Anthony "Ace Cutty" Clark, 20, writes lyrics to his next hip-hop album while sitting on the steps of an abandoned building near his house in Spokane Feb. 8. Clark, raised in San Diego by a single mother of four children, was exposed to gang life and drugs from an early age. He began writing songs at age 9 because he found refuge in the lyrics he wrote. He now has several albums out and is a well-known hip-hop musician in Spokane, playing various gigs as a way to support his fiancé and 2-year-old son.
exif: 29mm, 1/250, f4.0, ISO 200
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Here's a quick bit of info about the photoshoot:
I spent about 2 1/2 hours total with the subject and shot about 170 photos. The first 2o minutes were spent at his apartment getting to know him (I had never met him before, he was a friend of a friend who's played a few gigs with him), building rapport and discussing possible places to go for the photoshoot. I got to know him even more on the way to the first place we went. Spending the time to get to know Ace before we got started was a huge benefit and really helped me portray who he is in the pictures and where we should go to shoot them. We both agreed that the urban, industrial area near his house would be a good spot to head to.
The first place we went was a nearby liquor store that had a huge mural painted on it that he was really fond of. As soon as I got my camera out and was dialing it in the owner of the store came out and kicked us out. After that, we went to a nearby abandoned building where I got some of my best ones. After that we basically walked around to nearby places and talked and I would shoot a picture or two if the spot looked cool. We ended up going back to the wall with the mural and snuck in a few photos without the guy noticing that turned out pretty good.
We returned to his apartment after the sun set and shot a few more of him on his balcony, where I took what I consider my second best shot. I picked the other one over this because it had more storytelling elements whereas this one is very straightforward. I like this one so much mostly because of the lighting. I saw a porch light on the wall and had him position himself so the light fell on half of his face.
(50mm, 1/60, f2.0, ISO 250)
I picked him because I hope to someday find a niche in photographing musicians. I wanted the challenge of bridging the obvious culture gap between us and building rapport with a person I had never met. He turned out to be one of the nicest kids I've ever met and it was not as hard as I had imagined it to be. I actually stayed pretty relaxed from the get go which I wasn't sure was going to be the case going into it.
He probably would have made a good candidate for the exposing social issues assignment given his upbringing.
I really like the second photo because of the intimacy but I think the first one incorporates more elements of what we are looking for in this assignment. My only criticism of the first photo is I wish you would have framed it to include slightly more of the head and slightly less of the legs. The legs form a line that keeps me from going off the bottom edge which is great from a graphic design standpoint. The legs body and head, as well as the direction of his gaze, form a curve that keep the attention in the middle of the photo and the fingers and pen point to the right in the natural direction we read text in our culture which is also a good graphic design element. Compositionally, with my one very minor gripe above, I think the photo is fantastic and tells us quite a bit about your subject. The caption tells us a lot more and together they make a solid package. I think you got the job done very well.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to work the angle the best I could but unfortunately there was a hand rail between him and the camera that you can actually barely see at the very top right corner. I tried to do my best to work around it and get in close for the shot because I think some of the best moments of the photoshoot was when he got his songbook out.
ReplyDeleteI think you did very well despite the limitations!
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