Ricky Powell

Claiming, “You can never run out of pictures to take; all you gotta do is leave your house,” Ricky Powell has been documenting artists, celebrities, models, hip hop rappers, and people on the streets of his native New York City since 1985. The self-proclaimed “original NYC street photographer” used his bold personality and beat-up Minolta to get behind-the-scenes access to groups like the Beastie Boys and Run DMC, with whom he toured, and to such downtown artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, to name only a handful of his subjects. Publications, clothing, and lifestyle brands took notice of his intimate, candid color and black-and-white shots, and commissions for the New York Times and Puma, among many others, followed. From his base in Greenwich Village, Powell continues to roam the streets, documenting his city through the people who call it home.