photography

VITCHE

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(1969, Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Vitche grew up scribing the streets in the city in the early 80's. Specialized himself in urban interventions about environmental themes and general conscience.

Today, he develops expositions, scenography, illustrations, objects made in wood, puppets, iron, mud, canvas and photography with a great variety of influences. Taking his art to countries in Europe, US, and Latin America.

Defining his job as politic, lyric and abstract, tries to show the importance of the forgotten feelings that are swallowed by the big cities which are called by him as the great dragon. Sees in what he does a different way of being alive.

Watch this video of Vitche and Mike Giant by Upperplayground:


SUE KWON

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(US)

Sue Kwon began her career at The Village Voice, shooting subjects that ranged from runaways to underground Jamaican nightclubs in Queens. Her photographs have since been published in The Source, Vibe, and Paper, and she has become a well-known portrait photographer of hip hop stars. 

Her work has been featured in group shows in New York and Copenhagen and been the subject of solo shows at A Bathing Ape Gallery in Tokyo and Clic  Gallery in New York. Her first monograph, "Street Level: Photographs 1987-2007" featured twenty years of her black and white street photography and was published by Testify Books in 2009.

SILVER WARNER

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(San Francisco, US)

Silver was born and raised in SF and has been a bike messenger since 1991. His photography is often featured in Hamburger Eyes and has been in many publications from Tokion to Nylon. He has also been a part of numerous gallery shows across the U.S. and in Europe and Japan. Aside from the fine art world, Silver has been an icon in underground street art and publishing some of the seminal 'zines to come from the Bay Area over the last 15 years.

RICKY POWELL

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(New York, US)

Born and raised in New York City, Ricky Powell is a legendary photographer who specializes in the environmental portrait. He graduated with an AA in Liberal Arts from LaGuardia Community College and a B.S. in Physical Education from Hunter College. Though Powell initially rose to fame because of his relationship with the Beastie Boys, he is well-known for his intimate photographs that have been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Daily News, The Village Voice, TIME, Newsweek, VIBE, The Source, Rolling Stone, and more. 

Powell’s photographs focus on the organic New Yorker. His photographs simltaneously convey intimacy and detachment, as they provide a unique lense through which the viewer can analyze the mundane. Powell considers the relationship between the photographer and the photograph to be “a chemical connection of some sort”.

The connection between Powell and his camera is only further stimulated by Greenwich Village, where he currently resides. As the intrinsic qualities of the photograph have changed since Powell began capturing his moments, so have the subjects; he is now more likely to “photograph strangers in his Greenwich Village neighborhood than multiplatinum hip-hop acts and Downtown art stars”.

Watch this video:


POTES

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(1977)

Dave Potes' primary aesthetic is in documentary photography, focusing on people and landscapes. In 2001, after many years of producing small, limited edition zines, David, his brother Ray Potes and Stefan Simikich began publishing a quarterly black and white photography magazine called Hamburger Eyes.

Alongside his work as a commercial, editorial, and art photographer, David continues to focus his attentions on publishing limited edition zines and books. He is currently based in New York.

Watch this video about Dave Potes self-portraits by Dominick Volini:

MIKE MILLER

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(US)

Famed photographer/director Mike Miller has worked with some of the most iconic 90’s supermodels, photographed over 500 major-label album covers from all genres of music from Tupac, Nick Cave to Herb Albert. Recently photographed and directed YG, A$AP, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Jeezy.

Currently working with Ferrari and collaborations with Retna, Shepard Fairey among others. Clients include Angelina Jolie, Jack Nicholson, Cameron Diaz, James Franco, Sony, Nike, Puma, MTV Video Awards, Coca~Cola, Stussy, etc.

In his recent book, West Coast Hip Hop: A History in Pictures, he presents just what the title implies. A reportage of his iconic images coving the golden age of rap.

Watch this video of his hip-hop photography by KCETOnline:


LISEL ASHLOCK

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(Northern California, US)

After graduating with a BFA from California College of the Arts in 2002, Lisel Jane Ashlock exchanged West for East, moving to Brooklyn, New York where she currently lives and works as an illustrator & designer. 

Painting on birch panel, drawing with pencil and watercolor or working digitally, each project is executed with a sensitivity and celebration of the natural world. When she's not busy on an illustration project, Lisel can be found designing, photographing, styling, hand-crafting and creative directing for Moomah the Magazine. 

Lisel has received several illustration awards and accolades and her work can be seen in various national publications, books & advertising projects. She received her MFA from School of Visual Arts in 2009.

JOSHUA BLANK

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During the turn of the century Joshua Blank was attending San Francisco Art Institute studying painting and film when he dropped out of school to move to Paris for six months to live in an abandoned building. When he returned to the US he began teaching himself photography and was reunited with Pez who he had met many years before in NYC. 

In 2004 Joshua moved back to New York City where his focus shifted to youth and street fashion photography. He also worked for Smack Mellon Gallery and began to do art handling for galleries and museums around New York and attended the Photography Program at Parsons the New School for Design where he received his BFA. During this time he continued to draw but kept his work private and would never show it to anyone. 

In late 2009, he moved back to San Francisco to photograph his friends and embark on new projects that seemed impossible in NYC. He has worked as a photo journalist and news writer in the Bronx and has shot assignments for Time Out New York, Toast Magazine, and has  contributed photos to several issues of Vice. He also worked as a product and party photographer. He has exhibited his work in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Austin and in Paris.

Watch this video by Walrus TV:


ESTEVAN ORIOL

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(Los Angeles, US)

Estevan Oriol is an internationally celebrated professional photographer, director and urban lifestyle entrepreneur. Beginning his career as a hip-hop club bouncer turned tour manager for popular Los Angeles-based rap groups Cypress Hill and House of Pain, Estevan’s passion for photography developed while traveling the world. With an influential nudge and old camera from his father, renowned photographer Eriberto Oriol, Estevan began documenting life on the road and established a name for himself amid the emerging hip-hop scene.

Nearly 20 years later, Oriol’s extensive portfolio juxtaposes the glamorous and gritty planes of LA culture, featuring portraits of famous athletes, artists, celebrities and musicians as well as Latino, urban, gang, and tattoo counterculture lifestyles. He has photographed Al Pacino, Robert Dinero, Dennis Hopper, Marissa Miller, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Floyd Mayweather, and Lance Armstrong amongst others. He has also produced shoots for internationally-acclaimed photographers such as Ellen von Unwerth for Sang Bleu and Luca Babini for GQ Italy.

His work has been showcased in select galleries and institutions—such as Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, Mesa Contemporary Art Center, Petersen Automotive Museum, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’ Art in the Streets exhibit—concluding with a best-selling book of his work: LA Woman, capturing the dangerous and alluring beauty of women shot in his uniquely provocative and raw style. His photography has been featured in Complex, FHM, Juxtapoz, GQ, Vibe, Rolling Stone and other publications, with appearances on popular television shows such as, HBO’s Entourage and Last Call With Carson Daly.

Watch this video of the compelling installment of Oriol's work by Kitte Sencula:


DYLAN MADDUX

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(Los Angeles, US)

Dylan dove into the world of photography in 1999 when he moved to San Francisco where he spent the next 12 years perfecting his craft. Most of his time was spent in Lower Haight, a district that would ultimately shape his signature style. He began working with the newly established clothing company/gallery Upper Playground and shot the works of artists the company represented at the time. His other early works consisted mainly of hip-hop editorials and advertising in the skateboard industry. From there he moved onto street photography shooting portraits of street hustlers, gang members, and “the sexy girls next door”.

His photography has been published in both domestic and international publications including Intersection (UK), Warp (Japan), Slap, Thrasher, Juxtapoz, Mass Appeal, and Swindle. He was also one of ten photographers to be published in Juxtapoz Photo, the book.He has shown at many galleries including YBCA (SF), FTC (Japan), Known Gallery (LA), BACC (Bangkok), 1AM (SF), and Cassel Gallery (SF). 

Always in need of a challenge, Maddux has stepped into the world of directing and shooting videos. To date, he’s done numerous video works in Kingston, Jamaica, Hawaii, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and San Francisco.

He has been in Southeast Asia for the last year and a half. Of that time, he spent over a year in Bangkok photographing fashion, red light, and street culture. He has recently moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where he is currently working on completing his first book.

Watch this video about his exhibition in Cambodia:


ANDREA SONNENBERG

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(1990, San Francisco, US)

Sonnenberg’s photographs are sophisticated, poetic, and rebellious, all at the same time. Like the best documentary and street photographers, she captures a brash world and its characters with a style all her own. Her pictures are bold and unmistakably honest. Even when her scenes are obviously posed, the camera is merely incidental to the moment depicted. Perhaps the most important thing in her photographs is the collective experience she captures. When she turns the lens on herself, she becomes her alter ego, Teen Witch — a tagger running wildly through the streets, partying, and sometimes posing for introspective self-portraits. Above all, her photographs incarnate her relationship to the camera.

She shoots almost exclusively with cheap cameras because she tends to break them. But while her shooting process may be overtly careless, her attitude has become integrated into her craft. Unlike most photographers, Sonnenberg shoots entirely with film, and she develops and prints all her work herself. She maintains a small space at Hamburger Eyes, a do-it-yourself photography and darkroom collective in San Francisco’s Mission District that holds exhibitions and offers photography classes to the community. She’s been known to spend all night meticulously printing color photographs with the most basic technology. The results not only are highly composed, but also have the indelible mark of her hand.

Watch Andrea's interview by Vans:

ADAM HARTEAU

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(1977, Los Angeles, US)

This self-made artist, Adam Harteau, works adroitly in a flurry of mediums, each informing the other, and serving its creative purpose as the project presents itself. An imaginative artist, designer, draftsman and problem solver, he moves with ease between painting, photography, drawing, collage, printmaking, sculpture, graphic and fashion design. At 18, he moved to Los Angeles to attend Otis College of Art and Design, where he received a scholarship for fine art painting. He has remained in Los Angeles since then, balancing his diverse and eclectic artistic endeavors with grand explorations of the world, which have all brought great inspiration to his life and work.

Watch Adam, Emily and the rest of the Harteau family take a break from their endless travels to join us as the next in our Dreamers + Doers series. See what it really takes to start a life of adventure, a family and an exciting new business from the open road:

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