Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop

Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop is a 2018 photography book created and written by Vikki Tobak and ongoing exhibition series.[1][2][3][4] The volume features contact prints from analog photography sessions of hip hop artists during roughly forty-years, from the beginnings of the genre in the late 1970s until the late 2000s.

Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop
Front cover
AuthorVikki Tobak
CountryUnited States, Japan
LanguageEnglish, Japanese
GenrePhotography
PublishedPenguin Random House / Clarkson Potter
Pages288
OCLC0525573887

Beginning first as an Instagram account in 2016 created by Tobak, the then entitled Contact High Project soon appeared as a regular column in Mass Appeal. It was shown in exhibit form for the first time at the 2017 Photoville in Brooklyn before being signed to a book deal in 2018.

Details

The book has a foreword by Questlove and essays by Bill Adler, Rhea L. Combs, Fab Five Freddy, Michael Gonzales, Young Guru, DJ Premier, and RZA.[5]

The book explores the development of hip hop through the perspective of its photographers.[6] Accompanying the unedited contact sheets in the book are also the personal stories of the sixty featured photographers relating specifically to the musical artists that they worked with on these images. The content of the book is organized chronologically and measures hip hop's rise of influence from old-school to alternative hip hop across the world.[7]

Among the featured photographic subjects in the book are Notorious B.I.G., Tu Pac, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Eminem,[8] Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Salt-N-Pepa, and Kanye West.[9][10] Hip hop figures DJ Kool Herc, Rock Steady Crew and street artists Futura and Keith Haring are also included.

Book reception

The book was included in Time's "25 Best Photobooks of 2018".[11]

Museum exhibitions
Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop exhibit at The Annenberg Space For Photography 2019

Los Angeles:

In April 2019, The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles hosted an exhibit, also called Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, reflecting the entirety of the book's content. It was curated by the author, Vikki Tobak, with creative direction by Fab Five Freddy.[12][13][14][15]

In addition to videos, memorabilia, and music to complement the photographs, the exhibit also included a documentary short film produced by the Annenberg Foundation and RadicalMedia directed by Melissa Haizlip, featuring a selection of the Contact High photographers at work and in conversation including; Janette Beckman, Danny Clinch, Eric Coleman, Joe Conzo, Brian B+ Cross, Jack McKain, Estevan Oriol, Jorge Peniche, Ithaka Darin Pappas,[16] Dana Scruggs and Jamel Shabazz.[17]

One of the pieces in the exhibit is an installation surrounding Barron Claiborne’s group of portraits of The Notorious B.I.G wearing a plastic gold crown in front of a bright red backdrop.[18][19] The pictures were made in March 1997, three days before the rapper's untimely death. The most known image from the series entitled "The King of New York," is one photograph from a couple of dozen of the rapper from the photo session.[20] Most of these other photographs had never been seen by the public before inclusion in the book Contact High. In addition to a 100 cm x 150 cm print of the principal image, the museum exhibit installation of "The King Of New York" featured one of Small's music videos playing on a small screen alongside two enlarged contact prints as well as the plastic crown that Claiborne had purchased for the shoot.

New York:

After the exhibit's debut in Los Angeles, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop was exhibited in its entirety for the second time from January 18th 2020-May 15th 2020 at the International Center of Photography in New York as part of the inauguration of the ICP's new location at 79 Essex Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The exhibit's opening event was attended by Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei, Questlove, ASAP Rocky, Debi Mazar, Jasmine Lobe, curator and writer Antwaun Sargent, Contact High curator Vikki Tobak and exhibiting photographers; Janette Beckman, Danny Hastings, Jorge Peniche, Ithaka Darin Pappas, Ricky Powell, Lisa Leone, Al Pereira, Barron Clairborne, Dephine Fawandu, Mark Seliger and Joe Conzo Jr.[21][22]

[35][36][37][30])

References
  1. Zaragoza, Alex; Hosking, Taylor (November 30, 2018). "Unearthed Photos of Hip-Hop Royalty from the 80s and 90s".
  2. Shakur, Fayemi (October 5, 2018). "40 Years of Hip-Hop Photos". The New York Times.
  3. "Photographers' contact sheets celebrate the visual history of hip hop". Popular Photography.
  4. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/rare-images-of-biggie-and-tupac-capture-another-side-to-hip-hop/2018/11/08/6e73ae2e-d87e-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html
  5. "Contact High by Vikki Tobak - PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com.
  6. "Red Bull Music Academy Daily". daily.redbullmusicacademy.com.
  7. "Book Review: "Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop"". AllHipHop.com.
  8. Wang, Oliver (2018-10-12). "The icons of hip-hop and the images that might have been". latimes.com. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  9. "The stories behind hip-hop's most iconic images". www.cnn.com.
  10. "Hip-hop's iconic images and the stories behind them – in pictures". The Guardian. November 7, 2018 – via www.theguardian.com.
  11. "Time's Best Photobooks of 2018". Time.
  12. "'Contact High' Photography Exhibit in LA to Showcase Intimate Visual History of Hip-Hop". Billboard.
  13. ""Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop" - Annenberg Space for Photography - Art in Los Angeles". Time Out Los Angeles.
  14. EDT, Paula Froelich On 4/4/19 at 4:45 PM (April 4, 2019). "A stark, new exhibit at the Annenberg take us on a visual historical journey of Hip-Hop". Newsweek.
  15. "Fab 5 Freddy's 'Grass Is Greener' Cannabis Documentary To Premiere On Netflix". AllHipHop.com.
  16. Miranda, Carolina A. (2019-04-25). "Datebook: Roy Dowell's hypnotic plays on pattern". latimes.com.
  17. "Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop". Annenberg Space for Photography.
  18. Alvarez, Lauren. "'Contact High: A Visual History Of Hip-Hop' Is A Pure Documentation Of A Cultural Phenomenon". Forbes.
  19. "How I Took The Last Ever Picture Of Biggie Smalls". Gentlemen's Quarterly.
  20. Simon, Johnny; Simon, Johnny. "From Biggie to Kendrick Lamar: outtakes from hip-hop's most iconic photos". Quartz (publication).
  21. "'Contact High: A Visual History Of Hip-Hop' Is A Pure Documentation Of A Cultural Phenomenon". Vanity Fair. Hip-Hop’s Visual History, on Display.
  22. "Event Recap: Opening Reception for the new ICP and its inaugural exhibitions". YRB Mag.
  23. "Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop featuring the story of my shoot with Mary J Blige". Michael Benabib.
  24. "Eric Coleman". Annenberg Space for Photography.
  25. LensCulture, Vikki Tobak |. "Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop - Photographs courtesy of Contact High Project | Interview with Vikki Tobak by Cat Lachowskyj". LensCulture.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  26. "DELPHINE FAWUNDU ON PHOTOGRAPHING THE "INFAMOUS" MOBB DEEP". DELPHINE FAWUNDU ON PHOTOGRAPHING THE “INFAMOUS” MOBB DEEP.
  27. "Book – Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop".
  28. "Contact High Project". Contact High Project.
  29. Shakur, Fayemi (October 5, 2018). "40 Years of Hip-Hop Photos". The New York Times.
  30. "The stories behind hip-hop's most iconic images". www.cnn.com.
  31. "International Center of Photography Refocuses in a New Home". January 30, 2020.
  32. B, Sam (April 8, 2019). "On-stage with Ricky Powell".
  33. "Iconic Hip Hop Contact Sheets | PDN Photo of the Day". September 15, 2017.
  34. "Jamel Shabazz". Annenberg Space for Photography.
  35. Tobak, Vikki (November 10, 2018). Contact high: a visual history of hip-hop. Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. ISBN 9780525573883 – via iucat.iu.edu.
  36. "CONTACT HIGH - A Visual Proof Sheet History of Hip-Hop". April 25, 2019.
  37. https://www.buzzinus.com/2019/04/05/contact-high-a-visual-history-of-hip-hop-debuts-at-the-annenberg/
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