B+ @333 Festival
Words: Mark Lynch
The brilliant 333 Festival in the Devlin Hotel in Ranelagh on November 28th has dropped its best line up yet bringing DJ E.A.S.E (aka Nightmares On Wax), David Holmes, Donal Dineen and celebrated filmmaker and artist B+ into a staggering line up of talent that includes Jordan Nocturne & Timmy Stewart, Claire Beck, Billy Scurry, Pat Hyland, Kelly-Anne Byrne X Roo Kavanagh, Glen Brady, Mark Murphy, Efa O’Neill, Charlie X Collie, Viper Patrol, Charlie Briscoe x Arveene, Dandelion, Emmy Shigeta, Hewan, Ricky Chong and Paudi Cronin creating a programme that connects different generations, disciplines and cultural perspectives.
We spoke to B+ (a.k.a) Brian Cross - a man who has shot iconic record covers such as DJ Shadows Endtroducing amongst others - ahead of an exclusive premiere at 333 of his new documentary, Like No One Watching. Featuring artists as diverse as Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Moses Sumney, Quantic, Damian Marley, David Axelrod, Denise Chaila and Jay Electronica, Like No One Watching is a compilation film that feels remarkably like a mixtape. Shot in places as far apart as Birmingham Alabama, Cali Colombia, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Killaloe County Clare, Capetown South Africa, Jackson Mississippi, São Paulo Brazil and of course his home base of Los Angeles California, the 80 minute work is a vital documentation of musical history in the making.
As a young person in Ireland in the 1980s, what kind of access did you have to hip hop? Where did you source the music and how did you consume the culture? What was it like to consume hip hop through an Irish lens at that time?
Well obviously it was pretty challenging. There was a little traffic in mixtapes, I myself brought a Red Alert tape from NYC in 88. Cats would come back from London with tapes from pirate radio and what not. Virgin Megastore on the Quays occasionally had cheap 12s. If you had material you dubbed it for friends, my first NWA stuff was a dub of a dub of a dub, but the original was with Barry Warner. Great friend and musician of the time. But I had been piecing it up since 84 I think, a little from here Mantronic=x and Run DMC. Schooly D supporting Big Audio Dynamite at the SFX, Public Enemy at McGonagles with Sinead O Connor in the crowd by herself. Her remix with MC Lyte was another beacon. I’m not sure ultimately whatI could say about viewing hiphop through an Irish lens in those days but I was already thinking about the black cultural nationalism as it pertained to Irish nationalism at the time. I read Fanon and Said. I listened to Chuck D, Malcolm X and Farrakhan.
What was your introduction to photography? When did you know that was your medium?
I started making photos at NCAD. It was mainly a way to make quick functional protest art at first, I think when I began my fourth year in Fine Art I began to see it as a medium in itself but I made videos too. One of the first films I did was in collaboration with Lenny Abrahamson and Ed Guiney and my partner at that time Valerie Connor - a horrible documentary about sculpture Elish O Connell for the Douglas Hyde Gallery. By the time I came to California though, I was committed to studying with Alan Sekula, a photographer who had a big impact on my work.
Can you tell us about some of the early moments in LA? How did you start to make connections in the scene? Was there any pushback to letting a young Irish photographer into the fold?
Mostly I encountered folks that were generous, a little weirded out by my foreignness but you have to remember there weren’t too many folks outside the community taking the music or culture seriously. Connections in those days were hand to hand, several characters were instrumental - a young Colombia-Korean cat named Chino who went on to manage Large Professor and the X-Ecutioners and now own an amazing Bar in Koretown called Escala, DJ Kiilu of the Freestyle fellowship, Father Amde of the Watts Prophets, Jeff Chang and Dj Shadow, Raymond Roker from Urb Magazine all come to mind.
Can you tell me about shooting the cover for Endtroducing for DJ Shadow? It’s such an active photo but also a simple snapshot of record shop culture? What was the decision making process for that? Did you have other options?
No, weirdly when we saw the contact sheets that was the only option. I’ve told this story many times but basically Josh had made a stick figure drawing of the cover he wanted, he wanted to shoot across the racks and he had picked out records to place significantly in the racks. We did that first, but then I felt that it was quite flat and that it might be cool to take advantage of the depth of the store and that the racks could be perspectival lines bringing you in. Then I started to set up and the cat (who was blind) stepped in. After that we placed everyone else, Lyrics Born had that wig on who knows why and I snapped it. I was shooting a Fuji 6X17 and there was a mix up between me and my wonderful assistant Natasha Calzatti I was setting the camera in meters and we measured in feet so the foreground was out of focus (a bold me if I decided that but actually it was a mistake) and that also brings your eye into the image...but when we saw the contacts no one chose another image. I mean we shot the whole afternoon and there were lots of cool images but only one cover... and well shit it has served me well and Josh. 30 years this year!
The lighting and colour in your photographs are particularly impactful. Are there any signatures to your style and how has that evolved over time?
I mean the main conceptual one is that the light that is there is the perfect light. I like to underexpose, I like to print down, I don’t direct my subjects, mainly because when I started I was too shy. Over time I’d say I have grown more comfortable in my protocols but I’m always fooling around and trying to expand the voice. I’m not the most technical photographer or indeed the most attached to tropes but I still love to look and I’m still just as curious. I avoid stylists mostly and publicists and link with folks through the work and mostly the music.
Were there any moments you captured that you knew were going to be special at the time?
The Dilla funeral was pretty special in the moment but I never had a chance to enjoy it until much much later... Grief! But it’s the only image of mine that hangs in my fathers house. I think with the video work it’s easier to tell when something is historic, like Keepintime I knew we had done something. Suite for Ma Dukes and Brasilintime, I knew straight away that something important had happened.
What do you think about the direction and aesthetic of modern hip-hop? What has changed the most in your opinion?
Modern hiphop has changed and changed again. I guess what I miss is the “if you know you know” aspect, the secret lodge aspect. Now it’s just type it in the search bar and you in. I feel the risk was more before, the search was heavier, and generally the politics were more clear. I’m not sure that commercial buy out has benefitted many folks in the communities that produced the music but that’s not unique to hip hop.
333 Festival, The Devlin Hotel, Ranelagh. Saturday November 28th from 3pm until late. @333.fest.d6