LL Cool J


LL Cool J (Ladies Love Cool James) is releasing a new album ‘Authentic’ at the end of this month.

I took his first promo photograph (below) back in 1985. The then seventeen year old LL Cool J seemed shy when he arrived in my downtown studio with Bill Adler, the PR for Def Jam ( keeper of the great hiphop ‘Adler ‘archives) carrying a huge boom box . Two years, and many hits, later I photographed him again on the street (above) with Cut Creator, E Love and B-Rock for the British music weekly Melody Maker. He was still rocking the Kangol with bigger gold chains and more confidence. The New York Times claimed he radiated ” the charisma of the young Muhammad Ali”

These days he is one of hip hop’s great success stories, a movie actor and star of  the TV series ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’. Looking forward to seeing the NY show at Roseland.

Salt-N-Pepa Burton Lifebeat

Burton Snowboards has a new collaboration with hip-hop artists Salt-N-Pepa introducing a special-edition 2014 Burton Lip-Stick board available to the public next fall. The board was developed with Lifebeat, a nonprofit HIV/AIDS prevention organization that Salt-N-Pepa has been involved with since the early ’90s. The Burton creative team and Lifebeat came to my studio about six months ago to choose a photo for the board.

Sandy “Pepa” Denton says : “Burton and Lifebeat wanted to represent that particular moment in the hip-hop era, and out of all the pictures to choose from, when they picked this one I had to agree it was the best. When you think of Salt-N-Pepa, you remember this picture, these jackets. They called it the “Push It” jacket! If someone’s dressed up as Salt-N-Pepa for Halloween, this is what they’re dressed up like.

This was our take on that gold-chain-and-door-knocker-earrings b-boy stance era. It’s a great photo by Janette Beckman, and Play, from Kid ‘n Play, actually designed these jackets for us. … So there’s a lot of stories and a lot of memories behind that photo for us. Those were good times. The ’80s rocked!”

Salt-N-Pepa you rock!

Jocks & Nerds Milo Johnson

My shot of Milo Johnson is on the cover of the latest Jocks & Nerds magazine. First off I happen to think Jocks & Nerds is the best magazine covering style, music, attitude, culture out there today. I’ve been working for them for over a year now – the mag is beautifully designed, lots of black and white photography and in a truly arcane way – well you can’t buy it anywhere – it is a free quarterly only available in specialist stores like Paul Smith in London.

And then there is the legendary Milo Johnson, with whom I spent a really nice afternoon taking photos, wandering around his Harlem neighborhood, talking about music, Bristol, London, New York,Tokyo, magazines, photos, and other good things. A few days later he dropped off some music for me : his current CD ‘Return of the Savage’ in my opinion irresistible grooves, ‘The Wild Bunch’ great hip hop mixes, ‘Live at the Cat Club 1979’, and ‘Suntoucher’ are all on heavy rotation on my ‘jukebox’.

Have to say I love photographing people on the streets of NY – there is always so much going on. Standing under the overpass for the 1 train, at 125th street avoiding trucks, speeding cop cars and taxis, the odd passerby making a comment, breeze from the river and the noise of the trains overhead. It’s never boring.

Crash on Houston St

Crash was painting this beautiful mural featuring Popeye on Houston and Bowery in New York City today. And there was legendary photographer Martha Cooper signing her book, being photographed by more legends Joe Conzo and Francisco Reyes II, good to see them all and meet graffiti artists Bio, Wane and BG183

Tuki Caracas

There is a new genre of break dance and music in Venezuela – it is called Tuki. One day Marianna drove us to Petare a huge barrio clustered on a hill in the Palo Verde district. Across the street at the bottom of Petare is the Tuki school. There’s a courtyard, guys playing basketball, people hanging out watching the game, dance studios, graffiti and  murals of Chavez painted on the walls.

‘Tuki’ is a music and dance style stemming from hard house and techno and it primarily came from the barrios of Venezuela.The music is a variation of “Changa”  a Venezuelan slang word from the 90s meaning “House music”. The sound developed into a music style called Raptor House, which gave birth to Tuki. A dancer tells me ‘There was a  perception that if you were Tuki you were a criminal but you’d rather see your son dancing than going out robbing’ . Tuki mixes Venezuelan street styles and pop culture – and just like hip hop came from people making ‘Something from nothing’

Respect to DJ Baba, His Majesty from the Raptor House Crew, DJ Yirvin, Elbert El Maestro, DJ Kike Abstractor, Branko J Wow, DJ De Ville, Parla Burgos, Joel Arritos, Andrews Guitiar-Locaotor, Anthony El Hiredero, Junior El Alucinante , Daniel Goillen Robots and many more.

Caracas Youth Culture in Los Dos Caminos

“In Caracas if you don’t have attitude you are dead”

We  took our students from Roberto Mata’s photo school to shoot in Los Dos Caminos, a square where the Caracas youth go to skateboard and hang out in the afternoon. The square was jumping, kids breakdancing, skateboarding, just chilling after school, met some of Caracas’ rap community P.Lu.K, Rone, and friends who generously posed for the class in a graffiti bombed alley around the corner. Many Venezuelan parents do not allow their kids out on the street as kidnapping and robbery are so prevalent in the city. It was great to see this square full of youth just enjoying themselves on a sunny afternoon.

Venezuela Hip Hop School Tiuna El Fuerte

Visited Tiuna El Fuerte,  a community based cultural center in the dusty El Valle neighborhood of Caracas  Built from old shipping containers piled one on top of the other made into a recording studio, a store with spray cans of all colors, an underground performance space, classrooms, for art, hip hop, break dancing workshops, It is funded by the government and run by the rap artists Apache aka Cultur MC and Piky (below) who teach the local community the four elements of hip hop.

Tiuna El Fuerte is a c

President Hugo Chavez RIP

President Chavez of Venezuela died today

I was in Caracas last week. It is a vibrant crazy city. There is traffic everywhere, gas is so cheap, people drive big V8 American muscle cars from the 80’s or weave in and out of traffic on fast motor bikes.  Everywhere you go President Chavez stares down at you from high buildings, graffiti on walls, his supporters wear red T shirts with his eyes printed on them.

People told me: ” Chavez is a part of our lives whether we like it or not” As President he inspired both love and hate.

Chavez’s “Bolìvarian revolution”, was based on his ideals “Giving the poor what they deserved : the nation’s wealth”  He seized land from farmers, nationalized private companies, abolished term limits and put the state oil company under his personal control. In spite of record oil revenues, around a trillion dollars, the currency was recently devalued for the fifth time in a decade. Murder and kidnapping rates are enormous, approximately seventy people are murdered each week in Caracas alone. People drive with their car windows closed for fear of robbery – and armored vehicles are a new big business.

Chávez drank more than 30 cups of black coffee a day, worked till 3am, talked on his weekly TV show for eights hours straight about everything from politics and theology to rap, baseball and the state of his bowels ..

Chavez had won four presidential elections, was revered by millions who hailed him as a champion of the poor. People that live in the barrios felt he was on their side and understood their struggle. He slashed poverty, spent lavishly on health clinics, literacy courses and social programs (like the hip hop school ‘Tiuna El Fuerte’ we visited, more of that to come) and stood up to George Bush over Iraq.

He did it all with a certain charisma and flair. RIP President Hugo Chavez

Made in New York- the 1980’s

Inspired by Penguin paperbacks, fanzines and artist Edward Ruscha’s series, I decided to self publish these small books in a limited edition featuring mostly unseen photographs from my archives of the times.  Order them from me directly or get them at Bookmarc and Dashwood. The third book ‘Made in New York -the 1980’s’ is just out.

Fotografia in Caracas

Going to Venezuela on February 25th for an exhibition, lecture and photo workshop  at Roberto Mata’s photography school. Stella Kramer, the Pullitzer prize winning photo editor will be teaching the art of the edit and speaking about her work – Stella worked for the NY TImes during 9/11 editing film brought in by ash covered photographers, she worked for Life, Newsweek and so many other important mags. I will be recounting stories about photographing the punks, mods, hip hop, rockabilly, East LA gang,  and other scenes that are in the exhibition – as well as teaching students how to photograph on the street and ‘keep it real’.

AND President Chavez returned home yesterday from Cuba