Brian “B+” Cross is one of the most prominent music photographers working today. He has photographed more than 100 album covers for artists such as Company Flow, Damian Marley, David Axelrod, DJ Shadow, Flying Lotus, Eazy-E, J Dilla, Jurassic 5, Madlib, Mos Def, and Q-Tip. Cross was the Director of Photography for the Academy Award–nominated documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” and has made several feature-length music films and many music videos. His photos have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vibe, the Fader, and the Wire.
B+ is an assistant professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California San Diego, and cofounder of Mochilla, a production house whose output includes feature-length music documentaries, music videos, music, and photography. A former student of award-winning author Mike Davis and photographer Allan Sekula, Cross was the photo editor of the music magazine Wax Poetics from 2004 to 2010, and Rap Pages from 1993 to 1998. Cross’s 1993 book on the LA hip-hop scene, “It’s Not About a Salary,” was on “best book of the year” lists for Rolling Stone and NME magazines, and Vibe named it one of the top ten hip-hop books of all time. Cross lives in Los Angeles and his new book “Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed”will be published by the University of Texas Press in October 2017.
Contact High will host a conversation with legendary photographers Janette Beckman, Barron Claiborne, Brian Cross and Ernie Paniccioli exploring the creative process and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the imagery that shaped hip-hop.
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