Fashion designer Pam Hogg and a guy from the hood posing on Bowery a few years ago. Pam always had more rebel street style in her tattooed little finger than most.
It is Fashion Week in NYC, I’m excited about working on a new project with an eye wear company tomorrow.
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September 8th, 2011
Just got the book ‘Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label‘. I’ve known the author, Bill Adler, since he walked into my studio in 1985 with a young LL Cool J for LL’s first promo shot. The book’s is designed by brilliant art director and artist Cey Adams.
To compare Def Jam to Motown seems right to me – I grew up with Motown it changed my life – just as Def Jam introduced hip-hop, a new kind of music and lifestyle to the 80’s generation.
I remember meeting Lyor Cohen, who started Rush, the management division of Def Jam, in his scrappy office on Broadway back before Def Jam was on Elisabeth St. He was yelling at someone on the phone, smoking a fat cigar, sneaker clad feet on his desk.
Rick Rubin,co-founder of Def Jam, was working with the Beastie Boys when I took this photo for Rolling Stone around that time – I love his style -beyond cool – powder blue puffy coat, sunglasses, holding a drink from Blimpie’s sandwich shop and a gun
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August 29th, 2011
Arkitip produced a newspaper of my photography – black in white on 22 x 11″, broadsheet newsprint, a limited edition of 1000, packaged in re-sealable bag. It is available at Project Space in LA and also from me for $7.50. Arkitip made a lovely movie directed by Felipe Lima of the newspaper production http://vimeo.com/4393048arkitip makes a newspaper
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August 19th, 2011
Everyone from the Clash to the Sex Pistols bought their Dr Marten boots at Holts. Located around the corner from Camden tube station it was the place for London punks, mods and skinheads to buy footwear. Now called The British Boot Company it is still owned by the same family and looks just as it always did – piles of shoe boxes, boots signed by Madness and other local bands hanging over the counter, band flyers on the wall and great service.
Years later I shot the Brazilian Girls outside Nublu on Ave C for Dr Marten -Sabina Sciubba and the band had their own personal style which fit perfectly with the classic boots.
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August 11th, 2011
The brilliant Specials‘ song ‘Ghost Town’ has been called a ‘crisis’ theme song for the current riots by the some of the British newspapers. It is still so relevant to Britain’s inner cities 30 years later.
I took this photograph of the Specials in 1981 on the Seaside Tour during a similar time of economic crisis, cuts, racism and unemployment.
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August 9th, 2011
Paul Weller (The Jam) met his hero Pete Townshend (The Who) for the first time on Wardour Street in London outside the famous Marquee Club in the summer of 1981. My friend, the writer Paolo Hewitt had organized the interview. He had grown up with Paul in Woking, ‘Smalltown Britain’ where they had seen, as Weller said “the top faces walking through Woking town center” Weller’s look was resolutely Mod, he later told Mojo magazine “You could say it’s a fashion statement, but I think it’s more than that: the working class love of clothes, looking good, rising above your station. I don’t think it will ever die … These clothes, my haircut, reflect my attitude and the music I listen to, and they say ‘I am an individual’.”
This is one of the first shots I took of them that afternoon – it is a moment in time – Weller looking so sharp in his pin stripe suit. Sir Paul Smith said this image “completely sums up my teenage years -self conscious and fanatical about detail”. Later I listened to them talking about music, mods and life – the interview and this image was a cover story for Melody Maker
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July 31st, 2011
Matt, the drummer from Bleech. posed for me for Kangol catalog shoot in Camden Town – he had just the right attitude – could be the the 50’s or 60’s in London. I grew up not far from Camden Town, went to some of my first concerts at the Roundhouse – it is one of the last gritty areas of London, still has some real pubs and shops.
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July 29th, 2011
Smutty Smith playing stand-up bass with passion in London 1980. Smutty started the band Levi & the Rockats with Levi Dexter. Classic style white Levi’s and great tattoos.
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July 29th, 2011
Destiny and Lorrae upstate New York – the Lady GaGa fans dyed their own hair the day before.
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July 27th, 2011
Director, Michael Rapaport, came to my studio last year to choose photos to use in the documentary ‘Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest’. We chatted for hours, Michael had an amazing knowledge and passion for those times. The movie just came out, ‘Tribe’ were interviewed on NPR talking about how they were part of a community of people making music, the ‘hip hop Beatles” said ” how it felt was the only thing that mattered .. the money and fame were not important .. ” Seeing the movie last night reminded me of what I loved about hip hop and the collective fun, conciousness and creativity of The Native Tongues Posse . 
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July 17th, 2011