In preparing for The Film, nearly everything else has taken a back seat. Even the consideration that goes into a photo. Mainly it’s been snapshots, on the new, improved phone. Locations, rehearsal, that sort of thing. Ideally all the work unspools in one 90-minute sequence of uninterrupted beauty. But as a hedge, or to see how the sausage gets made there’s a lot of activity going on at #72hrsBK, so please follow Instagram and Twitter. Stay in touch, baby. I’ll keep making it do what it do.
I took some photos at this years annual Labor Day Caribbean Parade. Like, hundreds of photos. I’ve culled the best ones into a longer visual essay.
A few weeks ago my friend Peter asked me to photograph a recent project of his. Designed in concert with his graduate students at RISD, the Disaster Go Bag is made for when the apocalypse strikes and it’s time to peace out. It’s made of a custom textile that filters air, or, you know, disease spores. It also generates power for small electrical devices and contains a bottle with a custom filter top to create potable water from any source, like swamps. The glow-in-the-dark ribbing is for when you need to keep the zombie watch going well past dark. You know, just in case.
I asked my friend Allison to pose and Lilia did the make-up. If you see me rocking a fresh pair of Jordan’s, you’ll know which shoot they came from.
I designed a baseball cap. And though it can be summed up in five words, the process took about ten months. They’re inspired by some Brooklynites who’ve inspired me: Jackie Robinson and Jean-Michel Basquiat. There’s even a line from a Langston Hughes poem (for whom one of the largest public housing towers in Brooklyn is named) printed on the bias tape underneath the cap. Along with one of the flyest camouflage details you’ve ever seen. (Who has that? Nobody, that’s who!). It’s been some of the most painstaking, detail-oriented work I’ve ever done.
Please buy one, if you wanna look as fresh as me.
And if you don’t wanna look fresh. Well, that’s alright, too.
Here are a couple pics I shot awhile back with carpet designer Joe Carini. It happens often enough. Either you’re waiting for a specific date when something is published, or approvals, or whatever. And by the time they’re live you forget to tell people anything at all.
Joe has been a great inspiration to me. His work is radical – pushing boundaries everywhere. Many of his carpets are collaborations, many others are inspired by graffiti or the streets. All are expertly crafted, hand-sewn in Nepal. In his office are african masks, a motorcycle, and paintings by famous artists.
We shot this picture in the Gowanus Batcave — location of this music video. Joe saw the video and said, “I have to go there.” So we went. Carrying an incredibly expensive silk rug over barb wire. And made some magic.
The achievement in this essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates is in putting the cost of racism into tangible, quantifiable terms, while also weaving a compelling emotional journey. Writing at its very best.
