Meet Jimmie Fair, Photographer & "Urban Da Vinci"

With big names like 2Chainz, Trina, Young Jeezy, and T.I under his belt, one would never guess that 31-year-old Jimmie Fair (the “Urban Da Vinci”) is a self-taught amateur photographer. The self proclaimed comic book aficionado and country music fan has been shooting the stars and making a name for himself since 2010 in his small town of Albany, Georgia. Between shooting flicks for himself and keeping up with the demand for party photographers in Georgia, the small-town Southern life keeps him plenty busy. We sat down with this artist on the rise to chat about everything from music to the Monterey.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am 31 years old and I’m from Georgetown, GA. There is no one famous from where I am from. I graduated in 1999 from Randolph Lake High School. I went and studied at Andrew College. I left there and went to Morehouse. I lived in Atlanta for a while, got married. I moved to Albany, Georgia, the home of Field Mob.

I got into photography pretty much on an accident. I was doing some blogging, and I wanted to take my own photos and blog about them. So I bought a camera. And that was in 2010, so from there it has just took off on a rocket ship to the moon.

What attracted you to this form of expression?

I am very creative person. My background is art, like painting and drawing. So creativity or capturing images and imagery as always been apart of my life. When I was eight years old, my father took our TV out of our home, so I all I had was my imagination. I began drawing. As I got older my creativity stayed and when I got into photography, being that I have ADD, I could take a picture and make it beautiful faster than I could paint it.

What are the big differences between shooting rap artists and shooting artists from other genres?

Hip-hop artists are almost predictable. And what I mean by that is, you know the energy. When a hip-hop artist hits the stage the energy is literally off the charts, people are going crazy, the artist is out of breath, and the hype man is about to collapse. And this is all within a minute because of the energy, and that energy is addictive. But country music is a lot more relaxed. So a country artist, from back when I was shooting Darius Rutger, I could literally just stand there and just keep shooting. I didn’t have to move, because he barely moved. He was just stationary. He would do his little salsa dance, but that was about it. And Lady Antebellum, they pretty much stayed in place and held a pose.

I do a lot of photographer research. When Jimmie Hendrix was at the Monterey, he took his guitar and smashed it to pieces, threw it on the ground, got the lighter fluid, lit it, and then struck the match, and it went up in flames. That’s one of those type of moments, those moments will never ever come back again, and there are a few people in the world that have those images and I want to be that kind of photographer. I want to be the only photographer in the world that will have a particular type of image that nobody else has.

Who do you look up to in the photography world?

Right now, there’s a guy, I don’t know where he’s from, but I say this with the upmost respect, I would tie his shoelaces. His name is 13th Witness. His images are… they move me spiritually, I’ll say that much. Annie Leibovitz, she’s another one who her images move me. There’s another guy, and I can’t think of his name, but he did a documentary called Rock Prophecies, and he’s a rock photographer who captures mostly rock music. He’s been taking photos now since Jimi Hendrix, so right around the ’60s up until now. He has photos of Stevie Ray Vaughan, photos of Jimi Hendrix that no one has, Aerosmith. I love his work too because his original work is in film, and I shoot a little film now because I believe that you can’t be great at what you do if you can’t pay homage to what’s been done. I am adamant about staying connected to the past of photography and also being able to be present at the same time.

Define your artistic style. What do you think separates your work from other photographers?

I’ve been collecting comic books since ’90, ’91. And when I was in middle school, and even into high school, I used to attempt the draw them, and I also create a comic book character, a story line, I was trying to draw out those particular images. One thing I learned from comic books is angles, you know, different depths of film. I am not trained in photography, so I have to use everything I can to learn. A professor of mine said in art class, he told me: “You cannot look at a painting standing in front of it; you have to look at it from every angle, all over the place.” When I’m doing a photo shoot that’s all I think about. I think I have to get proportions and angles that nobody else is even thinking about.

So what makes my style different is the fact that my style is from that of an artist, a painter, a drawer, somebody who has the ability create a story or create some beautiful piece of artwork. I think like an artist would think versus somebody who is just a photographer.

Who have been your favorite artists to work with?

Right now, the person who I would say I like the most would probably be 2Chainz. Mainly because he’s come down to Albany a couple of times, but the way he is on stage is very fluid. He moves around, he does his thing, but every millisecond there is a pose. It’s kinda hard to explain. He’s not like T.I., just running across the stage like a rabbit. T.I. is like the Energizer bunny just running on the stage back and forth, which causes the photographer to have to move the camera every second. Whereas an artist like 2Chainz, or Young Jeezy, they don’t do all of that energy movement, they just move. There is one rapper I would give my left foot to be able to photograph, and that’s Jay-Z, because Jay stands in the same spot. Jay-Z stands with his front leg forward and he moves with hand gestures. Jay doesn’t move, so I know if I get me a 32-gig memory card I could probably shoot 10,000 pictures perfect with Jay-Z, just straight perfect. I know I could. And every image, 10,000 images would literally be perfect, dead on, nothing wrong, perfect, because Jay doesn’t move. So he’s a prime one. But say, for instance, 2Chainz or Young Jeezy, who moves very slowly, or moves every now and again, that makes it easy work for me.

How do you manage being starstruck by your favorite performers?

I’ve never told anyone this at all. When an artist comes on stage, that initial minute, I am literally trembling. I start sweating and I start shaking. I am so nervous it’s hard for me even to take the picture, because my hand goes uncontrollable, it starts vibrating. That awestruck-ness, at first it’s literally crazy. Around the third song I’m usually good. [Jay-Z’s] concert in Atlanta was everything I dreamed it to be. I hope Jay-Z does concerts until he dies because I’ve got to cover one.

Check out the rest of Jimmie Fair’s work here!