Ricky Powell, downtown New York Blissful, who with his point-and-shoot camera documented the early years of hip-hop’s rise, as well as a number of other subcultural scenes and the celebrities and fringe characters that populated the city, was found dead Monday in his West Village apartment. He was 59.
The death was confirmed by his manager and archivist, Tono Radvany, who said a cause had not yet been determined. Mr Powell understands he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease last year and has been having constant heart problems.
Mr. Powell – affectionately often called “the lazy hustler” – filled the old-world charm and pick of New York City. As an intrusive hiker, he slammed his camera on the sidewalk and took photos of everything that caught his mind: superstars, well-dressed passers-by, animals.
Importantly, he was close to the appearance of the Beastie Boys, who catapulted him into an unforeseen career as a touring photographer and key entourage member, giving him a front seat to the worldwide explosion of hip-hop that erupted in the mid-1980s. started.
“Even though Ron Galella was his hero – he was the original paparazzi – I told Ricky that you also have the taste of Weegee,” said the once ubiquitous street photographer in New York. Fab 5 Freddy, the early hip hop impresario and a longtime friend and photo subject of Powell’s. “He was always in the inner circle, one of the only – if not the only person – to take pictures.”
The photos of mr. Powell was intimate and comfortable, a forerunner of the old-fashioned hyper-documentation of the social media era. They often felt the moment completely inside and lived it rather than observing it. His subjects were diverse: Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, caught on the street outside a gallery opening; Francis Ford Coppola and his daughter, Sofia, at one of her early fashion shows; Run-DMC poses in front of the Eiffel Tower; a pre-superstar Cindy Crawford in a nightclub bathroom; people sleeping on park benches.
“He was not trained, he did not know how to compose a recording, he did not know what a diaphragm was,” said Vikki Tobak, editor of the photo anthology, “Contact High: A Visual History or Hip-Hop “said. (2018) and curator of a traveling exhibition of the same name, both of which are the work of mr. Powell contains. ‘But you could feel his curiosity about the people he photographed, so none of that really mattered. He made people laugh and feel at ease; you see it all in his photos. ”
Ricky Powell was born in Brooklyn on November 20, 1961 and grew up mostly in the West Village. He attended LaGuardia Community College in Queens and graduated from Hunter College in Manhattan with a degree in physical education.
His mother, Ruth Powell, was a teacher – he did not know his father – but also, more importantly, a habit of downtown clubs like Max’s Kansas City, where she would bring Ricky while he was still a child. . She is his only immediate survivor.
“I grew up fast. Fast, ‘says Mr. Powell in ‘Ricky Powell: The Individualist’, a documentary about his life that would premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, but which was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. It is now planned for this year’s festival, in June.
Josh Swade, who directed the documentary, said that Mr. Powell had a raw social and cultural intelligence, ‘from the fact that he was only in the streets of New York in the 60s and 70s outside the city, and could take care of yourself.’
Actress Debi Mazar has Mr. Powell met while they were both teens cycling in downtown Manhattan. They were, “she said,” children of the city. “Together they went to the Paradise Garage, the Mudd Club and other hot spots. ‘Every door opened for Ricky,’ ‘Ms Mazar said.’ When we walked into a club, we were the coolest kids. He had these savoir faire, this electricity. ”
Fab 5 Freddy remembers that ‘New York was a polarized place when we met’, but that Mr. Powell “was comfortable being around black kids in an era when you were not just visiting other areas.”
He has become a contestant in the Fun Gallery, Danceteria, the Roxy and more, and with graffiti writers, rappers, punk rockers, artists and the other creative eccentric residents of New York’s vibrant, winding downtown. He played in the graffiti artist Futura 2000’s softball team, the East Village Espadrilles.
“It was almost as if he was also invisible,” Futura, as he is now known, said. “He was always looking for a photo he could take.”
After studying at the university, Mr. Powell sold ice creams from a streetcar for a while and offered to increase the treat with rum for an extra dollar. During his shifts, he would photograph people on the street, including stars of the scene such as Basquiat. He was already friendly with the Beastie Boys, who had just signed a recording contract with Def Jam, and one day he bought him a plane ticket to travel with them – they went for Run-DMC on the Raising Hell Tour opened – and never looked back.
Mr. Powell became an important part of the Beastie Boys ecosystem – he partyed, sometimes watched the baggage, played one of the nasty protagonists in the video “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)” And much more. He was featured on ‘Car Thief’, a track from the group’s album ‘Paul’s Boutique’ from 1989, and was known enough to have his own bands.
“When he showed up, the party started,” he said. Radvany said.
All the time he was taking pictures, it quickly became essential artifacts. Mr. Powell was a documentary of a demimonde who was often too busy living hard to stop and reflect. Over the years, his images have appeared in Paper, Ego Trip, Mass Appeal, Animal and other magazines. He has also released several books, including ‘Oh Snap! The Rap Photography of Ricky Powell ”(1998),“ The Rickford Files: Classic New York Photographs ”(2000) and“ Public Access: Ricky Powell Photographs 1985-2005 ”(2005).
“I liked being part of the crew, just hanging out. The result in itself, but also a photographer who takes relevant photos at the same time, ‘says Mr. Powell in the documentary. “I think you have to get a degree in humanistic behavior before you can master the two together.”
Futura said: ‘He had a gift, very much a New Yorker. He symbolized it for me. I know my own kind. ”
In the 1990s, Powell had a television program ‘Rappin’ With the Rickster ‘for public access, in which he exchanged a still camera for a video camera, but maintained the loose, unpredictable energy to which he both drew and aroused. . his own. (A DVD collecting the biggest hits of the show was released in 2010.)
He was on the side of the Beasties for a decade, but he separated from them in 1995 when the group left its old, rough, disruptive and peasant ways behind. “It has become mature,” says Mr. Powell in the documentary. “They did what they did, but I still stayed.”
After returning to New York, Mr. Powell struggled to find purpose, and he struggled with drug addiction for some time.
He was not always sure how he could utilize his important archive of an undocumented era. “He could turn the connections into a profitable business,” he said. Swade said. “But for that you have to show up.”
Eventually he started working with mr. Radvany, who wanted to organize his archives, and collaborated with brands that licensed his old work or commissioned him for new projects that channel his energy from eau-de-New York. He also tells live slide shows of his old images and tells the stories behind the photos.
“When I started with him, he was off and on, and I had to help him build an income,” he said. Radvany said. “He loved social media. He was the lazy hustler – he could sit on his futon and sell prints. ”
And he never moved from his small West Village apartment, teeming with the aftermath of a life immersed in the center of the city: contact sheets, sneakers, basketball jerseys, vintage magazines and records, endless souvenirs about the development of the contemporary creative New York. culture. He was, even after all those decades, one with the scene he captured.
“You did not see him as a photographer,” Fab 5 Freddy said. “He was a nice kid in the mix taking out the camera, taking a few shots, laying down and saying, ‘Give the connection here. ‘