This past weekend I had the pleasure of being the photographer to photograph the Culture Shock dance theatrical, Graffiti Life: The Color of my Soul, which was performed at the San Diego Repertory Theatre (Lyceum), May 28-31, 2009. My involvement in this dance production started a couple months ago when I first met San Diego graffiti writer, Pose 2 at a coffee shop (Katy's Cafe) located in Imperial Beach. As we talked over coffee, I could tell that Pose 2 and I shared similar philosophies on art and the process of creating art. Since I already had an interest in creating portraits photographed in front of public art and murals, I was interested in collaborating with local artists like Pose 2. Soon after our meeting, I teamed up with Pose 2 and Culture Shock San Diego to photograph the main cast of the Graffiti Life at a photo shoot in downtown SD. After the shoot the photos were used to promote the show as well as enlightening people about the creative world of hip hop culture, which includes: graffiti writing, breakdancing, MCing (rapping), DJ'ing, beatboxing, hip hop fashion and slang.

SheRock (Angela Molton) dancing with her crew in front of the seven chakra paintings created at the San Diego Writerz Blok for this performance.

I also was fortunate enough to be able to photograph the all the behind the scenes making of all the stage backdrops, which were painted at the Writerz Blok. Pose 2 managed to bring together some of San Diego finest graff writers, which included: (Kiska, Chor Boogie, Pres One, Isaias Crol, Werc, Saratoga Sake, Daze Zone, Mr. Maxx Moses). You can read more about that shoot on my blog.

Young Boys watching as one of their crew, Jeremy Mascardo, breakdancing on stage

Before showing up on opening night, I had scouted the Lyceum theatre to determine possible camera angles and to see what the lighting conditions were going to be like. Just as I thought, the theatre had tall ceilings, it was going to be dark with mix lighting... and no flash was allowed. After giving it some thought, I decided the best way to shoot this event was to set my camera at the highest ISO setting (which are 1600/3200) and shoot my lenses wide open. Since the dancers were going to be moving basically in the dark, I wanted to set my shutter speeds at 1/80 ~ 1/200 of second. I chose to shoot my 16-35mm, f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM, and my 85mm f/1.2 lenses. I also chose to use a monopod instead of a tripod which allowed me to move around without attracting to much attention to myself.

Culture Shock San Diego Troupe hip hop dancing with some flare

Photographing dancers is a lot of fun. And so I wanted the pictures I took to show that action and energy that hip hop dance creates. This means you have to pay close attention to what is happening and be ready to press the shutter button when the dancers starting moving. Since the theatre was dark, I had a feeling that the autofocus on my camera would have a difficult time focusing quickly. So I decided to go with the flow and use the force... that's right, manual focus. At f-stops of f/1.2, 2.8, 4, it was a bit difficult getting sharp focus. I guess the beauty of digital is that you can shoot, shoot, shoot and edit later.

SheRock (Angela Molton) dancing during Graffiti Life performance

I had a feeling that color correcting the photos was going to be another issue. Even with the camera set to tungsten or auto white balance (AWB), the color was, well, not so great. So I had to spend some time in the post production phase, tweaking the color balance in Adobe Lightroom. But since multiple colored lights were being used in the performance, it was almost impossible to obtain accurate color balance. Therefore I took some creative license with the color and tried to get the skin tones as close to daylight temperatures as possible. And for those of you who I'm boring with photo tech stuff... remember this is a blog about photography.

Sherman Shoate as ill (center) dancing with flashlight headlights with Press One\'s graffiti art in the background

I feel like I should mention a little bit about the story. So here's an excerpt from an interview with Pose 2 by Jennifer Kester. In this interview she asks Pose 2, "Tell me what the story is about." Pose 2 answers, "The main male character is called Ill. Ill is a strong, dominant male character who represents an aspect of graffiti that is perceived as destructive. He represents that element of graffiti that goes out and tags everywhere, which we may not want to see. Then there’s SheRock. She is the female energy and she represents the beautiful aspect of the art form and the stuff we are comfortable with—the artwork we can relate to. Then there is the Young Boys, and the Young Boys is a crew of up-and-coming writers. There are three of them primarily. One is Destin, one is Reckless and one is Hunger. They are the new generation of up-and-coming writers and they are influenced from both aspects of the art form. They like the destructive nature that it represents—the fame, the outlaw and the aggressive nature of that. And they are also attracted by what SheRock represents, the beauty, quality, style and essence of what she has to offer. So they are influenced by both."

Culture Shock San Diego dancers getting some air in the Graffiti Life performance at the Lyceum

During the Graffiti Life performance there was plenty of great breakdancing. For some reason they make it look so easy, but I know, like anything good worth doing, it takes time, practice and good physical health. Something I think I would like to try in the future. And no you can't take pictures of me while I'm learning.

Culture Shock San Diego B-Boy, David Henry breakdancing during Graffiti Life performance

When I first photographed David Henry at our Graffiti Life Street Photo Shoot, I was impressed how well these guys breakdanced.

Culture Shock dancers in white jumpsuits moving robotically with Shanara Lennox breakdancing

Culture Shock San Diego dancers performing jail puppet scene

Entire Culture Shock San Diego graffiti life cast in the final scene of the show

During the finale the audience applauds while Pose 2 thanks and gives the peace sign to the cast and crowd

After the performance Pose 2 came out on stage and thanked the dancers and the crowd. Hearing his closing remarks about his vision about graffiti art was inspiring to me. I remember him once saying to me that, graffiti art is something that is all around us... constantly changing... art by the people, for the people. At first I had a problem with the idea of creating something that within hours could be painted over, never to be seen again. Then I thought, the impermanence of life is all around us. You just have to open mind to it to see, understand it and appreciate it.

My daughter (the one in the Bunny Kitty shirt) and her friend, went to the show one of the nights I was taking pictures. I took a couple of shots that I think were better than this one, but later when I was reviewing the shots, I noticed that Saratoga Sake and his wife were passing by in the background. Yes I know her eyes are closed.

I almost didn't post the picture of my daughter above for a couple reasons. One, in my hast of "getting the shot", I cropped out the word the "Culture" on the left side of the building. Two, my daughter's friends eyes are closed. But after I thought about it, this was snapshot never intended to be delivered to the client. Plus how many pictures have you taken where you've cropped someone or something out of the photo that you wanted in. And how many shots have you taken of people with their eyes closed. In this case, it's not like I was going to go ask Sake to come back to take another photo. Just another reminder that life is fleeting and it's up to you to make the best of time that has been given to you.

In closing, I want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing and photographing this show. It has opened my eyes to the amount of time, practice, creativity and dedication it takes to put on a performance like this. I also want to thank all the people at Culture Shock and the graffiti writers for the opportunity to photograph the process of creating this event. What a great combination of art forms, dance, hip hop music, graffiti art and photography. I'm hooked for life. ~ peace -CK

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