Ricky Powell (November 20, 1961 – February 1, 2021) was an American photographer who documented popular culture including hip hop, punk rock, graffiti, and pop art. His photographs have been featured in The New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News, The Village Voice, TIME, Newsweek, VIBE, The Source, Rolling Stone, among other publications. His photographs included candid portraits of artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Madonna, in addition to many other popular culture artists and other common people. His photographs were included in the books The Rap Photography of Ricky Powell! (1998), The Rickford Files: Classic New York Photographs (2000), Frozade Moments: Classic Street Photography of Ricky Powell (2004), and Public Access: Ricky Powell Photographs (2005) and were exhibited both domestically and internationally.
He toured with American hip-hop group Beastie Boys photographing their performances and occasionally appearing in their videos.
Table of Contents
- 1 Early life
- 2 Death
- 3 Career
- 3.1 Beastie Boys
- 3.2 Television
- 3.3 Books
- 3.4 Documentary
- 3.5 Exhibitions
- 3.6 Group exhibitions
- 3.7 Public Access: Ricky Powell Photographs 1985-2005
- 3.8 NYC Street Photography: It's the Joint
- 3.9 The Rickford Files: Classic New York Photographs
- 3.10 Oh Snap!: The Rap Photography of Ricky Powell
- 3.11 Rappin' With The Rickster
- 3.12 Happiness Rocks: A Powerful Blueprint to Master the Art of Lifelong Happiness
- 3.13 Elastic analysis of a circular toroidal shell using computer modeling
- 3.14 Everybody Street
- 3.15 Everybody Street
- 3.16 Bones Movie Poster (27 x 40 Inches - 69cm x 102cm) (2001) -(Snoop Dogg)(Pam Grier)(Michael T. Weiss)(Clifton Powell)(Ricky Harris)(Bianca Lawson)
Early life
Powell was born upon November 20, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York City. His mommy Ruth Powell was a educational teacher and did not know who his dad was. It is noted that his mommy was a frequent visitor to downtown clubs and would have Powell accompany her as a child. He grew happening in Greenwich Village even if spending two years amongst 1973 and 1975 successful in the Upper West Side. Powell attended PS 41 next Rachael Horovitz, sister to Adam Horovitz, later known as Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys.
Powell graduated gone an AA in Liberal Arts from LaGuardia Community College and a B.S. in Physical Education from Hunter College.
Death
Powell died upon February 1, 2021. A announcement from his bureaucrat confirmed his death, but a cause of death has not been announced.
Career
Powell started out by selling Frozade (lemon ice drink) in the streets of New York City after graduating from college. During this become old he started photography as a hobby, taking pictures of connections and family. He credits an terrible experience like a girlfriend in 1985, with him taking taking place photography as a frightful vocation. During this era he photographed artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol in the streets of New York City.
Beastie Boys
In 1986, Powell quit his job and tagged along afterward Beastie Boys on their Run-DMC’s Raising Hell tour. Some of the photographs that he took while upon tour became significant, and Powell gained fame, becoming the unofficial “fourth Beastie Boy”. He toured subsequently the society as Def Jam Records’ de facto in-house photographer on their Licensed to Ill tour in 1987 and Together Forever: Greatest Hits 1983–1991 tour bearing in mind Run DMC and then once more in 1992 on their Check Your Head tour and the 1994 Lollapalooza. Powell is mentioned by proclaim in the song “Car Thief” on the Paul’s Boutique album, with the lyrics: “Homeboy toss in the towel, Your woman got dicked by Ricky Powell.” After innate by the group’s side for exceeding a decade, he estranged in 1995 as the society was changing their style touching away from a noisy tenor from their in front days. Powell would tell in a documentary that the group matured, while he continued to remain his passй self.
Powell maintained a determined relationship following the Beastie Boys, including photographing them for Interview magazine in 2011.
Television
Powell was the host of the public-access television show, Rappin’ With the Rickster from 1990 to 1996. In the show, he interviewed Russell Simmons, Doug E Fresh, Harold Hunter, Kool Keith, Rahzel, Laurence Fishburne, and Cypress Hill. He became the point of view of New York City’s downtown party scene, connected to both musical and visual artists such as Sonic Youth, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Russell Simmons, Harold Hunter, Dondi White, and Sofia Coppola. He gave insights into the artistic phenomena of the day, with a immersion of candid footage, impromptu interviews, and a vision of Powell’s New York City. Powell considered the show “a period capsule of someone growing going on in Manhattan during that time and being in this area the music scene”.
A DVD of Rappin’ With the Rickster, released in 2010, was confirmed a must-have by Juxtapoz.
Books
Powell’s first book, The Rap Photography of Ricky Powell! (1998) was a ten-year retrospective of photographs of rap and hip hop artists. The collection consisted of 88 photographs including 53 in color. The Rickford Files: Classic New York Photographs (2000), his second scrap book featured what he considered “the real New York”, beyond the tourist glaze of Times Square and the deteriorating Greenwich Village.
Frozade Moments: Classic Street Photography of Ricky Powell (2004) was a wedding album of postcards consisting of candid snapshots of celebrities, local luminaries, and low-lifes that meet the expense of a view of New York City. The celebrities featured included Madonna, Jam Master Jay, KRS-One, Frankie Crocker, Andy Warhol and Flavor Flav.
Public Access: Ricky Powell Photographs 1985–2005 (2005) included two decades of documenting much of the early grow old of hip-hop and presenting the actors, musicians, performers, and artists that inspired him, including Method Man, Doze Green, Bill Adler, Slick Rick, Run-DMC, Eric B & Rakim, Keith Haring, Steven Tyler, Barbara Walters, Cindy Crawford, Eazy-E, and Fab Five Freddy. These photographs are distributed in the company of graffiti splattered renderings by Lee Quiñones, Ron Galella, Ron English, and others. Powell attempted to bring in a nostalgic tone to New York City past appearances from Zephyr, Charlie Ahearn, Glenn O’Brien, and Zoe Cassavetes.
He was the central tone in Ricky Powell: The Individualist (2017), by Bill Adler, and Nemo Librizzi, who documented Powell’s conduct yourself as a street photographer capturing the intersection of popular culture movements including hip-hop, pop art, graffiti, and punk rock. The stamp album included portraits of artists including Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Keith Haring in adjunct to common people.
Documentary
Powell was the subject of the 2020 documentary film, Ricky Powell: The Individualist, which captures his career and life once celebrities. It is directed by Josh Swade and written by Christopher McGlynn and Swade.
Exhibitions
Powell’s works were featured both domestically and internationally in solo and bureau exhibitions. Frozade Moments, 1985–2003 ran at Bill Adler’s Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery in New York City from July through September 2003. Public Access: Ricky Powell Photographs 1985–2005 was exhibited at the colette in Paris, the powerHouse Gallery in New York City, Milk Bar in San Francisco, and Lab 101 Gallery in Los Angeles. His photographs and his street style were exhibited at fearless Art, Whistler in 2006. The Ricky Powell Art Funk Explosion! was shown at Sacred Gallery New York City in December 2010, along when Powell’s guest curation of Frank Chapter 43: Bug Out!, which highlights his photographs and interviews considering street artists. His slideshow at New York City’s All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival was reported upon by Billboard.
Group exhibitions
Powell’s hip hop images (along like works by artists Janette Beckman, Barron Claiborne and Danny Clinch, appeared in the amassed photography book Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop (written/curated by Vikki Tobak) and its subsequent series of large scale traveling activity exhibitions which has included The Annenberg Space for Photography (Los Angeles), International Center of Photography (New York) and Abu Dahbi at Manarat Al Saadiyat (United Arab Emirates).
Powell considered the membership between the photographer and the photograph to be “a chemical link of some sort”. Later in life, he was more likely to “photograph strangers in his Greenwich Village neighborhood than multi platinum hip-hop acts and Downtown art stars”.
Last update 2021-08-06