Joe Conzo Jr.

In 2005, The New York Times proclaimed photographer Joe Conzo Jr. as “The Man Who Took Hip-Hop’s Baby Pictures.” Born and raised in the Bronx, “Joey” an EMT for the NYFD, acquired a flair for photography at the age of nine and later advanced those skills at the School of Visual Arts. He grew up at the heels of his grandmother- era dynamic leader and activist- Dr. Evelina Antonetty. His father, Joe Conzo Sr., was a long-time confidant and historian for the legendary musician Tito Puente. Exposure to these worlds had a profound effect on how he viewed his environment through the lens of a camera. His first book, Born In The Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop (2007), a collaborative effort with noted New York curator Johan Kugelberg, has received worldwide acclaim. In 2008, a collection of his early hip hop photographs became part of a permanent archive housed at Cornell University. His images have appeared on HBO and VH1, in publications such as VIBE, Complex, Hip-Hop Connection (Europe), Urban Hitz (Australia), Esquire and Wax Poetics; and in the books, Hip Hop Immortals (2003) and Yes, Yes, Y’all (2002).