“One of the great challenges for all of us, is to put yourself into unusual situations, put yourself into unusual cultures where you don’t belong, put yourself amongst people who you don’t normally hang-out with and get out of your comfort zone culturally… I think that is very, very important … getting back on the streets, and getting an understanding of how young people think today.”
John Jay.
Insightful piece in NY Magazine on the awesome mess that is WorldStarHiphop. Raw and uncensored this ghetto Youtube that fascinates me on a daily. As it’s damn easy to point all sorts of fingers towards a website like this, it’s nice too see there’s another side to it.
“As evidenced by last week’s posting, “These Cops in the Bronx NY Are Out of Control!,” in which four large NYPD officers engage in a Rodney King–style beating of a suspect (resulting in the cops losing their guns and badges), the WSHH meme is having an effect well beyond the Net. It has certainly influenced the news cycle.”
Raw and tasteless entertainment? Yes. Citizen journalism in it’s purest form? Also yes.
Read.
“Creatives building careers from online blogs and sites is something we’re seeing more and more, when did you start to realise that your collection of images could help support your photography career?
I don’t think I’m quite there yet, I think it’s opened some eyes to my taste and ‘possibilities’, but I’m a long way and a lot of hard work off assuming that my photographic career is up and running. I’m not even too sure it’s what I want to be doing. I always remember a conversation I was having one frantic morning with [stylist] Kashi Mai Sommers. I was fretting because I didn’t know what I wanted to ‘be’ or do, she said something loosely along the lines of ‘why does it have to be one thing? If something comes along take the opportunity. If you like it, do more. If not, don’t do it again’. I’ve been running under this banner since that day and slowly refining I guess.”
