neighborhood Saturday night, owner Tom Nguyen thought it was just another customer coming in for portraits. Sandwiched between a pet store and discount hardware store, Tom\u2019s 1 Hour Photo isn\u2019t exactly the type of place you would expect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-799008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 13:55:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}