Moments

The Moment: Biggie & Tupac, I'm a Bad Boy-T Dot Eric

It wasn’t until 2011 when I was sorting through slide photographs and beginning to catalog my images that I seriously took a look at that one slide of a dude giving me the finger with a strong shadow on his face…"No f’n way!" I said, shocked I didn’t realize the guy with the shadow in his face was Tupac.

The Moment: The Roots, The LayUp-T Dot Eric
Soon enough Quest, myself, and two others walked to the dinner connected with the club so I could hear more about his group. After we left the dinner, I ended up giving Quest a ride home, and when we arrived at his house he gave me two demo tapes to check out.
The Moment: De La Soul, Eye Am Eye Be-T Dot Eric

I did not have a light meter to tell me the proper f-stop to set my aperture, nor did I have polaroid back to see what things actually looked like.  My camera was a Canon AE-1 Program, manual everything.

I would make the flashes pop every so often so I could see where and how the light fell, I did a few calculation to determine possible f-stops based on feet of the flash away from the subject, how much light I would lose because of the gel on the flash, it was the best I could do.

 

The Moment: Smif-N-Wessun, Sky High-T Dot Eric

The publicist gathered the guys in the group, Tek and Steel, and we all exchanged hellos. I suggested we go up to the roof. We had been up to the roof so many times in the past just to hangout, so going up there now with a camera was no different.

The Moment: Will Smith, Tip of the Hat-T Dot Eric

Seeing Will in this outfit, I knew I had to take a picture of him. We shot at the edge of the set while the technicians were testing the lighting. After about 10 frames, I thanked Will and we sat back down until he had to get back on camera.

The Moment: Mos Def & Talib Kweli, Get By-T Dot Eric
When we saw each other, we greeted. Mos Def gestured that they were about to go on stage.

I motioned my hand asking to take one photo of him and Talib. They looked at each other and agreed. I stepped back, focused my Yashica Mat (124 G) camera, took one shot and thanked them as they headed for the stage.
The Moment: The Pharcyde, As One-T Dot Eric

Using the ambient light in the hallway I began shooting them from different angles. After the first 8 frames, the group relaxed and stopped doing the typical 'rap, yo!' poses, vibing with each other. Each of their actions was fluid, in sync with the movements of the others. If there was a low angle shift, someone else moved high; if someone gave a look, someone else would motion or adjust their look to stay complementary to the person adjacent.

The Moment : Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre “NO LOVE”-T Dot Eric

About a hour before the doors were open to the public, I talked my way into the venue. One of The Source Magazine staffers likely waived me in to the show, still without a photo pass. The awards show started off ok but, soon enough, things started to turn…

The Moment : Lauryn Hill-T Dot Eric

When I arrived on set, the taping of the video was in full swing, and Lauryn and crew were handling all that needed to be accomplished, moving from scene to scene.