ABOUT SOPHIE BRAMLY
The French photographer Sophie Bramly was just 21-years-old when she left her work and life in Paris to move to New York in 1981. Infatuated with the then-emerging Hip Hop culture, she spent the next several years shooting indelible photos of its most iconic personalities in the Bronx and in downtown Manhattan.
Almost 40 years later, two books devoted to that work were published: "1981 & +" and "Walk This Way." Both titles are now out of print. Sophie currently lives in Paris. |
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PORTFOLIOWALK THIS WAY
Out of prints book "Walk This Way", published in 2015, shows Sophie's work in between 1981 and 1984, putting her arms around all four of hip-hop’s elements: emcees (including Grandmaster Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, Lisa Lee, the Fat Boys, Run-DMC, and the Beastie Boys), deejays (including Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Afrika Islam, DST, Jazzy Jay, and Red Alert), graffiti artists (including Dondi, Futura, Zephyr, and Lady Pink), and breakdancers (including members of Magnificent Force, Dynamic Breakers, and the Rock Steady Crew). She also paid attention to the young people then embracing hip-hop, to the older authority figures who regarded hip- hop with distaste, to crucial players behind the scenes (including record producers like Bill Laswell, Bernard Zekri, and Rick Rubin, and gallery owners like the Fun Gallery’s Patti Astor), and to notable establishment figures who early on made common cause with the hip-hoppers (including Herbie Hancock and Harry Belafonte).
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