The Hip Hop Photographer
- NoName Gallery
- Jun 4
- 3 min read
by Jonene Lee
I was on percocets the whole time. No lie. When I was 28 I would suffer from these horrible bouts of debilitating stomach pains aka stress. I swear I was one of the first people diagnosed with IBS ... again aka stress. Anyway, one night I went to the ER over it and they gave me a percocet and I fell in love with the emotional numbness it provided.
DJ Excel was someone I would take out frequently to take photos of. He's very comfortable in front of a camera and when I look back, it helped me grow a lot as a photographer. There was this spot in Northern Liberties, Philly where I would take people when I wanted to shot them. Now ... as I stated earlier - I was on a lot of percocets, so these artistic choices I sometimes question now. Cross process film turned everything the cool shade (or so I thought ... it may have just been because I was high) of turquoise.
But yeah, anyway it was on the way home from this shoot where he said "Ya know the photo that Art Kane took of the Jazz musicians in 1958 and the Gordan Parks took the photo of the MCs in 1998? You should take one like those of all of the Philly DJs
So, in 2008 I did
All while super high on percocets. If I can be honest, one of the DJs was supposed to bring me a bunch of them to get me through the day but his guy "didn't come through" (the nerve of these drug dealers) so I had to go through mild withdrawal all day. For those of you who aren't familiar with opiate withdrawal, that means I was in the bathroom a lot pooping and sweating for no apparent reason.
But with the help of a lot of people throughout the city, I pulled it off.
7 rows down and 6 rows in from the right is Mayor Nutter. He was a DJ at Pulsations back in the day and gave me a proclamation to the city.
After that, I think everyone thought that I knew what I was doing. I didn't. I have great ideas and I'm good at delegating to get them done which was what I did for DJ Day. I had a whole team of women and I pulled in Kamau Stanford to help me with the logistics of everything. I'm an artist after all ;)
But being left out in the wild with no help as a hip hop photographer on drugs? That career never stood a chance. I have an eye and on drugs, I wasn't shy about getting close to men's faces I'd otherwise be intimidated by.
I wasn't making much money. The money I did make ... went straight to drugs anyway.
All of those photos were taken before 2012 and I was extremely high on opioids when I took all of them. The Lesson? Opioids are easy to hide and you don't even realize you're addicted until it's too late. And by "too late" I mean, if you don't take them for a day ... you're going to pay the consequences physically and that SUCKS. For me it started with lower back pain. OMG THE LOWER BACK PAIN. I was bartending so that was totally the reason. I got new shoes. Ya know, the Clarks restaurant jawns? Yup. Those will surely fix it. Nope. Then it was the sweating. I'd wake up the next morning and within 6 hours I was sweating and had more than lower back pain. I slowly (because denial is a bitch) realized I was addicted.
I got my shit together in 2012 and haven't really shot any shows or anything since. O wait, I shot The Roots Picnic in 2022, but because I was sober I nearly had an anxiety attack from all of the people. It's just not my thing anymore. Nowadays, I barely take photos. I take more video and have to remind myself to take photos. I run a few different social media accounts for businesses in the area which allows me to shoot a little .. but it's work, so we know how that goes.
Maybe someday I'll get back into it :)
Jonene
xoxo
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