A series of portraits of the musician, guitarist, rapper, producer, and actor Adam Keefe Horovitz, member of the Beastie Boys under the name Ad Rock.
The second book in Marcopoulos' portraits book series (after
The Cat) takes a look at the musician, guitarist, rapper, producer, and actor Adam Keefe Horovitz (South Orange, NJ, 1966) also known as Ad Rock, one of the members of the pioneering hip-hop group, the Beastie Boys, together with Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "MCA" Yauch and dj Michael "Mix Master Mike" Schwartz.
Ad Rock portraits the life and interaction Marcopoulos had throughout the years with the band and in particular with Adam, both as a friend and insider with his camera capturing moments on and off stage with his spontaneous and unplanned style, bringing out fresh and unseen shots.
Born in Amsterdam in 1957, Ari Marcopoulos came to
New York in 1979 and quickly became part of the downtown art scene that included up-and-coming artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Keith Haring, and
Robert Mapplethorpe. Since then,
Marcopoulos has become recognized as a key documentarian of contemporary culture as it unfolds: recording the emerging hip-hop scene, shooting snowboarders hurtling down a vertical mountain face, or chronicling the vicissitudes of his own family life, Marcopoulos' works unerringly capture the zeitgeist.
Marcopoulos appears to have an uncanny connection with the people he photographs, from
Andy Warhol to Kiki Smith,
John Cage to LL Cool J, and many other characters both celebrated and unknown. His self-taught style brings his subjects in close and captures, without sentimentality or voyeurism, the intimate essence of their daily lives. Populated with idiosyncratic characters, each of Marcopoulos' photographs is particular to a unique time and place; yet his images reach us through their expression of familiar themes such as the meaning of family, the solitude of nature, and the quest for adventure. Like all great
photographers, Marcopoulos has the ability to distill a riveting and timeless image from the flux of activity that surrounds us.
