Ari's involvement with the band dates
back to before Check
Your Head. He directed the music video for "Somethings
Got to Give" plus one coolest looking promotional photos
from 1992 was taken by Ari. Yet, several of the Ari Marcopoulos-Beastie
projects that we are more familiar with are from 1994-1995.
Things like the Sabotage Homevideo in 1994 and the
very popular 8 X 10 promotional photos from 1995.
Others that have gained fame through
photographing the band over the years, like Glen
Friedman and Ricky Powell,
grew up in New York City with the band. Ari hooked up with
the band much later, but his work is no less important in
providing us with a visual history of the Beastie Boys.
Ari Marcopoulos who was born in Amsterdam, Holland (yet
lives in northern California) is a documentary photographer
and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times,
Interview, Paper, Blind Spot, and most major snowboarding
magazines such as Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboarder.
The 2001 release of his book Pass
the Mic, is the one must have for every Beastie Boys
collector. Ari himself said the following about it:
"The Beastie Boys photos is
like a six year period, but I didn't constantly shoot. The
hardest part was when you do a subject like the Beasties,
they're such a popular band that the subject is bigger than
you, and it's almost like you're riding the wave of them.
That was the first thing I considered, then I was like 'Fuck
it, I'm just going to do it.' and the band was really into
it. A lot of these pictures were not taken for assignment
or anything. I was just hangin'' out with them and going
to the studio." - Ari Marcopoulos in Slap, 8 page portfolio
and interview of the artist's work
|