'We were pushing black excellence': the stars of Afropunk festival – in pictures
Since 2005, Afropunk has celebrated the music, fashion and beatboxing of black artists – and seen the crowd swell to 70,000. Phil Knott talks us through who he’s photographed there
by Phil Knott
Comedian, beatboxer and musician Reggie Watts. Since the first Afropunk festival in Brooklyn in 2005 to last year’s event in Atlanta, Phil Knott has had a studio set up on site to take portraits of the attendees, resulting in a huge body of work documenting the scene and the independent style of the crowd. All photographs by Phil Knott
Phil Knott: ‘I think Coco and Breezy are twin sisters. They’re DJs and girls about town. They were just starting their eyewear company when I took this.’
Afropunk presenter Jorge ‘Gitoo’ Wright. Knott says: ‘Over the years I kept bumping into the same characters, watching them grow. Jorge was a kid from east New York, always very stylish and cool, another young dude about town.’
Peter Prince, DJ and musician. Knott: ‘I wanted the portraits to look classical and timeless, so I borrowed from my hero Richard Avedon – his midwest setup of a white backdrop using natural daylight.’
‘This was the early days of pushing black excellence. Everybody came as they were, there was no styling involved in these portraits, just people with their own personal style being themselves.’
‘Since the early days of Afropunk, when it was just a small festival in a car park outside Brooklyn Academy of Music, I have worked alongside founder and creative director Matthew Morgan and his partner Jocelyn Cooper on the visuals.’
‘We organised shoots in conjunction with the festival, setting up our white backdrop, initially inside the handball courts, shooting black faces who were a part of Afropunk.’
‘As Afropunk grew we would set up in various locations at and around the festival, one backstage, one in a backroom when they had the battle of the bands, one at the festival ground, grabbing the attendees out from the crowd. We would also go into town and set up outside on the wall of Dean & DeLuca (the upscale food store) at the time that the festival was on.’
‘This was downtown opposite the Prada store, waiting to catch the kids that came from uptown to downtown. I think that’s where the kids would hang out. There is quite a mix – but it was all about documenting the young black youth, seeing what they were about.’
Ebony Davis, model. Knott says: ‘I watched the festival grow into something quite extraordinary. I feel privileged to have been able to document black culture in New York over the years.’
‘I have been shooting Afropunk right up to the most recent festival in Atlanta last year and this is probably my biggest body of work. I constantly revisit and find things I’ve never seen before, things that I initially missed.’
Joey Badass, rapper, photographed backstage.
‘I feel that the early images still hold up. They are proud, majestic, beautiful, black, creative, individualistic, stylish and amazing.’
The next scheduled Afropunk festival is to be held in Paris in 2021.