"Currently on view at Whaam!, RICKY POWELL: NEW YORK PHOTOGRAPHS 1980-1990 shines a light on Powell's earliest images, many of which predate his now-iconic portraits of the Beastie Boys and hip-hop royalty. These photographs are not celebrity profiles or staged editorial spreads - they are snapshots of everyday life, taken by someone who lived and breathed the neighborhoods he photographed."
"In the 1980s, New York was in the midst of seismic cultural shifts. Downtown scenes were colliding: graffiti writers were turning the streets into open-air galleries, punks were redefining music venues, skaters were claiming public spaces, and artists were challenging conventions in SoHo lofts. Powell moved through these worlds with ease, photographing friends, strangers, storefronts, murals, and moments that most people would have walked past."
Ricky Powell began photographing after a mid-1980s breakup when he borrowed an ex-girlfriend's camera, turning heartbreak into a sustained creative practice. While working at a frozen lemonade stand, Powell roamed New York neighborhoods, capturing friends, strangers, storefronts, murals, and fleeting street moments. The images predate his well-known portraits of the Beastie Boys and hip-hop figures and emphasize everyday life rather than staged celebrity profiles. He documented graffiti writers, punks, skaters, and SoHo artists during a decade of cultural upheaval, producing intimate, unpolished photographs that function as an invaluable visual record of 1980s New York energy and unpredictability.
Read at stupidDOPE | Est. 2008
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