BP’s Introduction

Peace ya’ll.  For my first Juxt interview, I wanted to find someone who definitely represented themselves in a proper fashion. Someone who not only killed the photography portion, but killed the edit side with style, purpose, and vision. I couldn’t find anyone so I went with Marco. BAH, just playing.  I chose to interview Marco because I was blown away by his feed. He has a crazy style and flare to his edits that not only represents him as an artist but his area, Brick City.  I love that.  I try to do the same (Seattle, Stand UP) and I find that Marco is someone who inspires me to look deeper into my own art to capture that. To me, it’s easy to capture people (oooh, that may get me some heat) BUT I think there are a few folks that I follow on IG, EyeEm, and SZ that are able to really capture the person and fully represent them on that level, not just a picture of them but a photograph of them.  That sits true for Marco, real strong.

One of his first images that caught my eye, was of a woman walking by a mural in Brick City where he isolated the color on the girl and left the rest of the image in black and white. The woman has her head down, almost scared of the mural.  The mural has the flowers coming out the sidewalk, a monster mothra sized butterfly, and a globe just a bit bigger than the mothra sized butterfly. The womans head is just about framed by another piece of the mural as if trying to box her head in.  The caption reads, “Butterfly up high, got it’s eye on all passersby. No lie.”

Once I saw this image it was an immediate follow, an immediate homie holla, and an immediate mutual artist respect and friendship.  I’m not the only one either.  One of my friends on IG, Ryan Coleman @rcoleman, tagged me on one of his photos and exclaimed the same feelings, “DARY” (short for legendary).  The both of us use that term only when appropriate and this feed is just that…DARY.

He has a new series that he is working on (but hopefully continues his “TAG” series) entitled “70’s album covers”.  The vintage feel and art from back then is CLASSIC and he will definitely be able to capture that with his own background and experience in that genre.  He is also is real keen on music.  Marco sits back in not only his Hip Hop but is also in many genres like myself. But we rooted. We are of the same fabric. Enjoy his words, and his works. HOLLA at him when you get a chance.

And with that…I introduce Magic Marco…

BP: BP M: Marco

BP: Who is @magicmarco? What are you all about?

M: First I’d like to say peace to the whole Juxt fam. I think what you guys are doing here is a great thing for the mobile photography community and I look forward to seeing the site grow leaps and bounds. But ok, me…I’m just me like 50 Cent said years back. I’m your average trash talking, joke a lot, dirty flick watching, paperback book reading, working and family man. Oh and due to my wife’s work schedule, I’m Mr. Mom every other weekend. It’s because of my two kids that I’m so grateful the liquor store is right down the block.

BP:  Tell us all about your area and how does this influence you. Your style?

M:  I’m from a small town called Newark, NJ. It’s like Miami’s South Beach but without the palm trees, beautiful homes, nightlife or beach. Ok, all joking aside, Newark is an old industrial city. It’s not much of a tourist attraction. Not by a long shot. In fact, our biggest draw is the close proximity to NYC and the lower rates offered by local hotels. Essentially we’re the unofficial bastard “6^th borough” of NYC. About as appealing a place to live in as the Bronx but I love it. I love it and hate it at the same time if that makes sense. Brick City, or the The Bricks as we sometimes call it, has that whole hustle-n-bustle type vibe….the epitome of the rat race. You either hustle and make something of your life or get lost in the cracks. People love to write off Newark as the slums but there’s a lot of beauty to be found. The vibe, the essence of the people, the melting pot of the different ward’s cultures and mentalities is home and it’s my mission to capture them in a honest and artistic way.

BP:  Bro, who are the biggest influences in your life? And why?

M:  My mama, my baby mama and everything in between. Yeah. Oh, and I’m influenced by how much money I have in my pocket at any given moment. Cause if I’m broke I don’t feel too confident. Therefore I’m not my usual me. Ok, I’m not even making sense here. Next question.

BP:  Whats the weapon of choice when it comes to shooting? Where does it shine? Where you think it needs some assistance?

M:  I use an iphone4. It helps me tremendously because I’m listening to music all day while working anyway. So, you can usually find me with the ear buds on and when a photo op presents itself, bamn!, I whip the trusty iphone out my pocket and snap. It’s super convenient. Plus the 5 mega pixel camera isn’t too shabby either. Those are pros for sure. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of photo apps accessible at any time. Editing a pic while sitting in a Wendy’s Drive-Thru is a beautiful experience. Cons? Um, well it’s a given that the iphone sucks donkey balls when it comes to night shots. So far that’s my only complaint. Dear Apple, fix that shit. Sincerely yours, Marco.

BP:  What apps you got in your darkroom, bro? You chose to share this shot with us, tell us the movement/ process you took on this one.

M:  I use ProCamera for all my shots. I like the default big button feature and auto saves to the camera roll so I definitely stick with ProCamera. I also use Snapseed, Filterstorm, and  Juxtaposer. Oh and Camera+ for the Clarity and of course a bunch of other shit cause I’ll appstack the hell out of a pic if need be. The ones I mentioned though are my staple go-to apps. But ok, lemme break down the editing process for P.i.G.e.O.n.S.

First I’d like to say I hate pigeons. Bunch of dirty ass shit dropping nuisances with feathers is what they are. One of them fuckers shitted on my head a few years back. So fuck them.

Anyway, so for this pic I captured with ProCamera in the daytime. Then I added Clarity in Camera+ and sent it to Filterstorm to turn into B&W and saved. Still in FilterStorm, I used the Vignette damn near all the way in to create fake moon and saved again. I took that B&W image without moon in Iris and used the Solarize effect and saved. Then I blended both images in Juxtaposer and finally added ND-Grad in Photo fx. Tah-dah, Halloween looking ass pigeons!

BP:  Ok bro, what do you want us to take away with your photography? What’s your expectations?

M:  Basically I’m looking for the same response as every other photographer….if I may so boldly refer to myself as that. What I want is simple…….I want you to look at my pics and be like, “Damn, that is the most beautiful photo I ever seen in my life! Marco’s a fuckin’ genius and I hope all my kids turn out to be just like him!” That’s it, I don’t expect much.

BP:  OK Marco, you rolled out a new-er series using TAGS.  Can you tell us what is behind this series? Why are you doing this series and its meaning to you? For some folks, they don’t know really what “tags” are.  What would you tell them “tags” is all about?

M:  Ok, TAGS are the overlooked, more simplified style of graffiti that you see everywhere in the city. They’re mainly just names of the writer. Definitely nothing fancy like murals or the more elaborate, colorful type pieces that most folk associate graffiti with. Urban calligraphy if you will. Writer’s bomb the city with their tag…..basically tattooing as much property as possible as a claim to fame. I started the TAGS series as a challenge to myself because I was getting bored taking regular street candid shots. The challenge is that for every tag I see and like, I take a photo of it and then have to take a candid street shot within the vicinity. No more than two blocks apart. Afterward I combine the two and make the funky fresh images I post on InstaGram. Lately I’ve been including stand-up comedy in the captions as well. Might as well share some laughter while I’m at it.

BP:  You and I connect lots of levels.  One of which is the love for Hip Hop.  You got Hip Hop references all over your stuff.  Tell us about what Hip Hop means to you.

M:  Most definitely! I’m a Hip Hop head 155% to the 10^th power. I walk, talk and live Hip Hop. I don’t breakdance but I’m a B-Boy at heart. Does that make sense? As a kid, when my parents were vibing to their  Merengue and Salsa, I was bumping Run-DMC, Afrikaa Bambataa, LL Cool J, and so forth and so on. I fell in love with Hip Hop around age 5 or 6. Not as a casual listener, no sir. I completely submerged myself into the whole culture. I would run to see the older kids have b-boy battles on cardboard or I’d rush to witness rhyme cyphers at the lunchroom tables and the beatbox rhyme cyphers after school. I knew which artists were down with who and the beefs…..ah man, I could talk about Hip Hop all day. That definitely has a huge influence on my life period. I’m Hip Hop like KRS said.

BP:  Knowledge gets shared. No doubt! Drop something on us that you live by.

M:  Ok, there’s an old grumpy fuck on the radio named Gary Null. He has a talk show that covers health, political and societal issues in general. Dude is very informative and I’m definitely grateful for the knowledge he shares but sometimes he’s boring as fuck. His voice could put an insomniac in a coma. Plus he gets irate too easily. But he’s old and that’s how old folks get down.

Anyway I copped one of his books, and a particular paragraph stood out. I typed it, printed it and framed it. It goes, …….

“When you let go of your relentless thinking, you can rest. Once you’re relaxed, visualize what you want and start your journey. When we wake up we just jump into the day. We’re so focused on starting our rituals and routine that we don’t visualize the greater importance of the day. This is a twenty-four-hour-period we can never live again. So what can we do in this twenty-four hours that’s new and unique, empowering and fulfilling?”

I love that.

BP:  You represent New Jersey.  Brick City.  Tell us all about your area.  What do you love about your area? Describe for us the people, the culture and how that influences your art.

M:  Yeah, like I mentioned earlier….I have a love/hate relationship with my city. I love it but hate the fact that plenty folk don’t take more pride in maintaining their surroundings. Therefore whole blocks of the city look like they do. And I hate referring to my neighborhood as….’the hood’, but that’s what out-of-towners think of it anyway. Still though, I get annoyed with tasteless ‘ghetto’ pics. Newark may not ever make the “Top place to live in America” list and yes it has it’s share of riff raff but it’s also full of hardworking folk just trying to make ends meet and trying their best to ensure their kids have a bright future just like any other town. There’s so much more to Newark than being ‘the hood’. In fact, fuck that label….’the hood’. I promised myself to never to post any disparaging images of Newark and it’s people because we already get kicked and put down by out-of-towners enough. I don’t kid myself or try to portray Newark in some phony pretty type way but I do try to capture it with style. Well….I think so at least. My bad, lemme get off my soapbox. Hi Mama.

BP:  Who influences or inspires you as far as your photography? and why?

M:  Oh by the way, I don’t have a baby mama. I mean….my wife is my baby mama. Just her. And I’m a superb dad. Like Dad of the Year type dad. I just wanted to clear that up. Just so you know. But um, ok…my influences? Um, shit I don’t know. Jesus? Oprah Winfrey? I don’t know. Everybody. There. Everybody in the whole planet inspires and influences me. Especially and most definitely all the cool ass people I’ve met on InstaGram. You know who you are.

BP:  Your style is dope (awesome).  Have you experimented or found a different style that you would like to try out?

M:  Thank you. I appreciate that. For reals. I know I’ve been talking trash throughout the interview but seriously I second guess my work a lot. I feel there are much better street photographers and I aspire to capture at least a smidgeon of that same magic, ya know. The emotions, the real life, the powerful evocative type images is what I’m after and I got a long ways to go. So in the meantime, I’m definitely experimenting as I go along. Like what I’m doing with the TAGS series for instance. When I get bored of that, I’ma try something else and hopefully it’ll be aesthetically pleasing and then some. I like candids but I also love approaching people for portraits. So I’m thinking I may do a series of portraits but edited in a way to look like old 70’s album covers. A lot of 70’s album covers are funky as hell. So yeah, matter fact I think that is gonna be my next project.

BP:  Lastly, what’s the future looking like for @magicmarco and this art form?

M:  Honestly I would love to be more involved in capturing my city on an official level. Not something lame like taking pics of the Mayor cheesing for the camera while he’s shaking hands with other cornball politicians. Nah, I wanna be commissioned to capture the heart and soul of the city. The people. All with my iphone. I know it sounds far fetched but that’s my goal. And no, I wasn’t smoking weed. I don’t smoke. Not anymore.

But yeah man, I just wanna do my little part to help push the craft forward. Ya know? To help show that mobile photography is indeed a respectable craft…not looked down on as some fake ass offshoot of ‘real photography’. There are already so many talented people making and posting mind-blowing images online and that’s just with the current technology. Can you imagine how much more the envelope is gonna get pushed as the phones and apps get more advanced? We’re on our way to a world where brides will look to hire professional mobile photographers to shoot their weddings. And without one skeptic in the crowd. Watch, it’s going to happen.

Marco L., Instagram:  @magicmarco

BP for Juxt, Instagram: @bradpuet

**Stay tuned**

This is a TAG Interview.  @magicmarco will interview @brooklyntheory in the near future!