



1 / 10 Chevron Chevron ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY LISA LEONE. Snoop Dogg on the set of his first video,“Who Am I? (What’s My Name),” in Long Beach, California, in 1993.

The Bronx-born photographer Lisa Leone started taking pictures of hip-hop artists she knew in her teens and twenties. “There was a sense of community back then, a real feeling of creativity and connectivity,” she said. Leone photographed a fresh-faced Snoop Dogg while he was making his first music video, and Nas while he was recording his first album, “Illmatic.” “When I was in the recording session for 'Illmatic,' there was definitely a feeling that something special was about to happen,” she told me. “I think you can see it in the faces of Premier and Q-Tip.”

Leone said that she spent most of her time with the artists observing rather than constantly shooting, choosing to capture particular moments. “You can tell a lot by observing and feeling, without the camera in front of your face,” she said. Once, when she was photographing the rapper Big Daddy Kane, “he said my camera was shitty. I could only laugh while holding my Leica M6. I told him, 'I don’t go into the studio and tell you what equipment to use.' He chilled out after that.”

Leone’s book, "Here I Am," was recently published by Minor Matters. Her photographs are on view at the Bronx Museum of the Arts through January 11, 2015.