B+ (photographer)
B+ | |
---|---|
Born |
Brian Cross 1966 Limerick, Ireland |
Occupation | Photographer, filmmaker |
Website |
www |
Brian Cross (born in 1966), better known as B+ (sometimes stylized as B Plus), is an Irish photographer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California.[1] He is a co-founder of Mochilla, a film and music production company.[1] He predominantly photographed the Los Angeles' hip hop scene in the 1990s as well as helped create album art for a number of artists including Q-Tip, Eazy-E, Damian Marley, DJ Shadow, and J Dilla.[2]
Biography
Brian Cross was born and raised in Limerick, Ireland.[3] He became infatuated with hip hop upon hearing Schoolly D and Public Enemy in the late 1980s.[4] In 1989, he earned a degree in painting from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.[4] He moved to Los Angeles, California in 1990 to attend the California Institute of the Arts.[5] He quickly became entranced by Los Angeles' underground hip hop scene.[3]
In 1993, he published It's Not About a Salary: Rap, Race and Resistance in Los Angeles, which was a book of essays, interviews, and photography.[3] It featured conversations with and photographs of The Watts Prophets, Toddy Tee, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, and Freestyle Fellowship.[4] In 2014, he was listed on Complex's "15 Rap Photographers Every Rap Fan Should Know" list.[2]
In 2017, he published Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed, which featured the faces of artists such as J Dilla, Brian Wilson, Leon Ware, George Clinton, and The Notorious B.I.G.[5]
Books
- It's Not About a Salary: Rap, Race and Resistance in Los Angeles (1993, Verso Books)
- Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed (2017, University of Texas Press)
References
- 1 2 Palermo, Tomas (June 1, 2011). "Mochilla's B Plus on Endtroducing, J-Dilla, and the Last Ten Years of Hip-Hop Photography". SF Weekly. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- 1 2 Cheng, Susan (October 9, 2014). "15 Rap Photographers Every Rap Fan Should Know: B+". Complex. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- 1 2 3 Hsu, Hua (December 26, 2017). "The World of Music Stardom, Through the Eyes of the Photographer B+". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- 1 2 3 Bell, Max (January 20, 2018). "No One Sees Rap Like Photographer Brian Cross". Noisey. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- 1 2 Weiss, Layne (November 28, 2017). "Brian "B+" Cross's Photos Go Beyond Hip-Hop to Capture the Roots of a Whole Culture". LA Weekly. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
External links
- B Plus discography at Discogs
- Brian Cross on IMDb