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Public Access Ricky Powell Photographs 1985-2005
Public Access – Ricky Powell Photographs – 1985-2005
Hardcover.
Published by PowerHouse Books.
This is a photographers dream book to have published…when do you get to feature yourself in seven of your own pictures, put yourself on the cover and have all your friends write about how dope you are? Me being a photographer and down with hip hop, I appreciate this book on a whole different level than others may. But, putting my positive bias toward Powell and my love for his hustle aside, for a book that is suppose to be Ricky Powell’s photographs: 1985 – 2005, I’m left wanting more…there is a whole lot missing from the photo selection; it needs about 100 more pages to unleash Powell’s dedication to documenting so much of the early days of hip hop and New York itself. He was there, with the best of the best, the leaders of a growing scene, always with his camera not afraid to do what he had to do to get a shot, but flipping through this book you get only a teaser of who Powell really is. You get more out of the written pieces from Powell’s close friends and peers, the likes of Charlie Ahearn (director of Wild Style, co-writer of Yes Yes Y’all), Dr. Revolt (legendary writer from the original RTW crew), Zyphyr (legend in the early graffiti scene) and others, who big up Powell’s character and reminisce in stories of a younger Powell. Don’t get me twisted, there are loads of money shots in this book most definitely, Method Man climbing on top of a crosswalk sign, Fab 5 Freddy in front of the legendary Apollo, an Adidas logo fade design in a young cats hair, Biz Markie & Flava Flav giving the camera real energy, a young slick looking Powell himself standing with Andy Warhol; but I’m guessing many who don’t know Powell or his time would sit perplexed trying to decipher what this book is actually about.
It is not a book that showcases the mass amount of paparazzi style shots Powell has collected in his years of documenting New York City and his touring days with the Beastie Boys (he executed that amazingly in his second book ‘Oh Snap!’). It’s not a societal study into the people, styles or times of New York from ‘85-’05, there just isn’t enough photographs to paint a large enough picture. It’s more of a diary, a journal of Powell’s, where he shows off a bit of himself and that he roles with the A-listers of a scene that started off small but has spawned into a world wide cultural phenomena. You gotta give daps to this man, and this book does; you can see his energy, his hustle, and his personality through the pages. I feel like I got an inside look into the life of Powell, and in this way have gotten more attached to him as a person than a photographer. He has worked hard to get the shots that he has, but this book only shows you a snippet of what I can only imagine he actually has. His work ought not be respected for its technical merit, but for its closeness, its realness, its intimate relationship with the subjects he got to shoot; he was definitely always at the right places at the right time. This book is also the first we see of his collaboration series with classic writers, with scans of the prints he gave them to draw and tag all over. Masterpieces of Run DMC, Keith Haring, and LL Cool J, the collaboration series could be a book on its own, again if there was only more to flesh out the series. The book is sequenced haphazardly, like a scrapbook, and only people who have a direct connection with the early hip hop scene, Ricky Powell himself, or know any of the artists/participants and understand the significance of what is actually in the book will find enjoyment out of it. I’m glad I know about this stuff, because I get this book, and damn it inspires me one day get something like it published….I’d just make it a lot more pages.
Rating: 3/5
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