Sunny Bak is a fashion photographer that, by chance, found herself shooting for the Beasties during the “License To Ill” era. The story (as told to Jay-Z’s Life And Times Blog) is that the Beasties used to hang around Sunny’s photo studio with all these models she was shooting, and that’s how she met them. Sunny used to just throw the boys into her photos because she needed someone to test the light out on. Haha. Later on, when they got a deal, they called her up, and asked if they could use the photos, and hire her.
Last Thursday (the day before MCA passed), I attended an opening for Sunny’s show with Cey Adams of rarely seen photos from the Beasties in the early 80s. It’s actually still up at 675 Hudson St/Ivy Brown Gallery. We ended up meeting Sunny through a mutual friend over there, and were pretty amazed at her down-to-earth nature.
I just dug this video up above, that sees Sunny being interviewed about the photos she contributed to the “Kings Of Rock” show at Rush Arts Gallery last month. She’s got some great stories to tell, and this video doesn’t even have 300 hits, so I’m sure they’re stories you haven’t heard.
When I was 15, I moved to Manhattan, NYC. I was very into looking at graffiti and street art. Revs and Cost (along with JA) really ruled the streets at that time. They used to wheat-paste white sheets of paper (like the one above) to the backs of the don’t walk signs. I used to play a game, where I would walk around the streets, and check the back of EVERY don’t walk sign to see if they had gotten it. They almost ALWAYS had. It was pretty remarkable actually. “Cost Marks The Spot” , “Zookeeper Revs”, “Cost Fucked Madonna”. They had a slew of sayings that would be printed in plain block letters on these pieces of paper.
If you’re not familiar with the legend of Revs And Cost, it’s pretty interesting. They used to dress up in these jumpsuits that looked just like the ones street-workers wear. That way, they flew under the radar, and were able to DESTROY the city without getting hemmed up.
New York Writes It’s Self is “is an ongoing series of creative productions fueled by the real people of New York - what people see and hear in the city is recorded as a ‘script’, which forms the inspiration for music, creative writing, art exhibitions and more.”
The monstrous creative agency known as Leo Burnett, has launched this project, in order to let New York’s people tell the story of their city. These stories will be then made into major art pieces, by established artists. “Scribes” go on to the New York Writes It’s Self website, and pen their observations in the city. So many amazing scenes take place in New York every day, and now, these stories have a place to live.
The project is being promoted all over NYC on the tops of cabs, on the taxi television stations, and on major billboards, as well as through a series of videos called “The Chairman”. The trailer for “The Chairman” is below.
(Source: newyorkwritesitself)
