Pep Williams is one of our favorite L.A. photographers, and recently told us about the story of how he ended up shooting singer Chris Brown for the cover of Urban Ink magazine...
So Orlando Aguillen (Music Exec) and I was up at Chris's house hanging talking about art, and he mentioned he wanted a wall to paint on (not at his house!). I said, sure I know a few walls. So I hit up Mr. Trigz and he said you can paint on my wall at 5150 Tattoo Shop in North Hollywood. We all rolled out a few days later to hit up the wall. It was way chill. just hanging for a few hours talking about music, art, and skating. The photographs were taken during that session. When People look at the magazine, it appears the images were shot for this magazine. Planned. But not at all. Within the 3 hours of hanging out I think I took about 15 shot totals. Wasn't about photography, just friends hanging out. So I looked at the few images I took and they were all good. Usually that's how I shoot anyway-- very fast and easy. Mags hit me up all time for content of this type. When I saw these images, I immediately thought Urban Ink. So I sent them samples and Immediately they said they would run it.
When I first saw the issue in person, I knew it was a hit. Whats cool about this magazine is alot of the homies are in it from Ruger, Mr Trigz, Madball, and more. When the staff from the mag hit me up and said that the buzz the cover is getting in the industry is crazy, I was truly happy about that. Then they said If there was an award for best photos in this issue I would have won with ease. That totally humbled me.
