Photographer Ismail “Calligrafist” Sayeed. Photo Credit: Eric Salvary/Get Fit Radio TV
Photographer, Ismail “Calligrafist” Sayeed checked in with Scoop B Radio podcast’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Press Play Below To Listen!
If you read articles on the internet then you’ve seen his work. Photographer Ismail “Calligrafist” Sayeed has photographed the latest and greatest.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama, Dwyane Wade, Jay-Z, Fabolous, DJ Khaled, P.Diddy and many more have been photographed under the keen lens of Calligrafist.
His photography is a bridge between fashion, lifestyle, hip hop and culture.
He’s everywhere! Literally!
Homeboy’s work has appeared in reputable publications such as Billboard, ESPN, Bleacher Report, HBO, CBS Sports, Complex, Catch Restaurant, Reebok, Nike, Adidas, New York Fashion Week, DJ USA, Hot 97, Power 105.1, S.O.B.’s, Tidal, BET, VIBE, Mass Appeal, The Shade Room, Hype Beast, The Source Magazine, REVOLT, RESPECT Magazine, Bleu Magazine and Elliot Wilson and Brian ‘B.Dot” Miller’s Rap Radar.
All of that said…guess what? He’s not comfortable!
“The kind of person that I am, I just want to do more,” Calligraist told RESPECT Magazine today by phone.
“This is just the beginning.”
Harlem, NY bred and globally influenced, Calligrafist actually didn’t aspire to be a photographer. In fact, he fell in love with the art of graffiti and calligraphy; hence the nickname, ‘Calligrafist.’
A man of faith, the devout Muslim is college educated at Jamia Madinatul Uloom University in Trinidad & Tobago, where he studied Quranic Studies and Arabic reading and writing.
Calligrafist acknowledges seasoned hip hop photographers like Johnny Nunez and Jonathan Mannion who have undoubtedly paved the way for on-the rise photographers such as himself. Calligrafist emphasizes that he’s glad to sit at the table with them and eat, while also gaining their respect for his skin in the game. “It’s genuinely cool to have intimate conversations with them,” he said.
“It’s more humbling that I am able to have direct access to people that I look up to like them and someone like Lenny S., DJ Clark Kent, Emory Jones, that have a name in the industry, people that have a place in the culture, for people to acknowledge me for more my work; that’s an honor. That’s more humbling. But it moves me to want to do more.”
For more information on Calligrafist and his photographic/art movement, visit www.calligrafistphotography.com and scroll up and press play to listen to our chat on Scoop B Radio!
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