I recently had a conversation with Eddie Otchere to celebrate the publication of his new career-spanning photobook Spirit Behind the Lens: The Making of a Hip-Hop Photographer.
It was an honour to speak to Eddie (James T Kirk), whose book Junglist, co-authored with Andrew Green (Two Fingas), I love and which was reissued by Repeater Books a few years ago.
Spirit Behind the Lens is an incredible archive of Black youth culture over the last few decades, and its incredible to look through and see all of the figures Eddie photographed, from Aphex Twin to Biggie Smalls and the Wu Tang Clan.
We spoke about my last book, Narcissus in Bloom; the challenges of documenting culture in an anti-photographic age; the present state of the underground, and so much more. (I also set my hair briefly on fire at the end of our discussion, if you’d like to see my latest L; it didn’t seem that bad at the time, but I still have a scar!)
Watch above and go check out Eddie’s photography and writing here.