Why?

“Ricky Powell is one of my favorite people on earth. I gravitate towards people who have just a charismatic energy, because I feel like a lot of photography has to do with what you put out there and what you project onto people and this is what you're getting back into photos.

Ricky Powell is doing that, and did that in the New York of the '70s and 80’s, so he was catching dudes like Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and he went on tour with Run DMC, and he's getting the Beastie Boys. He was on the scene capturing all these different moments. Ricky Powell really dominated that scene for what the art industry was and where the culture was and I feel like that's very similar to where I am in my life right.

A lot of my friends are musicians and DJs and directors or dancers, and everybody's doing really dope things in their lives and careers. I wonder what will happen in the next 10 years with us, and who [among us] is going to be the next Run DMC.

The title of the book, The Individualist, is something that I feel is really dope too. I think being an individual now is a commodity. There are now so many different references and so many things that you can emulate, and people tend to lose themselves in this.”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer