If Ciesay and Soulz, AKA Places + Faces aren’t on your radar yet, you’re missing out. The London-born and bred creative duo have been traversing the world (from Paris to Tokyo and Jamaica) taking intimate polaroids of rappers, designers, and other creative icons for well over a decade. Yesterday, their first book—also titled PLACES + FACES—was launched with Idea Books, the creative industry’s go-to publisher, following an auction of their photos at Sotheby's last week.
The 400-page coffee table book features every GOATed creative who’s made waves in the culture lately, including Virgil Abloh, A$AP Ferg, Tyler the Creator, Sarah Snyder, Travis Scott, Luka Sabbat, A$AP Rocky, Prodigy, and Stormzy. With over 400 photographs, it chronicles a decade of hip-hop, street style, and creativity: a BTS, artistically shot window into the culture.
The book has been in the works since 2013, when Ciasay was crashing at his uncle’s house in Harlem, NYC. “The city was alive, the energy unmatched. A$AP Ferg had just dropped Shabba, and it was on every radio station. One day, I randomly bumped into him in an elevator in the Bronx. I asked if I could shoot him—he said yes. That moment kicked off an over a decade-long friendship,” reads Cisay’s intro. From there, he began claiming he worked for VICE back in the UK to hustle his way into events. And while Cisay was rizzing his way into parties in NYC, Soulz was in London, documenting the zeitgeist back home: PLACES+FACES was born.
To mark the launch of their book, we spoke to Ciasay and Soulz about the key to a good celebrity portrait, talking your way onto any guest list, and the stories behind some of the photos in the book.
What makes a good celebrity portrait?
Ciesay: Familiarity and comfortability.
Soulz: Capturing them in their own element, not trying to always force the moment because they’re probably used to most photographers and paparazzi asking to take pictures all the time.
Best trick for infiltrating a room you’re not supposed to be in?
Soulz: Make yourself known to everyone in the room; gradually spark up conversations to get a feel of the mood in the room before bringing out your camera; make sure it’s a mutual vibe and everyone is cool with you taking photos.
What are each of your favourite photos in the book and why?
Ciesay: The Playboi Carti tour—we were on tour with Carti all over Europe as his DJ openers but we also shot him as well. He wore a fresh P+F tee after or during the show so we dubbed it the Carti tee; A$AP Rocky crowd surfing, because it was taken at our set at Woohah festival, Rocky popped out and crowd surfed during our set — surreal moment; Travis Scott —we took this one backstage at Travis’s show at the o2 a few years ago. We’ve known him for a while but hadn’t seen him in a long time so when he saw me he shouted Ciesay! And we reconnected and I shot some photos of him.
Soulz: Meeting The RZA—I grew up heavily influenced by the Wu-Tang Clan as a child; Lil Yachty’s 1st show in London—I didn’t know what to expect at the show, [and] midway during the show Frank Ocean made a surprise appearance which was legendary looking back at pictures now.
One of the photos features a woman on a stoop, in front of a shopfront that reads ‘“No more fuckin’ discrimination.” Can you talk us through the story behind that photo?
Soulz: We took this photo during one of the shoots in Seoul. Just exploring through the city. We came across the shop with the writing above and it spoke to us.
What’s next?
More shows, more clothes, more books, more parties, more everything!
Published by IDEA, PLACES + FACES is available at IDEA.online now.
Featured image via Idea Books
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