Artist of the Month: Chi Modu

I was walking around the LES today and decided to pop into this hat shop called Still Life on Orchard Street. While shopping, I noticed amazing photos of iconic hip hop artists displayed all throughout the store, artists ranging from Snoop Dog to Eazy E. Being a hardcore hip hop fan and well as a huge proponent of photography, I was naturally drawn to these photos. The photos were by the photographer Chi Modu.

Modu worked at the famous hip hop magazine The Source for many years. A magazine I used to read from cover to cover. My interest in Modu was heightened after I visited his website and noticed that he photographed many things that are close to my heart. My father is 7th generation Yemenese and Modu has a series on his travels to Yemen. In addition to this, I am from Singapore and hold a strong connection to Indonesia and again, Modu has a series on his travels to Indonesia. His work is beautifully shot and a viewer can easily grasp what Modu is trying to get across in his pictures. I find his hip hop photos especially endearing as we see some of the most prolific rap artists of our time in their youth. The sense of "newcomer" comes across and for me, a hip hop enthusiast, I can almost feel the "freshness" of these photos. In these early photographs of hip hop icons such as Biggie, Snoop and 2 Pac, a sense of youth comes through the lense and although these artist are considered hard and prolific, the viewer can sense a sort of softness in their character: they become real people in his photos.

Here is a wonderful video on a presentation that Modu gave on his work: http://vimeo.com/2377942

Photos from his hip hop era:

From his Yemen Series:

Other Photos:

Artist of the Week: Saul Leiter

Sign Painter, 1954

Saul Leiter was an American photographer who was associated the New York School. I am a huge fan of his work as well as his other peers from this time in the art world. Although I am a fan of his early works from the 1940s and 1950s, I am most interested in his color photographs from the late 1950s and 60s. He shows his viewers how to see beauty from a different perspective - not in the sense of Diane Arbus but in the sense that one can find beauty even on what some would find a daily activity or even just an "ugly" day. He draws the eye of the viewer into his work by focusing on subjects that seem so simple, mundane and ugly but at the same time are so beautiful. This beauty if emphasized by the way Leiter presents his subjects and is key to his artwork. A great example of this are the two following photos:

Snow, 1960

Through Boards, 1957

I find Saul's work to be painterly like and his work often brings a smile to my face. He initially became famous for his black and whites in the 1940s and early 1950s and thus here is an example.

Joanna, 1947

You can find several great monographs on Saul Leiter's work at www.amazon.com.

"What cannot be taught is the feeling for light..it is how light lies on the face that you as an artist must capture. Nor can one be taught how to grasp the personality of the sitter." - Felix Nadar

A wonderful quote on photography by one of the world's earliest successful photographers.. Felix Nadar..

Below is a photo taken by Nadar of the amazing Gustave Courbet, a man who changed the world of art by pushing the limits and inspiring others.