Harry and Meghan photographer Misan Harriman slams Surrey shop over racist plantation image showing ‘broken black men’ – after football star says he was told THREE years ago it would be taken down

By Jo Tweedy For Mailonline

Updated: 07:08 EDT, 9 August 2023

One of the fashion industry’s top photographers – who’s a family friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – has revealed his shock at seeing a racist photo of a tobacco plantation being used to sell cigars in a Surrey high street shop. 

British Nigerian photographer Misan Harriman, 46, who is also Chair of London’s Southbank Centre, captured Lilibet’s first birthday at Frogmore for Meghan and Harry, shared footage of his visit to Farrants store in Cobham this week – saying he was stunned to see the large black-and-white photo showing ‘broken black men and their overseers’ that hangs behind the shop’s tills.  

Emblazoned with the words ‘We sell tobacco’, the heritage image shows white colonialists alongside black workers on a plantation. Customers visiting the popular Cobham store, which sells sweets, toys and magazines alongside tobacco products, face the photo at the point of sale.

After filming inside the store, Harriman, 46, spoke directly to the camera outside it, expressing his fury that a shop in 2023 could use an image of oppression to promote its products, calling it ‘triggering’ and ‘damaging to many people’. 

I just went to Cobham to get my kids some toys and went into a shop called @Farrants_Cobham

There is a MASSIVE picture that is pride of place at the point of payment. It is an image of black men, broken black men at a tobacco plantation with their overseers next to them?!?! I… pic.twitter.com/QZnrzJlCde

— Misan Harriman (@misanharriman) August 8, 2023

The video has been viewed more than 2 million times.  

On Twitter, England assistant football coach Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink responded to Harriman’s post, claiming he’d been previously told by the shop’s owner, David Worsfold, in 2020 that the image would be removed after he had complained about it. 

In a caption accompanying the video, Harriman wrote: ‘There is a MASSIVE picture that is pride of place at the point of payment. 

‘It is an image of black men, broken black men at a tobacco plantation with their overseers next to them?!?! I kid you not! This is in a family store, this imagery is massive triggering and racist. And there is no conceivable reason it should be there! 

‘I’m so thankful I wasn’t with my girls. How on earth could anyone have shopped there and found that image acceptable. This is exhausting and damaging to many people.’ 

Former Chelsea footballer and Dutch international Floyd-Hasselbaink responded on his Instagram account, saying: ‘Stories come and go. This needs some attention @farrants_cobham, I think it’s time you followed through on your word from 2020 and replaced this image.’

A representative for Farrants, which has traded on Cobham’s high street since 1896, told MailOnline the store wouldn’t be making a comment on the photograph. 

In September 2020, Harriman, who has two daughters with Camilla Holmstroem, became the first black male photographer to shoot a British Vogue cover in its then-105-year history.

The activist-themed cover featured England footballer Marcus Rashford and model Adwoa Aboah, with Mr Harriman working with a predominantly black team on set.

A year before, the Duchess of Sussex guest edited the September issue, which is traditionally the magazine’s most important of the year.

Photography is Harriman’s second career, after previously working in finance but he’s proved prolific since getting behind the lens. 

He’s photographed everyone from Demi Lovato and Ed Harris to Elton’s husband David Furnish. Elton and David are longtime friends of Harry and Meghan. 

A wedding guest at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s nuptials in 2018, Harriman captured a birthday portrait of the couple’s one-year-old daughter Lilibet’s birthday celebrations last year. 

The Southbank Chair released a series of three images taken at a ‘casual, intimate backyard picnic’ hosted by the Sussexes at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor on June 4th 2022, having been invited to attend the small gathering as one of just a handful of select guests, alongside his wife and their two daughters. 

Among the images shared by Harriman, was a ‘candid, spontaneous’ shot of Lilibet, which Harry and Meghan chose to share with the world to mark their daughter’s milestone birthday. 

As well as the sweet snap of the birthday girl, the Nigerian-born photographer also shared two other images from the party, including a black-and-white photo of proud mother Meghan holding her daughter in her arms while posing alongside Harriman’s wife Camilla and their two daughters. 

He is the same trusted family friend who took the black-and-white images that the couple used to announce the news that they were pregnant with a second child back in February 2021.

Harriman also had a hand in helping another member of the royal family announce some special news back in 2019, when Princess Beatrice enlisted him to take an engagement portrait of her and her now-husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, which they released to the world when they announced their betrothal. 

Nathaniel Bailey fell into photography through his love of the darkroom. Invited in by two technicians at just 15 years old, he soon became immersed in the process of bringing an image to life. “It was a place of peace where I could go and hide if I needed to,” he tells us. Some eight years later, he documents behind-the-scenes projects with artists and creates series that can act as a portal into a generation’s way of life. He also dedicates his time to his ongoing project Parish Walls, where he captures the people and way of life in Jamaica’s parishes with an authentic and candid feel. With every look at the series it becomes clear that his photographs are but a glimpse into the conversations happening between him and his subjects.

Nathaniel grew up in the small west London town of Perivale, where he was raised by his Jamaican family. On his regular visits to Jamaica, he takes photos and brings them back to the darkroom in London before returning the prints back to the people on the island. “Parish Walls was initially me trying to open the door to a side of Jamaica that is rarely seen, but it soon became very personal, developing my own connection to the island my family hail from. It informs my identity as a Black man in Britain today,” he tells us. Exploring the parishes on foot, simply walking around the quiet countryside, his process is quite easy-going with authenticity at the heart. “You have to trust the process of documentation. You can’t force the work being created, because it will always reflect on your final portraits, and mine have to be authentic because I want their Jamaican pride to shine,” he adds.

‘Do you know who this is?’: Famous photographer goes VIRAL after stopping Australia cricket star and glamorous girlfriend in New York for an impromptu photoshoot… but had no idea of his real identity

• A famous photographer snapped an Aussie star without knowing his identity
• Marcus Stoinis and his partner were stopped by David Guerrero in New York 
• Cricket fans flooded his Twitter to tell him he had photographed an athlete 

By Ollie Lewis For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 05:33 EDT, 9 August 2023 | Updated: 07:50 EDT, 9 August 2023

A photographer has gone viral among cricket fans after providing a free photoshoot for a ‘beautiful Australian couple’ in New York, not knowing that he was taking pictures of cricket star Marcus Stoinis. 

David Guerrero, who has 1.1 million followers on Instagram, has built a following on the social platform for approaching people on the street and asking to take their pictures.

His subjects typically turn out to be regular citizens, but that was not the case on one of his recent posts, captioned: ‘Street photography with this beautiful Australian couple’.

‘Hey, excuse me guys, sorry to bother you,’ Guerrero began as he approached Stoinis and his partner.

‘My name is David, I’m a photographer. You guys look lovely, I was going to see if I could get you a free photo?’

His offer was rejected by Stoinis and his partner, Sarah Czarnuch, before he showed examples of his work, which convinced them to go ahead with the shoot. 

The pair posed for a number of pictures and Stoinis was in a jovial mood as he pouted and strutted down Prince St in SoHo. 

Fans quickly took to social media to make Guerrero aware that he had photographed an Australian cricketer. 

‘Dude not aware he’s photographing royalty,’ Aussie actor and cricket fan Adam Zwar posted.

‘A very famous Australian cricketer, wow, he’s so humble down to the earth. Respect!’ one fan wrote.

Another fan posted: ‘THAT’S MARCUS STOINIS. He plays for Australia.. that’s crazy.’

Realising he had unknowingly photographed a famous sportsman, Guerrero posted on Twitter: ‘This is why I enjoy what I do, you never know who you’ll come across’.

Stoinis is currently holidaying in New York after joining the new Major League Cricket tournament. He plays for the San Francisco Unicorns.  

The ravages of COVID-19 have been followed by the ravages of the post-pandemic tourism boom. If you’ve been reading recent coverage of aggressive travel and its discontents, you may well assume that it’s too late to have a genuine experience of, say, the great cities of Europe. Paris, Vienna, Barcelona: none are as they used to be, we’re told, and the same may even be true of the Eternal City. Lovers of such places were complaining about tourists decades and decades ago, of course, but how far back in time would one have to travel in order to take in the glories of a Rome that hadn’t yet fallen to the invading T-shirt-and-flip-flopped hordes?

One would have to travel back about 150 years, at least according to the pictorial evidence provided in the video above from Youtuber Jarid Boosters, who appears to have a strong interest in historical photography.

His most popular videos include gatherings-up of pictures of old Los Angeles, of the lost architecture of the German Empire, of nineteenth-century Iran. In this new episode, he presents the earliest known photographs taken in Rome, which date from the early eighteen-forties to the early eighteen-seventies. Most were taken by an early Italian adopter of photography named Gioacchino Altobelli.

Soon after picking up a camera in the eighteen-thirties, Altobelli dedicated his career to “photographing some of the most ancient and most infamous sites throughout Rome,” says Boosters. “From 1841 through 1871, Altobelli, along with a team of other photographers, including Richard Jones, took it upon themselves to document the most famous and ancient city of Rome as completely as possible.” Their subjects included the still-recognizable likes of the Colosseum and Hadrian’s tomb, naturally, as well as the Arch of Drusus, the Temple of Venus and Roma, and the Porto di Ripetta. Having been demolished by the early twentieth century, the Porto di Ripetta stands out as one of the features that sets the Rome of Altobelli’s day apart from the Rome of today — well, that and the absence of selfie-takers.

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Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities, the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.

A Perth photographer is helping women challenge ideas of “self-loathing”.

Fremantle-based photographer Jasmine Skye was a nurse for 16 years before she picked up the lens and began her own business.

“I found my way into newborn family maternity photoshoots because I was a paediatric nurse,” she said.

“I was very natural handling the babies and wanted to teach myself how to take photos.”

Skye found herself in a place of “burnout and stress” while she was on maternity leave but in 2016 an underwater photography competition caught her eye.

“I was like ‘oh that would be amazing with a pregnant woman’,” she said.

“And I asked my friend, who was pregnant at the time, if she would be willing to let me practice on her and I was totally hooked from there on in.”

Last year the Perth mum embarked on a journey to photograph more than 60 women, including herself, to feature in a coffee table book and debut at the 38-year-old’s first solo exhibition.

The opening night for the exhibition, Underneath, will be at the Fremantle Naval Store on August 18.

Skye’s subjects spanned dozens of women with different personal stories and triumphs, including Olympic swimmers, trauma survivors and those who had had fertility or pregnancy issues.

“It is by far the hardest project I have ever done,” Skye said.

“There is so much more self-loathing going on beneath the surface than you realise.”

The Fremantle photographer said her subjects were able to be vulnerable and “embrace their own unique beauty”.

“The undercurrent of the whole project is growth because everything you’re insecure about in the water is generally what you’re insecure about on land,” she said.

“It really brings it to the surface — you kind of lose control or have to let go.”

Sarah, one of the women photographed, said the photo shoot was physically tough.

“I had concerned myself so much with how I’d look and did not consider how hard it would be to stay underwater,” she said.

“I was left awestruck at most of the gallery .. the body I have spent the last 30 years criticising and tormenting myself over was stunning and strong.”

In the book, she delves into how motherhood changed her into a stronger and “unapologetic” version of herself.

“I spend so much time in mum mode — practical clothes, no make-up, hat on hair that should’ve been washed the day before,” Sarah said.

“This was for me.”

Underneath will officially launch at next week’s exhibition.

Tickets can be purchased online.

“NYC never gets tiring to photograph,” he says. “If you’re out on the streets shooting enough, you’ll be constantly surprised.”

Taking part in a new group show at Greece’s Chania International Photo Festival, Rothstein has a relentless work ethic, committing to shooting the city’s streets almost daily. He finds something magical and magnetic about the urban metropolis constantly sprawling with life, energy and people.

Having captured the Big Apple since the early 1970s, Rothstein is currently most intrigued by how the pandemic has shaped his city – and its inhabitants. Considering himself an ‘urban observer’, he’s fascinated by how people interact and tries to document fleeting moments between passing pedestrians. Since Covid, he has realised how physically drawn he is to the people he’s photographing, seeking to transfer the intimacy and chaos of his photography process through the frame.

“When the original Covid lockdown happened, I had to change my style for the duration,” says Rothstein. “Getting up close to people with my wide-angle lenses wasn’t viable, and there were no people to be seen anyway. I’ve moved closer to my subjects when shooting on the streets. Sometimes I’m no more than a couple of feet away from the focus if I’m in the middle of a crowd. I want people viewing my images to feel like they’re on the streets with me.”

Returning to street photography after some experiments in urban abstracts and still lifes, Rothstein has noticed how the city’s pace has resumed post-pandemic – and how people seem happier than before.

“Despite people working from home some days a week, New York’s midtown area is still pretty crowded with workers and tourists on weekdays,” he adds. “The Soho area, where I like to shoot on weekends, is chock full of people. A few years ago, people on the streets seemed stressed, angry and distrustful. Now, it feels like they are ready to enjoy themselves again.”

But perhaps newly-reclaimed freedoms aren’t the only reason for this. Rothstein cites the safety of New York as something that he has noticed during his five-decade-long career as a street photographer.

“NYC, back in the day, was a lot grittier and scarier, though that’s what made it great for street photography,” he says. “Despite recent uptick in some crimes, it’s still light years safer than in the ’70s to ’90s. As far as shooting, the backdrop is a bit more bland, with many pharmacies, banks and nail salons dominating the urban landscape. And don’t even get me started about the Disneyfication of places like Times Square. But New York is still probably the best city for street photography, and I’m fortunate to have photographed here for so many decades.”

While the city’s infrastructure might have evolved to keep up with modern demands and changing industries, the same rules apply to Rothstein as a photographer. He has to keep his eyes peeled, pre-empting spontaneous moments of absurd interactions between passers-by and accepting whatever may come his way.

Revealing his process, he refers to the image featuring the soldiers, saying: “I was shooting for a while on a corner that had pretty heavy pedestrian traffic during lunchtime. Suddenly, I saw a group of these German soldiers coming down the avenue, and I spotted two punk-looking girls out of the corner of my eye. I waited for the moment they crossed paths, and I believe I caught the amalgamation of their styles and mix of worlds to create a truly interesting and multi-layered photo.”

As a native Brooklynite and having lived in Manhattan for many years, Rothstein knows that it’s the city’s people that keep New York so interesting. Or at least that’s what he finds most curious about his hometown.

And it’s something he’s sure he’ll never get bored of: “Even though I’m a lifelong New Yorker, I’m not jaded enough to think I’ve seen everything here. New York is always an adventure!”

Visit Jeff Rothstein’s website to follow his latest works.

A visual storyteller at heart, Jim Fiscus has pioneered a distinctive, cinematic style of photography that is capable of portraying complex narratives within a single frame. With an element of magic realism, his photographs elevate seemingly ordinary or overlooked places into extraordinary scenes full of unusual detail. Currently on view at the Georgia Museum of Art, the exhibition “Where Shadows Cross” features 13 elaborately constructed photographs that suggest stories through shadow and light. 

Specializing in conceptual advertising portraiture, Fiscus’ professional career in photography has led him to produce images for household names such as Levi’s, Nike and Samsung over the last 30 years. His artful style is even interwoven across several streaming platforms, including Showtime, HBO, Netflix and Disney, through campaigns for “Dexter,” “Kidding,” “Billions,” “Penny Dreadful,” “Tidelands,” ”Homeland” and others.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the world nearly ground to a halt and commission work slowed down, Fiscus suddenly found himself with both the time and headspace necessary to focus on personal projects. He soon began embarking on a series of road trips with a camper and a friend, and his new exhibition shares several of the single-frame stories he created along the way. 

“They’re all found locations populated with found people to illustrate a story that hopefully doesn’t really conclude for you,” he says. 

Following the gravitational pull of places that embody a special sort of strangeness, Fiscus would observe how lighting naturally changed and interacted with objects within the setting over the course of time. Once he found a location that spoke to him, he’d return during peak lighting to direct real people—often strangers he had met serendipitously—within meticulously orchestrated scenes set with props. 

“The light itself is a character, or a presence, within each of these stories, and so I’m not altering it, I’m waiting until the time when it’s beautiful,” says Fiscus. “Usually when it’s beautiful, it’s kind of dim… It’s a peculiar time of day.” 

While a few of the images were captured by a single shot, many are the result of a bit of post-production wizardry. During photo shoots, Fiscus often takes multiple shots with different poses and lighting variations to create a library of images from which he can later fuse together a completed picture. Each title card includes a date and duration of time, ranging from one minute to well over an hour, to acknowledge the specific environmental conditions and process required to achieve the final image. 

The exhibition’s title, “Where Shadows Cross,” carries multiple meanings. Because the locations are often lit with multiple sources of illumination—some visible as part of the scene and others hidden outside of the frame—shadows may criss-cross or subtly contradict each other. In addition to referencing his creative process and lighting technique, the idea of “Where Shadows Cross” also represents the connectedness between people and objects as their shadows come into contact with each other. 

In his exhibition statement, Fiscus says, “A single source of light casts parallel shadows that can also overlap or even run away from each other. Multiple separate points of illumination make the shadows cross and form patterns. In these pictures the shadows partake in a game with all other shapes. Shadows are a seminal part of the composition. These forms ground the eyes or guide it forth to another area of the frame, to other shapes. In still images they reveal motion. The anchor point in this entire series is made of shadows, which keep the balance and bond everything together.

“The crossing of shadows embodies the time spent with a person—the days it takes to make these images. In a diner or under a streetlight, you cross shadows with somebody you just met, and you are getting to know them. 

“Shadows stand for my attraction to people who live in places normally unseen. There are people left behind in the shadows against their will, but also those who chose to be there—an entire world we either avoid or experience only superficially. I choose the shadows.”  

While shadows are an integral part of every image, Fiscus also puts a considerable amount of thought into creating shapes. Every line, angle and instance of symmetry feels intentional, not unlike hitting pause on a film with a well-crafted set.

Though Fiscus begins each shoot with an initial concept and structure in place, he remains open to improvisation and lets the image shift and unfold naturally through the participation of the subjects. Narratives are intentionally left ambiguous and inconclusive, which allows for multiple interpretations and the freedom to imagine both the past and future of depicted characters. 

“I’m trying to create a framework that allows us to look at things differently,” says Fiscus.

Each scene is accompanied by a title card that shares intentions, narrative prompts and other interesting behind-the-scenes details. Several of the images also make art historical references, which provides another framework for interpretation. 

“Where Shadows Cross,” which was curated by the museum’s Parker Curator of Russian Art, Asen Kirin, will remain on view through Oct. 8. Fiscus will offer an artist talk on Sept. 7 at 5:30 p.m. The exhibition will additionally be highlighted during 90 Carlton: Autumn, a quarterly reception hosted by Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, on Sept. 15 from 6:30–8:30 p.m.

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Winners are chosen in the categories of Animal Behaviour, Animal Portraits, Conservation Focus, Creative Nature Photography and Wildscape & Animals in Their Habitat.

This year’s winners of the NatureinFocus Photography Awards were announced at the Nature inFocus Festival, held at the Jayamahal Palace in Bangalore, India. 

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From a heartwarming portrait of a Bonobo nurturing a mongoose pup, to a fierce battle for mating rights among male Nubian Ibexes in Israel’s Zin Desert, these images capture unique moments in natural history and address crucial conservation matters.

The winners were whittled down from a total of 24,000 submitted photographs from 1,500 photographers around the world. 

Below is a stunning collection of some of the winning and highly-commended images from the competition. 

Animal Behaviour winner: Shell I Eat You? by Sankhesh Dedhia

This stunning action shot captures a rarely-seen natural history moment, where the legendary Arrowhead of Ranthambhore fishes out an Indian Softshell Turtle from the lake for lunch. A tiger’s diet in the wild can be very varied as the felid can prey on pretty much everything on its turf, even a turtle, hence proved!

Animal Behaviour winner: A Love Like No Other by Afroj Sheikh

Caught in the crosshairs of a hungry leopard, the vulnerable mother and baby langur had little chance of survival. The hunt and the chase had led the predator and prey up a tree before the mother succumbed to the suffocating hold of the large cat. But in embracing death, the mother was able to save her offspring.

Animal Behaviour winner: A Sappy Alliance by Avinash PC

Symbiotic relationships are plenty in the natural world! But none as sappy and sugary as the mutualistic relationship between ants and aphids. Aphids are tiny, sap-sucking insects that are serious plant pests. They secrete a sugar-rich liquid called honeydew, a favourite food of ants! So much so that the ants protect these insects from other predators and even shepherd them to the healthiest parts of the plant to maintain a steady stream of sweet honeydew!

Conservation Focus winner: Cry Me a River by Hiren Pagi

The Australia Bushfire 2020 had devastating impacts on its wildlife. An estimated three billion animals were killed or displaced in the fires that season. The NGO ‘Vets For Compassion’ actively worked in the Mallacoota, Victoria region to find and rescue Koalas and other animals that were affected by the fires. They made their way past blockades, searching for animals in the most severely affected areas. In this photograph, veterinarian Chris Barton looks for survivors amidst a burned eucalyptus plantation.

Wildscape & Animals in Their Habitat winner: The Things You Do for Love by Amit Eshel

Looks like the set for the next Mission Impossible, but for Nubian Ibexes, the high-altitude rocky terrains are home. The vulnerable ibex species is known for many things–large semi-circular horns, the ability to scale mountains with ease and the territorial fights that males engage in during the rutting season. Displays of dominance begin with showing off their impressive horns. If that doesn’t do the trick, it’s time to escalate by pushing and shoving the opponent and literally locking horns with them. Ibexes also stand on their hind legs as they get ready to strike.

Wildscape & Animals in Their Habitat winner: Worlds Apart by Dileep SS

Think Dubai and the first thing that comes to mind is architectural marvels that make the sky seem at arm’s reach. The tall buildings may be Dubai’s trademark visuals, but another world coexists alongside the dazzle, where wildlife thrives in the desert. The image juxtaposes these two worlds—the towering skyscrapers and the endless sands—a gentle reminder to look beyond the concrete.

Creative Nature Photography winner: All That Glitters Are Spores by Anirban Dutta

The bristles are the brightly-coloured protective hairs of the Slug Moth larvae. The glitter-like effect is because of mushrooms releasing spores. When the photographer found the larvae positioned right next to the sporing mushrooms, he did not want to miss the opportunity to capture the dramatic frame, and dramatic it is!

Creative Nature Photography winner: Symmetry in Mimicry by Arkaprava Ghosh

Mimicry is the highest form of flattery, they say. But in the animal world, it is among the best defence mechanisms. Here, Line-forest Skimmers position themselves aptly on the perennial Phanera vahlii creeper to resemble an inflorescence. Notice how the dragonflies have raised their abdomens in unison? Fooling a predator never looked this intricate.

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Animal Portraits winner: The Bonobo and His Pet by Christian Ziegler

The last great ape to be described, the Bonobo, is one of our closest living relatives. Here, a wild Bonobo who caught a mongoose pup is looking after it like a pet. He later released the animal unharmed. This behaviour has only been recorded once before by Prof Barbara Fruth at this site.

Animal Portraits winner: Inspector Booby by Suliman Alatiqi

Brown boobys spend a significant portion of their lives in the open ocean. Their clumsy nature on land earned them their namesake, derived from the Spanish word bobo, which means stupid or daft. They are excellent foragers of the sea and plunge-dive to feed on anything from anchovies and sardines to squid and shrimp. The photographer watched this individual dipping its head underwater at short intervals and got in position to capture a close-up portrait of the bird from the perspective of its fated prey.

Young Photographer winner: Raiders of Hives by Pranav Mahendru

In the dense forests of Satpura, a pair of oriental honey buzzards raid a beehive. These raptors hunt for food in beehives and wasp nests but, unlike what their name suggests, they prefer bee and wasp larvae over actual honey.

Young Photographer winner: Slender in the Night by Arnav Deshpande

Like the spiders they are commonly confused with, opiliones too have eight legs – mostly long and thin in contrast to their bodies. They are living fossils, the original ‘Daddy Longlegs’, having remained unchanged for millions of years. On a rainy night, the young photographer spotted this opilione sheltering in a crevice, raindrops glistening on its limbs.

Wildscape & Animals in Their Habitat special mention: The Land of Stripes by Amit Vyas

If the essence of Ranthambore could be captured in one frame, this would be it. Only once in a blue moon does the landscape become this misty at Ranthambore. And when a tiger chooses the opportune moment to show itself, it almost feels too good to be true. The historical architecture of the landscape, its species and the cerulean backdrop create an image that has magic written all over it. 

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Wildscape & Animals in Their Habitat special mention: The Rarest of Them All by Sergey Gorshkov

One of the rarest cats in the world, the Amur leopard certainly makes you earn your sighting. The critically endangered felid faces several threats, including poaching for its fur. While suitable habitats are present across Russia and China, these leopards are threatened by the scarcity of prey animals. 

Animal Behaviour special mention: It’s a Cat-eat-cat World by Karthik Mohan Iyer

It takes a moment before you go, ‘Woah!’. Though tigers and leopards share the same prey base, they tend to be non-confrontational and mostly stay away from one another. But when threatened by competition, tigers can eliminate other predators in their territory, such as leopards. 

Animal Behaviour special mention: Lights Will Guide You Home by Merche Llobera

A pod of spinner dolphins dives back into the beautifully lit waters of the Pacific Ocean, creating this stunning scene of a cetacean avalanche. One of the dolphins can be seen gazing into the camera lens, adding a touch of curiosity and connection to the frame. 

Young Photographer special mention: Gecko’s Garage by Vidyun Hebbar

The Andaman day gecko or the green emerald gecko is a bright-coloured gecko endemic to the Andaman Islands. The young photographer was on vacation when he spotted this shy creature lurking inside a light shade.

NEW YORK (WABC) — Chi Modu took some of the most prized, iconic images, captured during the golden age of Hip Hop.

Like, Mobb Deep in 1995.

“He remembers going out to Queensbridge and hanging with their whole crew,” said Sophia, Chi Modu’s widow.

Sophia’s late husband was renowned photographer Chi Modu.

“He wanted people to understand that just from looking at the photographs, that they were brilliant, brilliant individuals,” Sophia said.

He took photos of legendary artists like Tupac.

Chi took the photo in 1994. It was an outtake but would be one of his and the industry’s most acclaimed photos.

“Even though he always said, ‘I can do the regular studio shot, I kind of wanted to really bring the person out so when people are looking at it they feel like they know you,'” Sophia said.

In the 1990’s, Chi worked closely with the Source Magazine.

Born in Nigeria, he grew up in New Jersey and went to Rutgers where he met Sophia.

He would later perfect his craft at Manhattan’s International Center of Photography.

From his studio in Jersey City, Sophia told Eyewitness News that her husband’s work had a profound effect on people.

“He would hear stories of people just struggling in their young life, saying these images just made me keep going,” Sophia said.

A picture of Biggie in front of the Twin Towers was one of his proudest works.

“Everyone was like oh that music, that rap music, thing but he thought they were intelligent young men and they needed to be captured appropriately,” she said.

Sophia is busy cataloging thousands of images her husband took and is committed to protecting his work.

In 2021, Chi died from cancer. He was just 54 years old.

“As he’s looking down on all of this, what do you think he would say?” Eyewitness News asked.

“I picked the right one,” Sophia said.

ALSO READ | Tour group shares Hip Hop’s rich history in New York City with global fans

Watch our half-hour special ‘The Bronx and Beyond: 50 years of Hip Hop’ airing on Eyewitness News at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, August 11, followed by a one-hour extended look on Channel 7 at 1 p.m. on Sunday, August 13. Both editions will be made available to stream on-demand at ABC7NY.com or our ABC7NY app on Roku, FireTV, Apple TV and Android TV.

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