Photo by Jerritt Clark/WireImage
Photographer Chi Modu attends his Chi Modu exhibition opening at Smile Gallery on March 29, 2012 in New York City.
Chi Modu, the acclaimed photographer who captured some of the most iconic images in hip hop, has died. He was 54.
His death was announced in a post on his official Instagram account on Saturday. “Our hearts are broken. We continue the fight. The family request privacy at this time,” the post reads. No cause of death or further details were provided.
Rising to prominence in the 1990s, Modu became the director of photography at The Source magazine which saw him shoot a host of up-and-coming and soon-to-be-legendary artists from hip hop’s golden age including the likes of Nas, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Notorious B.I.G. and Wu-Tang amongst many others. His iconic black and white pictures of a shirtless Tupac Shakur, in particular, have arguably become the enduring image of the rapper in the public’s c
According to Chi Modu's official Twitter account, the illustrious shutterbug passed away this week at the age of 55, although no cause of death was revealed.
Volker Hüller, Suburban Bathers (2021). Courtesy of the artist and Van Doren Waxter.
Every month, hundreds of galleries showcase new exhibitions on the Artnet Gallery Network and every week, we shine a spotlight on the exhibitions we think you should see. Check out what we have in store, and inquire more with one simple click.
What You Need to Know: “Birds” at Van Doren Waxter presents new, intimately scaled oil-on-canvas paintings by the Brooklyn-based, German artist Volker Hüller. Painted in 2021, these works all of birds, as the title suggests represent renewed hope for the artist as he and his wife welcomed the birth of their first child in the midst of the pandemic. Why birds? The artist points to Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope,” in which she writes that hope “is a thing with feathers / That perches in the soul.” For the artist, the works signal a new and more emotive use of color.