Kareem Black: My Photographic Journey After Leaving SVA

Creative Director: KVaughn

My Photographic Journey After Leaving SVA

For college I went to the School of Visual Arts in NYC. It seemed a logical progression for me after graduating from the High School of Creative and Performing Arts in Philly 1999. SVA gave me a scholarship which was important because I hardly come from money. For most of my time at SVA ALL I wanted to do was be a fashion and art photographer. The fashion and art guys were always the most revered and famous of them all. The fashion photographers are the ones that shoot the billboards in Times Square!!! To have a billboard in Times Square was to have a piece in the biggest most famous gallery in the world.!!! All the art guys have famous books and shows at all the swanky galleries! To live that life would be to live the dream. “Clearly this is the peak of what all photographers strive for.. right?”.. These were the thoughts of my college kid brain.

Before I graduated SVA in 1999 I was photographing ads sporadically for a skate shop that I was sponsored for (as a skater). The model in those ads was the girlfriend of the owner of the skate shop wearing the merch from the shop. These ads ran in PAPER and a few other magazines. This was my very first published work. I was on my way to becoming a fashion and art photographer! All was going according to plan! The skate shops owner’s girlfriend (the model from the ads) knew the photo editor at WARP, a Japanese magazine. WARP Japan would occasionally call me to shoot parties and DJs in NYC. Occasionally I would get a Japanese check for a few hundred dollars in the mail. This was my first paid work! People at WARP knew a few people at TRACE (a music magazine). TRACE had a sister mag out of the UK called TRUE (a music and fashion magazine). People at TRACE , TRUE and WARP knew people at Cornerstone records and Cornerstone was making a magazine called the FADER. My name was in circulation at all these places… through pure word of mouth. I ended up shooting about 75% of the First issue of the FADER and that is the true beginning of my journey.

I was shooting lots of music and some celebrities. I didn’t even notice that I was hardly shooting fashion or testing models like I had dreamed of in college. I remember thinking about that and finally realizing that I knew NOTHING about fashion and had no passion for it. I had little interest in the pettey pretentiousness of the fashion and art scene. I loved music and seeing my work in print. I loved shooting with and meeting and working with interesting people. I loved the energy of being a commercial photographer and always waking up to a new challenge. The passion for my niche found me.. not the other way around.

Before I knew it I was shooting for magazines like the SOURCE, SPIN, VIBE and SOMA . It was now the year 2000 / 2001. It was the Dot Com boom and appropriately I was shooting for lots of upstart dot coms who had lots of money and little regard for how they hired. I was very lucky. After the dot com crash most of the people I knew ended up in the magazine and ad world and naturally they hired me when they found new jobs.

New York is such a uniquely interesting place. NOTHING compares to its energy and the opportunities that present themselves simply by being in NYC in the proximity of other creatives. Half of being successful is showing up right?

For the next few years I made a living in the magazine and music world Shooting CD covers for all the record labels. In this time, I also began shooting big advertising assignments through agencies like BBDO and McCann. My first big ad campaigns were for companies VERIZON and AT&T. I also shot ads for streetwear / skateboard companies like L-R-G . L-R-G who was the FIRST company to run a photo of mine in Times Square. I was 25. Today I’ve had over 2 dozen billboards in Times Square and every time feels like the first time.

By 2007/2008 I had signed with Bernstien and Andruilli, a big New York agent. I was very happy with myself and partied a lot. Life seemed amazing and I was making the most money I ever had. I spent my time doing all the stuff 30 year old single photographers in NYC do all the time with camera in tow. I documented that lifestyle of ragers and hangovers and drinks and drugs. When I showed Bernstien and Andruilli the work that I made on my nights out with my downtown crew they encouraged me to actually show it to clients. This body of work became named FEELSGOODLETSGO . To my shock many clients responded to the energy and imperfection of the metty flash on camera style of the work. I began shooting liquor campaigns for clients like Smirnoff and campaigns for big hotel / casinos like MGM Grand and Caesars. I also began shooting a LOT for MTV and the Viacom properties.

Life was grand.

In the years following the great recession budgets dropped and money was harder to come by and my lifestyle was pretty excessive. It was during this time I had to reevaluate what I wanted and needed. I say that the great recession saved my life because I had to stop doing a bunch of drugs and spending money on shit I didn’t need. Simply because I couldn’t afford them! It was a refocusing that I needed when I didn’t even know it.

Today, I shoot a lot of celebrity portraiture and the more loose stuff in the FEELSGOODLETSGO style. In my spare time I have a few personal projects that I’m working on including; documenting the Indy wrestling circuit in NYC. These days I’m also interested in shooting more in the political space – portraits of politicians, political rallies etc. I am very politically active and aware and i really want to do my part in this extraordinarily important election year.

The state of the world is changing at a geometric rate and today I think it’s essential to stay up to date on emerging technologies and techniques. I spend a lot of my free time trying to study and learn programs and become at least semi proficient. After the pandemic and with the specter of AI looming, the industry still seems to be somewhat in flux. I believe it is part of our jobs as professional photographers to be aware of the shifting landscape so we can be effective in the field. Photo and video are fusing in a lot of ways (certainly clients seem to believe this).. so its incumbent on us to keep up.

Today there are certainly some new problems to solve. Fortunately for us, Photographers are problem solvers.

In the end, I’m just some kid from Germantown who has been able to travel the world based on the fact I like to take pictures.. I’m the luckiest guy you’ve ever met and you’ll never hear me complain about what I do.

About The Author: Kareem Black is a New York City based professional photographer, specializing in celebrity and lifestyle portraiture. This is his first contribution to Tony Ward Studio. To learn more about Kareem’s photography, link here: https://www.kareemblack.com

Leave a Reply Cancel reply