Spirit Behind the Lens : The Making of a Hip-Hop Photographer

Author: Otchere, Eddie

Individual photographers

Published on 10 September 2024 by Watkins Media Limited (Repeater Books) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 270 pages
256 x 282 x 26 | 1652g

Unveiling for the first time the extraordinary history of contemporary Black youth culture, Spirit Behind The Lens blends personal memoir and photographs from one of hip-hop’s most enigmatic photographers, Eddie Otchere. Crafting a visual testament that skilfully allows the viewer to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of each time and place, he provides an unrivalled insider’s perspective on the Black working-class experience through photography. Spirit Behind the Lens is a reminder that visual storytelling is the bedrock of photography.  Diving into his archive spanning thirty years of film photography, Eddie showcases mostly unseen work for his latest book. From his iconic images of the Jungle scene in the mid-90s to The Wu-Tang Clan in Kentish Town and his exploration of rural Britain, Otchere's work pulsates with the emotion of material memory. Leaning on the romantic ideal of photography as truth, this book is honest and raw in its celebration of the innovators of Black creative consciousness and the entire world of culture borne from communities raised in urban social housing, featuring icons across a vast array of the creative arts (hip hop, drum & bass, film, poetry, and sports), and an immersive body of progenitors of contemporary urban passion, life and culture.

Hailing from the epicentre of London’s underground culture, this book documents how Otchere crafted the visual identities of Jungle, UK Garage, drum & bass, and hip hop, working with artists including Goldie, Kemet Crew, Ganja Kru, So Solid Crew, Lethal B, Dizzee Rascal, Bad Company, and Reinforced Records. Outlining his practice, influence, and personal history, Spirit Behind the Lens is a retrospective of Britain's Black cultural environment told through the work of its greatest and most influential photographer. This is a manual on how to navigate the emotional aspects of being creative, and an exploration of the romance of photography itself from a highly skilled photographer and darkroom scientist.