Tonight, Broke & Boujee presents Make Love Not War, with proceeds to benefit Gaza relief efforts via UNRWA.org. $4.99 before 10:30 p.m. $9.99 after 10:30 p.m. 10 p.m. Thurs., Jan. 29. The Five Spot, 1123 Euclid Ave. 404-223-1100.
Read this week’s CL cover story: Fadia Kader brings Palestine to the party. And check out the interview with resident photographer Hannibal below.
If there’s one element that makes Broke & Boujee click, it’s Hannibal Matthews’ camera shutter. The pop life portraits the Atlanta native creates have come to define B$B as much as the name itself. Like the aspirational ethos behind Fadia Kader’s Come Up Kids, Matthews has carved his own path to DIY glory. The former college dropout and ex-Marine is a self-taught photographer who has parlayed his rep for hot shots into becoming the go-to-cameraman among Atlanta’s emerging hip-hop set.
Once a month, he still makes time to shoot Broke & Boujee — where spontaneous lap dances and random crotch shots are an occupational hazard Matthews is willing to manage.
What would you say it is that you’re attempting to capture when you shoot portraits at the parties?
I feel like I expose people for who they are in the moment — the moment being a really wacky, crazy party atmosphere. For some reason, I’m able to capture the energy of the party. Once people see the pictures – and I look at them myself sometimes – it’s like, ‘Wow, it looks like it was a lot of fun.’ Whereas a lot of event photography you see, it’s like, ‘Oh ok, I’m standing here in the center of the floor’ and if it’s a girl she has her heels on and she looks cute or whatever; but at Broke & Boujee you’ve got people jumping in the air on a trampoline throwing up peace signs. One guy might pick up his girlfriend and throw her on his shoulder or something. It’s just a fun party.
That energy transfers through film onto everybody’s MySpace pages. Broke & Boujee is basically the site where everybody gets their MySpace profile picture.
Sometimes it looks like more fun is being had in front of your lens than within the actual party. What is it about the shoots that make people open up so much and give you all that energy?
Everybody wants to be a star, no matter what. As simple or as small as a Broke & Boujee party may seem in the bigger scheme of the world, everybody wants to be a star and look like a star.
As a visual artist, our job is to interpret reality differently. And everybody’s perception is basically relative to what they’re going through. Everybody wants to be a star, everybody wants to be famous, everybody wants their 15 seconds of fame. If it can be done in front of a camera at Broke & Boujee, then there it is.
Any wild stories?
I’ve basically taken pictures of everything. People have asked me to delete pictures before. Those shots were basically [when] the girls’ crotch [was] shot by mistake and they say, ‘Oh my God, my crotch is showing. Delete that.’ Or some girls come in there with another guy, and she’s like, ‘I don’t want my boyfriend to see these pictures.’ (more…)
Party promoter Fadia Kader, whom CL featured in last month’s “Make Love Not War” cover story, has taken a lot of hits from her original Broke & Boujee crowd since that monthly shindig turned teeny-bopper (18-and-up).
Tonight marks the second installment of 