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On the heels of the graffiti renaissance comes a vibrant look at an old-school icon that figured prominently in the hip-hop, rock & roll, and punk movements of the 1970s and 80s. The Boombox Project features contemporary fine art portraits of an array of vintage boomboxes, as well as scores of documentary photographs of the people who brought the boombox movement to life back in the day.
The book is more than just a collection of images, though; it’s also an oral history of the early days of hip-hop, featuring memories from Fab 5 Freddy, Bob Gruen, Rosie Perez, Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, Lisa Lisa, DJ Spooky, and Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, among others, on the role this once ubiquitous machine played.
Part pop cultural history and part “gadget porn,” this lively and highly stylish volume is one of the cool books of the season.
Praise for The Boombox Project:
"Photographer Lyle Owerko tells the whole story with crisp still lifes and an oral history of an era when graffiti and antigentrification ruled." --Playboy, October 2010
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Lyle Owerko is a New York–based filmmaker and photographer whose clients have included the Sundance Channel and MTV. He has also directed music videos for artists such as Rufus Wainwright and American Hi-Fi. Owerko shot the cover photograph for the September 11, 2001 issue of Time, which was ranked as one of the 40 most important magazine covers in the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
If you were alive in the 70's and 80's you remember the boombox. You may have been neck deep in the culture and blasted your neighborhood or you may have been one of those passers by angrily looking at hoodlums blasting their music over your peaceful stroll. Either way, Lyle Owerko has captured the culture that came before mp3s and ipods. This beautifully nostalgic look at boombox culture stands alone as a must have for anyone who lived through it or wants to know what it was. Captured in the pages Owerko takes us on a journey through Rock, R&B, Reggae, Hip Hop, Rap, Punk, and New Wave. The selected images document a world where the boombox is star. Owerko's photographs of the great boomboxes from ages past are more like portraits of people, each with personality and charisma. Beautifully designed by Jeff Streeper, The Boombox Project weaves this era into fun and perfect companion to any coffee table. Put down your Ipod, grab a copy, and relive the old days.
The book is a fantastic flash back in time for all those fans who staggered around the hood with ultra heavy sonic boomboxes in their hands and to live life to the full you had to be a battery junkie too. Lyle Owerko has produced a wonderful look back at the machines that were so essential to music in the eighties.
The five chapters blend the machines and the music but it's the beautiful in-your-face spread-wide photos of the radios that really grabbed me. Pages eight and nine feature the Conion C100F, thirty-one inches long and sixteen high, a monster which, as the book says: '...designed not just to catch the eyes, but to hold them hostage'. How about the Sharp GF-777 with four giant speakers or the Panasonic RX-A5 with eight speakers. Both machines were capable of pumping out an industrial strength bass that made them essential elements of street culture music. Chapter four: Fast Forward has photos of fifty radios, several one to a spread and they look like they're bursting out of the book. Others are one, two or four to a page. Great photos, too as they are all straight on shots floating on the pages because they have no backgrounds.
Other chapters, with long quotes from fifty-four contributors, cover DJ and the MC, rap, break dancing and hip-hop. Street scene photos from a variety of photographers give all these pages a lift.
The book has a contemporary graffiti design look that I thought worked well with the static radio shots that run throughout the pages. Everything hangs together beautifully though an index for the radios would have been useful.
The book is a visual treat and celebrates that special decade of the boombox and the hood.
***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
There are books that are interesting only for their images and others that are inspiring by their written content. It is really hard to find both in one. Well, The BoomBox Project is both and more. It is a journey, a time machine, an inspiration for the future and a very cool object to possess. Worldwide famous art and journalism photographer Lyle Owerko will never stop to surprise me. He always is on the edge of the coolest subjects or most dramatic historical events. With this book, he tells a very important story of the musical and urban culture, with interview to the greatest street musicians of the last 30 years. His work his remarkable and, as soon as my wallet will allow it, I'll put on my wall one of his amazing large prints. On the personal side? When I picked up the book and started turning the pages, I felt again in my childhood, like a Peter Pan who jumps stories and ends up in wonderland. A youthful smile invaded my face and it took me few hours to let it go away. I love this book and this project... I strongly suggest to everyone...
Great concept. Great execution.Owerko does an admirable job as both photographer and curator of chronicling a New York minute of time, and does so with a certain aplomb. I even bough one of the prints.
Beautifully illustrated booked tied into the cultural events of the late 70s and early 80s. Perfect coffee table book for those who grew up in this era or those who wish they did.
This is a must have if you collect. There are some really great photos & info. I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time. I wish there were more like it.
Cant say enough about this book. Bought it for my bro-in-law for xmas gift and wish someone had bought it for me. The photos are tremendous. The stories are great, just really brings you back.
