Peep the BBoy Monster invading the middle of that cypher. Brought to you by the new panoramic feature on your iphone.
I was in NYC this past weekend for an event organized by Floor Obsessions crew called "Unlucky Breaks" at the Aurora Gallery. While most jams I go to the vibe consists mostly of bboys trying to out cock each other. Unlucky Breaks took a different approach to our tried and true formulas, and made all the combatants battle under different handicaps given via a spin from the "Wheel of Misfortune." This was easily the most fun I've ever had at a jam, each battle felt unique, as the handicaps really pushed the participant to step out of their comfort zone and take creative risks.
To top it all off, my friends over at Floor Obsession let me put up some of my BBoy Monsters for the jam. Funny enough, although I've been showing work more often recently this was the event I was most excited about. The BBoy Monsters is a body of work that I've been creating specifically with the breaking community in mind, I often describe it as “by a BBoy for BBoys”. So when I found out my buddies over at Floor Obsessions were holding the event in a gallery space, I jumped at the chance to put up my work. On the whole my pictures were very well received despite some hanging difficulties. I don't think I've ever felt so much love at a jam before (probably because I'm not exactly a great BBoy). Thanks to all the guys that came up to talk to me about my photos, it totally felt like a dream come true.
Below you'll see my recap of the jam. While I'm definitely breaking some photo-rules here with this gigantic edit, and image quality all over the place, there are some real gems in here. Special thanks to Eddie and Katya and the whole of Floor Obsessions for the opportunity to share my work with the community and to be part of such an awesome jam!!!
View of the venue from the street.
The judges' seats before the battles.
The handicaps!!!
Most ghetto hanging and display of work ever. But whatever, it's a bboy jam!
Early arrivals.
A girl taking a picture of my picture. In the art world we call this "appropriation" , in breaking we use the term "biting", but whatever to me it's all just about inspiration.
The emcee before the start of the battles.
Of course, I had to get a picture of Heat with his BBoy Monster.
Tony T-Bags with his BBoy Monster. When I asked Tony how it felt about having his picture on the wall his response was "Yooooo and I'm wearing the same pants! People don't even know!!"
Some of the early circles.
This could probably be used as a Rorschach test to see if you're a real bboy. What's your first reaction to this photo? "Nice freeze" or "ouch, pain"?
BBoy E (sp?) testing out the boxing gloves before the start of the battles.
Manji rocking the Hamtaro suit in the cyphers.
Yeaaaaa, as you'll see he kept that thing on for pretty much the entire jam.
The judges.
"And now introducing...J-Park!"
The emcee kicking off the battles.
The first of the prelim battles, handicap: Amputee. Combatants must pick a sacrificial limb they can't use for the duration of that battle. The look on this guy's face kinda says it all - shit!
Strategizing.
Mad props to this guy for sacrificing a leg for the opening round.
BBoy Invertebrate rocking to Sisqó's infamous "Thong Song"
Pete Nasty, gettin' nasty.
BBoys are so dreamy.
First costume battle of the night "ninja" vs. "zoro".
Every BBoy should practice a good stare down...
...and booty shaking.
"Danny Infamous, co-founder of instigram"
Rich Nyce, getting his Beyonce on.
Yoonie, hoping for something good.
Julia, feelin' lucky...or quietly freaking out before her battle.
BBoy Randi, gathering chi before his exhibition battle against Spidey.
Spidey answering Randi's round.
Seeing this reminded me of how hard it is to photograph bboys at jams. Usually you're dealing with some combination of low lighting and mixed lighting conditions in tight spaces. Most of my pictures will end up like this, kinda blurry, almost in-focus, and cut off in just enough places to annoy me.
Shakin' it off.
BBoy Isaiah getting some finishing touches to his costume for his the top 16 battle.
Katya with a dubious smile on her face.
Invertebrate getting a matching ribbon for his tutu.
Isaiah rockin' that tutu for all it's worth.
Tony T-Bags being classy as always. Unfortunately this is also where I ran out of space on my memory card, and thus was kicking myself for the rest of the battle for being a shitty photographer.
At the end of the night with countless smiles later, BBoy Samo of X-Fenz crew came out on top with his explosive creativity, self-deprecating humor, and skillful integration of "wheel of misfortune" in all his rounds. Congratulations to Samo for taking the battles and to Floor Obsessions crew for a successful jam!!!!!
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