ORIGINS is an ongoing project documenting the social roots of hip hop culture in New York City, a reportage of the social conditions that gave rise to hip hop as a form of expression in the projects of the city’s 5 boroughs.
The music of hip hop is the outcome of a hood lifestyle in communities living with poverty, violence, racism, drugs, crime and unemployment: a climate where opportunity does not knock.
Despite its modern day appeal and commercialization, hip hop was born in the ghettos of New York City and it’s still there where you will find it’s heartland.
During 2010 and 2011 I travelled to New York 3 times to shoot, attempting to present images that move beyond the music that most people associate with hip hop. Really, the music is a by-product of the social circumstances which exist.