RESPECT.: Let’s start with discussing your passion for photography and art as a whole. When did it become something that transformed from a hobby to full-time?

Kevin: “Well everything started because of my sister when she was in middle school and I was elementary in Atlanta. She use to draw heavy and I found it amazing that she could do these things to express her feelings and style with visuals. One day we had a big argument and I ended up ripping up one of her designs. That crushed her in a sense and she told me that, I would have to become something like her in the field of multimedia to get forgiveness. Years later I started to draw Dragon Ball Z characters because it was the wave back then. It was popping on Toonami. Eventually, I got good at it and started showing her my work and full forgiveness was granted because I actually achieved something she thought I wasn’t going to do. While I was in the midst of all this, I started doing graffiti and got caught numerous times and ended up in trouble. I went digital in my Sophomore year of high school to stay away and built a passion for art as a whole. Photography started about 5 years with a canon t1i. Being stupid with running and gunning and not knowing anything until Erick Arc Elliott inspired me to be better with his work in our early days with “THELOVEINUS.” I started to take it serious when I started to read about it with Print Magazine, BOOOOOOOM!, Change of Thought, and more. Honestly, I always wanted to do this but didn’t have the knowledge. It’s still inspiring ’til this day, still learning. Now turning it into a full-time thing was only three years ago. I’ve started to read more and teach myself new techniques to be my own person and stand out from all my knowledge I’ve built over the years. Here I am now, not working or working the minimal hours with a 9 to 5 to keep it full time with my designs as well.”

RESPECT.: Talk about what you ideally prefer to shoot. Do you have a specific process of just grab inspiration from all over?

Kevin: “I like to photograph landscapes and people while I’m out doing street photography. It’s just something that you can’t capture after it’s gone and that’s the current environment at that current time. The essence still exists heavily by capturing the emotion. Now inspiration is the current lighting at hand when I shoot. I’m more of a cinematic type of guy, so the right lighting can trigger me to shoot.”

RESPECT.: Photographers always have their camera/lens preferences. Detail your preferences and why what you shoot with is the best personal fit?

Kevin: “We all do in sense when it comes to preference. I have different cameras for different settings. Studio photography I’ll use a variety of Canon models depending on the object I’m shooting. If I’m capturing an aggressive look, I’ll use a Canon 5D II, Nikon D800E. Less aggressive looks (mainly females) I’ll use a Canon t3i or 7D. The skin tones and contrast/brightness is softer and not as sharp as the other cameras I mentioned. My favorite lens to shoot with is a 35mm Vivitar 2.8, (prime and vintage) which is not a traditional lens to do portraits and other style, but somehow it works when I use my eye. Settings are always changing so I don’t have a specific go to aperture/shutter speed/ISO. I really do believe that it shouldn’t be changed. A slight facial expression change will change my setting.”

RESPECT.: What’s been the most impactful shoot for you personally?

Kevin: “It was my Chino (Dreamchasers/MMG) photoshoot that I did in New Jersey for a brand called Bespoke that makes phenomenal helmets. It was my first time doing sports bike photography in a casual setting. I had too much fun that day and would love go further with doing that and building my never ending portfolio. Would love to jump into F1 Racing photography in a cinematic way.”

RESPECT.: “You are also heavily involved in music and design. Talk about both and where you are in your career with them to date. Do you prefer one craft over the others?”

Kevin: “The music is always compared to my graphic design by aesthetic for my genres of Downtempo, Ambient, Electronic Jazz and Hip-Hop. I produced a lot of Diatonic scale sounds so my current emotion is always showing in my production. I love to produce music that grabs your mental and hypnotizes you to relax and gives off a sense of fulfillment of a hardworking day. People hear my music and see my designs and always think that I do drugs but I don’t. Guess I’m an emotional guy and know how to convey it to people. My career in music has been steady since 2013 for the most because of my past. Spent time with a lot of people that wasted my time and I was ignorant to it because I wasn’t worried about money, just wanted my music out there. I sat back and taught myself the business and released “Cascade Dreams” in October of last year, which is now on Tidal, Spotify and more, It’s been better. Done a massive amount of shows with Bombay Knox and helping the community. It’s been great this year. My latest album placement with Carlitta Durand on “I’ll be Gorgeous When I Die” has been great. But I choose both. I can’t do one without the other.”

RESPECT: Having your hand in so many different avenues, what individual projects are you currently working on?

Kevin: “Right now I’m working on my second album called “NON FICTION.” It’s an environmental, ambient, Progressive House, Hip-Hop album. I’ll also be rapping and singing again and speaking on my past to what made me. I’ve mainly been behind the scenes for years and people haven’t gotten to know me personally. It’s about time to express it. I have a show on June 11th with Until The Ribbon Breaks at Black Cat in D.C. I’ll be performing songs from “Cascade Dreams” and “NON FICTION” in a extensive, creative way. I’m compiling visuals and building a set for it now with plants, lighting, projection mapping, and MIDI mapping to trigger my sounds live. Hopefully it will be done before then, but rendering is so time consuming for the videos. If not, the music will back me up. I’m doing more 3D composition for DJ’s and artists, similar to the stuff you see Skrillex and other DJ’s use for the visuals. Also designing more merch for labels, artists, and more.”

RESPECT.: You can either shoot, design, or do music. Which route do you take creatively and why?

Kevin: “I’ll take all routes. I’ve been a one man army for a while now. It would be so hard just to drop one. I like having control over my look. I’m my own brand.”

The post RESPECT. Photographer Of The Month: Kevin Chambers (June Edition) appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Photography by Chris Franko

Before Eric Haze was tagging automobiles, making t-shirts with Stussy or partnering with G-Shock, he was tagging the walls and subways of New York City in the late 70’s. Haze helped usher in an era, becoming one of the most prolific artists of his time, and eventually inspiring the template for many of the crazy graf styles that came after him. He designed the logo for Public Enemy and did album covers for the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J in a time when Hip-Hop’s rules were still being etched and scratched out.

If you didn’t know who Eric Haze was, you definitely had to take notice at this past weekends affair, 30/25/15X4, celebrating G-Shock’s 30th anniversary, Haze’s 25th, and their 15 year partnership together in New York City’s Financial District. Not too far from Wall Street, attendees entered a venue decorated with framed collections of his t-shirts, skullys, and memorabilia that he’s done over the years. Walking through the exhibit was like taking a journey through time. A period when logos were the end all be all, sneaker culture was at its height, and graffiti was still drawn on trains. In the middle of the venue, lied his past collaborative time pieces with G-Shock, in chronological order, each collab more interesting than the next. Much of the work, emblazoned with his signature tag: bold lines spelling his name with a halo and a star, surrounded by a cloud. Haze is blessed, but he ain’t too surprised. “I don’t consider any of this accident. I consider it all a blessing,” he said taking a puff of his cigarette outside of the venue. He continued, “I feel like I’ve been aligned and dedicated with the culture since day one.”

Photography by Chris Franko

And he has. Just passing across the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s visible that graffiti is still alive and kicking but the work is more refined than a tag, inspired by trailblazers like Haze and his contemporary Keith Haring. They were really amongst the first to establish a place between art and product in the 80’s when Haze and Haring collaborated on a t-shirt sold in his Pop Shop in downtown Manhattan.

Photography by Chris Franko

An intimate crowd of about 500 people showed up ranging from actress, Rosie Perez, beloved for her role in Spike Lee’s  Do The Right Thing to Downtown duo Va$htie & Oscar known for their 1992 parties. While legendary DJ’s Stretch Arm Strong, DJ Scratch, and Just Blaze surrendered the crowd with their multifaceted DJ skills, heavyweights mingled with the up-and-coming. Haze, who shied away from too much spotlight at the event, is almost 30 years into his career and shows no signs of slowing up. “I’ve been saying for a long time, I’m exactly where I want to be,” says Haze who’s nearly 50 years old.  I wouldn’t really change anything right now.” He continues, “ The real sort of trick for me over the last 5 or 10 years  is to find the healthiest balance between the roles I play. Whether it’s me as artist and an art director or product designer.” He’s reached  the point where he feels comfortable in his head going through all three seamlessly.

So how’d this all come about? A 15 year partnership with G-Shock, one of the world’s most recognizable brands. All over the world Haze’s self-titled brand became ubiquitous with Hip-Hop culture. In Japan, almost 15 years ago, G-Shock extended their olive branch towards a partnership with the pop artist. “We developed the first watch in 1999 and it was it was a much younger and more simpler days of collaborations and co-branding. It was a major accomplishment and that relationship grew,” he says.

Photography By Chris Franko

The collaboration started out with him just adding his tag to the G-Shock watch, but its flourished into his creative take on packaging and the overall product. With their latest collaboration, he believes it’s blended just right. “With Casio, I’m trying to just capture their identity with my fingerprints, ” says Haze. In 1999, he also retracted back to just being an artist, for fear of wearing his brand too thin. Now Haze is more of a design entity with a line of clothing rather than the reverse. “I think sort of changing my approach to  allowed for companies like G-Shock to see the mutual value  of working together,” says Haze. To commemorate their legacy together, they collaborated on a fourth time piece that reinvigorates the colors of red, grey and white from their previous watches.

Looking at Haze now, he’s mentally more mature but his willingness to create hasn’t died one bit. They’d been working on this two day exhibition for seven days a week for nine months straight, and it’s only a golden milestone in what he has plans for the future. You kind of get the feeling that it’s all kind of surreal, making this much fuss over an artform that started on the streets. “I never wanted to be Marc Ecko. I never wanted to blow up and be gone,” says Haze.  Indelibly, his fingerprints will be left on the street and  in pop culture forever.

The post Exclusive Interview: Eric Haze Celebrates 25 Years as an Artist, Including a 15 Year Partnership with G-Shock appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.