Nowadays, everyone has a camera at their fingertips.
But do they know what they're
We're gonna talk to a pro and find out.
♪ ♪
We are here at Art 2 Ink in Harlem, New York
and I'm being joined by Dirty Souf Yankee.
That's me.
And I guess the first question is what the fuck do you do?
I'm a photographer/ creative director,
that's what most people know me as, and
as you will learn later today, I am also a people person.
What have been some of your notable projects,
or famous celebrities that you've worked with?
I actually have a friend named Ro James,
who has the number one single right now.
I also shot Nicki Minaj before she became famous,
so I have photos of her with no butt.
Those might be worth...
Yeah, I'm holding on to them.
So let's talk about today's gig.
What is the nature of today's shoot?
So I have a really awesome stylist named London,
who is helping me out today. We have three people-
Silence, who's a singer;
Olutayo, who's a singer-actor-dancer;
and Sean Fair, who is also a singer.
And we're gonna be shooting the three of them.
We invited a bunch of people, um, to come today
so it can kind of just be like a who's who of like-
okay, this person does this, this person does that,
like you guys all need to know each other because maybe,
you know, you can help each other out at some point.
You could use each other's services.
So you're setting up networking events.
Right! I'm that guy.
You gotta add that to your-
I'm the connector guy. So like, on top of that, it's just,
you know, why not get a whole bunch of cool shots in
while we're at it and make a day of it?
I normally prefer to shoot with my, uh, T4i because
it's a lighter body. I do a lot of shows with this one.
Um, but when we're doing fashion shoots and stuff like today,
I also like to have my 7d.
I have my 50 millimeter, I have my kit lens-
which most people will laugh at, but I make it work.
Not to shade anybody, but a lot of times
technically trained photographers,
they don't roll with the punches well 'cause what they do best is
they control their environment, whereas I kind of just
specialize in utilizing whatever's available to me
'cause I come from show photography,
and like you don't control any of that.
You just have to know how to work the body,
and you know, whatever you have to your advantage.
This is my comfort zone. A lot of people would freak out today.
This- this is a happy place for me.
What's going on over here?
So we've got our first, uh, talented lady
getting made up by our awesome makeup artist, Dior.
This is Silence. When you got an awesome makeup artist,
it just helps the process go that much quicker because
if there's blemishes, or if there's like little things,
like he takes care of that.
So that then once we have the image, hopefully there's not
a whole lot that has to get done to it after the fact.
Is there a lot of processes that she has to go through
before she's camera-ready, or..?
Um, London is gonna help, uh, get her clothes together.
She's a generally stylish lady, but he's gonna help her
be a little bit more stylish
'cause that's what he does for a living.
Of course we have, like, regular things going on
because this is a tattoo shop.
A lot of artistry going on.
Absolutely! Art 2 Ink!
Alright, we are at the stylin' table.
Tell us about everything we got going on over here.
So today like I did, I got a whole bunch of brands together
because she said we were working with different artists,
so I didn't wanna get too many of the same looks.
So we wanted to do, like, urban looks so I got
one of the Faux Friends brands out here.
Uh, we'll do something like this with, like, a- a- a skully
and do maybe like a leather piece with this,
you know, all together so we have more of an urban.
But then I would clean it up and do something like this,
uh, blazer paired with maybe the bowtie, the leather gloves,
um just so we can have different looks and different vibes
for the photo shoot.
Now as far as colors, patterns, uh- textures,
how does that play into photography?
This is kind of a busy background,
like we've got a lot of dope art, so we would probably
want to keep something a little more simple out here,
like do something, like, solid colors.
A lot of it is just kind of, like, clashing,
like is it doing too much?
Is this taking away from the subject?
And just finding something that is pleasing to the eye.
In your experience, what is the most important trait that
one should have if they want to be a successful photographer?
The key to anything is passion. You have to love what you do.
I don't care what you do.
I don't care if you're making the cups that Starbucks come in.
If you have a passion for it and you continue to do it,
and do it, and do it, and then you hone in on whatever it is
you're good at. Everything else will come.
The thing I tell everybody the most is just bring your camera
with you at all times. Shoot everything.
And then as you start shooting, you'll realize
what you're good at and what you like.
They might not be the same thing.
And then, like, maybe you can marry the two of them,
you can focus on both of them.
But you won't really know that until you shoot a lot.
Thank you so much for letting us tag along with,
uh, your shoot today. How do you feel about it?
I love bringing people together and kind of just
being the connector dot, if you will. So that's-
that's the most fun part of my day. I love it.
What's your slogan? Cause you have a slogan.
You can't get fresh until you get dirty.
There it is.