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“What the mainstream media at large now calls hip hop is a far cry from the creative culture that emerged following the gang truce between the warring factions of the South Bronx,” says Vikki Tobak, curator of ‘CONTACT HIGH: A Visual History of Hip-Hop’, a photography exhibition that runs in Abu Dhabi until May 31. The show run by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi features more than 150 images by over 60 photographers. The images are displayed alongside original contact sheets, offering rare insight into the subject and the genre. Gulf News caught up with Kazakhstan-born, US-raised Tobak, who is the author of ‘Contact High’, about the idea behind the mammoth project of telling hip-hop’s story through photos and the challenges that came along with it. ....
Are shows such as this one a dream given the amount of pre-existing public interest? Absolutely, whenever there’s a unifying force like hip-hop culture that speaks to a universal audience, it’s a dream come true. But it also comes with a big responsibility to tell the right story and celebrate the complexity of the culture. Visitors see the story unfold from a voice of a community to a voice for the world. As a journalist what stories do you hope visitors take away from the exhibition? I wanted to tease out these deeper layers, the spaces where hip-hop was born and took place and took shape. Ancillary characters, as well as neighbourhoods whether it’s Nas in Queensbridge, A$AP Rocky in Harlem or Kendrick Lamar at Tam’s Burgers in Compton are as important as the artists themselves. I also hope visitors will reflect on the amazing documentarians who pointed their cameras at hip-hop when it was still a subculture. I want to highlight the photographers, who, l ....