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Spinderella, Salt and Pepa © Al Pereira

Black Sheep © Al Pereira


MC Lyte © Al Pereira

April 26, 2007 - August 31, 2007
Williamsburgh Library, Art Gallery, Lower Level (branch info)

Brooklyn Beats
by Al Pereira

The photographs in this show portray rap and hip-hop artists from the 1980s and 1990s. I've always loved music photography and felt it was important to document rappers as musicians. There wasn't any money in doing it, but it was exciting and happening right here in Brooklyn and NYC. When I got rolling, you could just call a number off the back of an album and set up a shoot. It was all do-it-yourself then and most of the artists were thrilled just to have won some notice.

Brooklyn-based Al Pereira is one of the pioneering photographers of hip-hop's golden age. He is the team photographer for the New York Jets and a freelance music photographer. His photographs have appeared in The New York Times, New York Post, the Daily News, Time, Newsweek, Vibe, The Source, Spin, Guitar One, Blues Revue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and Bravo magazine. Pereira's work has also appeared in group and solo exhibitions in New York City. In 1998, he wrote and provided photographs for Rapper's Delights: African-American Cookin' With Soul, a cookbook which featured the favorite recipes of leading rap performers.