Ricky Powell on Photographing Andy Warhol, Beastie Boys and More - Compound Conversations
“If you put your pants on and got out of the house, you could run into these people.”
HYPEBEAST has teamed up with The Compound, a creative studio located in the birthplace of hip-hop, New York City, on Compound Conversations – a series of interviews in a surreal space curated by SetFree. In this episode, we talk to foremost witness to the legendary art and music circles of ’80s and ’90s-era New York, photographer Ricky Powell. Gaining notoriety from his photographs of the Beastie Boys on Run-DMC’s Raising Hell tour, and many subsequent tours thereafter in the capacity of Def Jam Records’ official in-house photographer, Powell also become known for his intimate portrayals of the New York downtown party scene, capturing the likes of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sonic Youth and Sofia Coppola. Here, he recounts his modus operandi, the “cultural minestrone soup” that was New York at the time, and his thoughts on the celebrities of today.
