It’s a side project. Always a side project. But I made some hats. And they’re fresh. Cop one at Le Dunk if you know what’s good for your ‘hood and your borough.
(Update – 10 yrs later :) – Well, the hats sold out. And I’m still involved in streetwear, and basketball, and even more basketball. So it kinda all makes sense.
It’s hard not to be inspired after watching the above video depicting bed-bound graffiti writer Tempt create new works with eye-tracking software developed by the Graffiti Research Lab. Best of all, it’s open source. One definition of hip-hop holds that it’s an amorphous blob of culture built on technology and innovation. It’s only right that one of its fringes continues to explore new forms of expression.
It only took us five months since shooting… but we got it done. Here’s the video for Thaddeus Clark’s Downtown/Connect. The (banging) song is available for download at hellabasic.com. Special shots to my editor Jay Morales who slogged through many weekends and evenings to help bring this to the light of day.
A lot of times I’ve done work that doesn’t fall under the scope of Desedoish-ness and don’t get around to posting it. Then am reminded awhile later why it might be nice to share. Here’s the result of a trip to Jamaica in ’09. This film has been used to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Rockhouse Foundation.
The Rockhouse Hotel, meanwhile, was featured in last week’s Times article on great getaways. What I’m saying is you should get down with these folks no matter what.
For the past few seasons I’ve shot video for Gary Graham’s fashion week presentations under the tutelage of Alex Antitch for Ace Collective. Antitch is Graham’s regular photographer and the creative director of his most recent shows. This time around the shoot was at Graham’s recently christened Tribeca space. There was the usual frenetic energy belowdecks and the calm focus of execution above.
During the first fifteen minutes of the show photographers jostle for position in front of the attendees. “Hey man, you’re in my shot.†It’s a scrum. After they decamp, there’s room for everyone to look.
Desedo family member Bradford Young has done it again. This time the venue is the Sundance film festival where he has won the Cinematography award for the U.S. film Pariah. We suspect that it is also the first of many great distinctions to come. The film, directed by Dee Rees, played the festival a year ago as a short, and has already been picked up for distribution by Focus Features. Brad was actually at Sundance with two features this year: Pariah, and Andrew Dosunmu’s Restless City.
I first met Brad in grad school and we’ve had a great many discussions over the years about a life in film — working together when possible. Inspired by a four-hour conversation we once had on color correction, we recorded one of our conversations. Here’s what happened.
Being from Louisville, Brad has an even bigger legend to live up to. Here’s hoping he can top that one as well!
