Portraits

ASSIGNMENTS BRANDS 2017

February 2017 started with a location shoot in East LA for LEVIS Urban. Really cool to work with this iconic brand, I’ve been wearing them since I rocked white Levis 501’s in the London punk days.

Team Epiphany asked me to collaborate on a project for G SHOCK. They sent 50 of my limited edition 1990’s street portraits to ‘tastemakers’ in a stylish box with the the new G-SHOCK DW5600BB watch.

BURBERRY of London’s September fashion show took place in a 18th Century building surrounded by the curated exhbition ‘Here We Are’ featuring some of my punk era photos. The show has since travelled to Hong Kong and Paris.

Amazing three day shoot in August for LEVIS worldwide on location in Jersey City and Bedford-Stuyvesant. We captured the real street feel of people that wear the brand. Can’t wait to see the campaign which launches Spring 2018.

Cult boot brand FIORENTINI & BAKER commissioned me to photograph ” The Extraordinary People who wear Fiorentini & Baker”. This is an ongoing series of portraits capturing some  of the creative talented people who wear their boots, including Jose James (Jazz Musician),  Cey Adams (Artist), DJ Misbehavior  and more.

GUCCI & DAPPER DAN will show my photos of Sparky D and Salt ‘n’ Pepa wearing clothing designed by Dapper Dan at their new atelier opening January 2018 in Harlem

EXHIBITIONS 2017

Wonderful  to participate in the ‘Fem- is -in’ exhbition curated by Alice Mizrachi in March. The  group show celebrated women-led activism and art and featured some of my all time favorite women artists Jane Dickson, Lady Pink, Martha Cooper, Queen Andrea. I showed six portraits of strong women including the portrait of British artist RayBLK (shot for Interview) used on the invite.

In May the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Marseille exhibited some of my classic hip hop photographs in ‘Hip Hop : The Golden Age 1970-1995’. This great show had record attendance. Hip Hop is huge in France.

At the same time Arts Westchester’s show “From The Streets” opened featuring some of my portraits of graffiti/ street artists from contemporary artist Sydney G James shot in Detroit 2016 to the 1985 photo of Keith Haring..

In January 2017 I started working with legendary screen printer Gary Lichtenstein on a series of silk screen prints featuring my photographs of LL Cool J, Chuck D, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Salt ‘n Pepa, and Run DMC. We made a series of  limited edition large prints and a box set of six 11×14″ prints. When the 212 Gallery  exhibition of these prints opened in November Fox 5 New York evening news aired a two part documentary piece about me focusing on hip hop and punk photographs. The screen prints were also shown at Art Basel Miami in December.

 

Finally in mid December great to be one of 240 artists worldwide asked to be part of the creation of a collaborative piece of art for the 30th anniversary of the Musee ‘d’Arabe in Paris. The theme is ‘An Open eye on the Arab World’. My art used images I shot in Montpelier and Lille during the spring  hip hop tour.

 

 

PRO BONO PROJECTS 2017

In January 2017, motivated by a political climate that took me to the Women’s March in DC and numerous demonstrations in NYC, I decided to use photography as a tool for protest.

The first project in late January was for ‘Proof Media for Social Justice‘ – a photo workshop with ‘Girl Be Heard‘, portraits and a MashUp (thanks to artist Cey Adams) ‘Girl Be Heard’ empowers young women to fight for social justice issues affecting their communities—from sexual abuse to gun violence. The portraits were exhbited in a gallery in Dumbo in September.

April, my friend Julie Grahame (aCurator.com) and I decided to do a benefit for the Southern Poverty Law Center. We reached out to our friends in the photo community to donate a print to support the SPLC’s fight against domestic hate groups and other extremists. Photographers like Jamel Shabazz, Martha Cooper, Danny Clinch, Joe Conzo, Debra Feingold, Josh Cheuse, Chalkie Davis and so many more all donated work which we sold for $100 a print. We sold over 70 pieces of art in one day.

In December I went to Athens, Greece, with Proof to do a photo workshop with women refugees who live in the anarchist run City Plaza hotel. An intense experience, so glad to have perhaps changed some of their lives. We taught them how to take a good photo and gave them cameras, kindly sponsored by Fuji, to document their lives.

Last but not least happy to take a portrait of ‘Gilbert’ for my good friends at Photoville to help them fund their community programs, the Photoville exhbition, public art photo fences and year-round Education Programs, serving hundreds of students and educators across the city.. The motto ‘Hustle & Hope’ is perfect for 2018.

 

AFROPUNK 2017

Last weekend at the Afropunk Festival held in Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn I saw some cool bands, but it was the crowd that really fascinated me. The two-day festival of black arts and culture started from underground energies in punk and hip-hop. Its list of rules: No Sexism, No Racism, No Ableism, No Ageism, No Homophobia, No Fatphobia, No Transphobia, No Hatefulness makes it  an  inclusive space for everyone.


JOEY BADA$$

Photographing Joey Bada$$ in Bushwick. He was totally cool, we drove around in the car from the Mad Max movie looking at locations, lots of good industrial spots to shoot, locals coming up to talk to him. Great new album.

BLACK LIPS

Shoot with the band the Black Lips for the new issue of Jocks&Nerds magazine brilliantly styled by Mark Anthony Bradley. The Black Lips are a garage rock band from Atlanta first formed in 1999. Their new album Satan’s Graffiti or God’s Art? was produced by Sean Lennon.

 

LOUIS HAYES

I was commissioned by Blue Note to photograph the legendary drummer Louis Hayes for the cover of his new album ‘Serenade for Horace’ a tribute to Horace Sliver. Louis was born in Detroit in 1937, he came to New York when he was eighteen and joined the Horace Silver Quartet. He has recorded with everyone John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and so many more. He just celebrated his 80th birthday at Dizzy’s playing better than ever.

SALOMON

A day in Harlem photographing the rapper Salomon for Interview Magazine. We catch the 1 train uptown, styled by Melissa Levy, Salomon is wearing Prada. Later on 118th street he rocks it in Comme de Garcons with shorts and sneakers. Ladies coming up to him to say he looks ‘fine’.

INTERVIEW

Challenging shoot for Interview, models are wearing Hermes and Prada on the street in the pouring rain. We buy umbrellas for everyone and in cold wet conditions I am feeling gritty ‘William Klein’ New York City black and white images are right for the mood. Weeks later I bring the magazine to the food truck guy on Broadway, he’s thrilled to see himself in print.

GIRL BE HEARD

Working for PROOF: Media for Social Justice on a project with “G!RL BE HEARD’ who use theater to encourage young women to explore gender, race and class issues. We created a workshop environment to photograph the girls and with the guidance of artist Cey Adams they ‘mashed -up’ their images to create these art pieces.

‘GIRL BE HEARD’ have performed at the White House, the United Nations, national tours and workshops in public schools to raise awareness about human rights issues affecting women and girls. Shocking statisitics : 6 out of 10 girls growing up in the U.S. will experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. 34% of girls become pregnant before age 20.