Hip-Hop Portraits and City Life, with Audio Engineer...

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Hip-Hop Portraits and City Life, with Audio Engineer @youngguru763

To see more of Young Guru’s photos, follow @youngguru763 on Instagram.

Gimel Keaton (@youngguru763) spotted the old woman at 5 a.m. on the opposite side of the subway car, her head resting on a bag, her hands scrunched to her face. Keaton, better known as Young Guru, one of the most respected audio engineers in hip-hop, often rides the train during off-hours, allowing him to document a part of the city most residents don’t get to experience.

“That was a perfect example of what subway culture is like when you get on the train at five o’clock in the morning,” says Guru, of the ensuing photo. “If you go out in New York City long enough you’re going to see the crazy guy, but you also see how many elderly people are homeless, and the train at night is how they sleep.”

Guru has spent the better part of two decades producing and mixing albums for a who’s who of legendary emcees, most famously, Jay Z, having worked on a large number of the rapper’s albums. But photography is a new endeavor for him. While music is still Guru’s full-time gig––he recently did the mixing on Common’s Grammy-nominated record Nobody’s Smiling––he now carves out as much time as possible to shoot pictures, from portraits of rappers to everyday life in cities. And he’s taking it as seriously as his music: developing a voice, studying the legends, learning about their technique, their style, their philosophy. Most importantly, Guru is looking to avoid clichés.

“This is not a plaything for me,” he says. “I am serious when I say I am never going to take a photo of my feet hanging over the side of the building. I see that every day.”

Guru is also quick to point out the parallels between his current discovery of photography and younger emcees uncovering old rap. While Guru studies the Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado online, those coming up in hip-hop are learning about rap titans like Marley Marl and De La Soul the same way.

Guru’s photography plan moving forward is to continue to build his portfolio and to do it in a way that speaks to his creative instincts––something unexpected and innovative.

“I look for something interesting, but I look for something that doesn’t look staged,” he says. “I want it to look like normal life, as if the person was actually there.”

by via Instagram Blog