We wrote, and re-wrote, and re-wrote the re-write of this here intro quite a few times, but what remains constant is this: 2009 already has been and will continue to be a heck of a year for photographer/all-around-creative-champ Coco Black. We suggest you get acquainted with her now, or risk late majority status of epic proportions. Interview after the jump!

AS: Current or the very last song that played in your itunes

At this very sec I’m listening to The Knife & Fever Ray heavy. So damn creative those two siblings. Ummm, some throw back Modest Mouse that I used to listen to a lot in college. But…I got a playlist going so there’s some Brazilian Girls, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Hercules & Love Affair, Bjork, Little Dragon, Aphex Twin, Tokyo Police Club, Sebastien Tellier & Massive Attack on rotation.

AS: What’s your drink? Not at the bar. Rather, at Starbucks or the local coffee spot that doesn’t have as many accented “e’s” and “i’s” but we all go to when we don’t want a guilty macchiato conscience.

I really should tell you my drink of choice at the bar!!! It’s so lame it hurts.

But as for Starbucks… I recently got really really into Chai Latte’s. YUMMMMM!

AS: Where did you grow up? What was it like? Where do you call home now?

I grew up in London and as a kid I actually hated it. I thought I wanted to live in the States cause they had better candy. But then as I grew up I realized that London had better chocolate… so…. that really helped me figure out which side of the pond I wanted to be on. As you can see, I’m very simple.

But back to “story time” – I went to an all-girls Catholic boarding school run  by nuns for 7 years and we got into alotta trouble!! It was also an international school… and really small. Of the 200 girls from 6th-12th grade, about 25 nationalities were represented. At one point I could actually competently communicate in MANY languages… then Alzheimer’s set in with old age and…. now I can barely speak english. :p

PS – All the stories you hear about such institutions are VERY TRUE! Ahhh…. Fun times!

I spent most of my summers in South Africa as a teen and that was EPIC to say the least. We had iron rod gates at every door in our apartment and high voltage barbed wire surrounding each apartment compound. That is normal by the way. London became cooler as I got into more stuff. Started bar hopping at 13. Ummmm… and that is where “story time” wilI stop – lest I reveal things that will taint my name for the next 7 lifetimes.
I live in New York City now… uptown. Some Brooklynites + downtowners think uptown may as well be Jersey. Not to hate on Jersey… well, yeah… actually… to hate a lil on Jersey – I’ll straight knock you out if you make that comparison to my face!

AS: What fashion era/motif/trend would you say you first fell in love with?

Uummm…. the 60′s. I grew up on Motown and Stax artists… and I loved all the girl/boy groups from that era. I guess that hasn’t really changed for me though. I love the crazy heavy eye makeup, the big hair, the long oval shaped nails with white polish. The fashion during that time was generally bold, excessive, and bigger than life. As you get to know me over the course of this interview you will find that I am one for EXCESS in every sense of the word. My motto… the more the better. (Check Peggy Moffitt – dope!)

AS: How did you get into photography, and what kind of subjects give you the most personal satisfaction as a photographer?

I kinda stumbled on photography and just “image making” cause I fell out of love with theater and performing, and was looking for an outlet that would make me feel like my life wasn’t over when the “creative void” became apparent. PHEW!

That was a BIG run on!

Yeah… I used to be a theater dork for like 8 years. But I was a really cool theater dork, actually. I will go back to acting one day. I veered towards photography when I started studying film really heavy – from production to theory.
The photographic process grants me instant gratification more so than film – and you know I’m all about that!

I like portraiture. But it depends on the person. I know right away whether I have a good photographic rapport with someone. Everything just clicks – from their expression, to the composition, to the light. It is easy to get what I want. But in actuality, of late i’ve liked photographing “things”…. like light. I love seeing how I can photograph different light sources that are not within my control. It’s all about light versus darkness. Eg. the way the light illuminates a room in a party or on stage at a performance. I love neon lights, shadows and silhouettes etc. I could bore you for eternity about it.

AS: Nikon or Canon? We won’t judge, as long as you don’t say Canon. Haha! We joke, we joke, we kid we kid..kinda

Pssshhhh…. on the digital end I just got myself a G10… and that is a CANON… and it is a BEAST! Don’t hate!
But I actually usually shoot film… on a Mamiya so the question is kinda moot. Sorry.

AS: How does being a young black female inform your work? Does it inform your work?

Hmmm… yes and no. I’m stuck in this skin and I see the world the way I do because of who I am.  I don’t really look at things in  black and white – call it a product of my upbringing… but I will say that living here has really changed my perspective on race issues.

More so than anything I have a certain aesthetic I like. And that is informed by opening my eyes, research, spending entirely too long on the internet… reading magazines etc. The aesthetic I like is neither a “black” or “white” one (whatever that means), or anything in between. It just is what it is.  More so than my blackness being an informant in my work, I would say being a woman carries more weight for a plethora of reasons. Namely because we are an endangered species in my line of work.

AS: Do you find racial/gender politics still presenting the occasional roadblocks that you have to navigate around, even in 2009 and even in the particular “scenes” you flow through? Is it more of a non-issue at this point?

I think I kinda answered that above, but I will expand on it.  I am a true believer in the notion that any roadblock that exists with the possibility of hindering you mentally, and/or emotionally is entirely in your head. Now some people may get huffy by me saying that, but what I mean is, no matter what is being done to you to hinder your progress – part of being  a ‘creative’ is about finding solutions to problems. Someone trying to stop you is simply that – a problem. Therefore, a creative solution will always outsmart someone whose only motivation is to bring you down. So yeah, for me it’s a non-issue. Well, unless you take it there and then it’s all fisticuffs!!

AS: Fair enough. So, we have to know – Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Flakes or Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

Ohhhh…. Cinnamon Toast Crunch?? BUT… Frosted Flakes (‘Frosties’) are such a close, close second. But wait. Damn. So are Honey Nut Cheerios…. Damn!! LOL!

AS: 4 inch heel or Jordans?

I know someone that might kill me if I say Jordans… but on the real… I have never owned a pair. I’ll take the 4 inches any day.

AS: Which (musical) artists do you listen to while editing photos?

Ohhhh…. that’s good one. I watch TV actually… or whatever is on just plays in the background. I record a lot of art related stuff – Iconoclast, stuff on Sundance, Ovation, and IFC. Documentaries about fashion designers, photographers etc.

I’ll let you in on a secret that maybe negative 10 people know about me. I am absolutely obsessed with the Universe and space travel so I watch the History Channel a lot. They have these crazy, really well-produced docs about meteors destroying the earth, or about exploration on Mars and the outer planets. Point is that I find editing photos so mindless that I usually need a distraction rather than something to just be background noise.

AS: Do you find editing the tons of photographs snapped at a prior night’s/weekend’s party to be fun, meditative, or more so a bit on the tedious side?

I keep jumping the gun. I sometimes find it very meditative. Sometimes I even look forward to doing it cause it is so mindless. But… after about 4 hours of doing that I get really annoyed and fall off.

AS: We’ve hit you with an onslaught of photo related questions, but we know that’s just one aspect of what you have going on. Tell us about some of the personal projects you’re working on.

I recently underwent a major shift in the direction I had been moving in to date. It is slowly proving to be very fruitful, but all good things take time to manifest. Some of the projects I am looking forward to are creating a nationwide photo competition featuring lesser known photographers/media artists. However it will be quite high brow… and we’ll be finding the best of the best. I can’t reveal much more now but we’ve got a few heavy hitters involved.

I’m a little superstitious about talking about projects lest they don’t come to fruition. But you can look forward to some cross-branding and collaborations with artists/brands that you probably know.

I’m really focused on taking my own brand (THE BLACK BRAND) off the ground right now – and doing it right for the best return on my efforts. That will take time.

I’m also dabbling in design for some musicians on the up and up. You’ll find out more about that as the work comes to the surface.
I’m in the research stage of a photo series that I hope to complete before October – and take that to places abroad. It will be epic.
Got my fingers in some events with some well-known NYC promoters + dj’s. What else…? I may be making an appearance on the TV screen sometime soon. That is all I will say about that.

AS: Do you see yourself as part of a larger cultural movement happening in NYC particularly right now? If so, how do you think you will help shape it and where do you see it going?

NYC is inherently itself a cultural movement – and probably will remain so for awhile. Since I live and maneuver among artists and people who create the ‘things’ that we see, buy, do, wear (basically all the products that affect our lives), and many of them happen to reside and work in NYC, I suppose that I am a part of a larger cultural movement. Simply because these few people are creating the culture and trends for many.

I hope to shape it by just being me and doing what I love to do. I contribute to the canvas that is NYC culture by  having people put their faith in the service I offer when I take on a project. It goes without saying that the bigger the project, the more eyes that will view/encounter it, and that’s gotta count for something in shaping a cities culture.

Wait. Does that even remotely answer your question? :/
Where I see it all going?? In the current climate, I see the ‘Artist’ having far more power and pull on… well, everything. It is a known fact that in times of need and change, people tend to look to the creative beings of the world to provide answers and solutions to endless questions that we are faced with. Corporate America turns to the artist to create what will captivate, quell, excite, intrigue etc., their audience. Since there are more “Artists” per square foot in New York than there are anywhere else in the world, much of that art that will be viewed by the masses will be created here. (Keep your eye on Sweden though – there is some crazy work coming out of there !)

AS: Do you feel that this creative work you’re currently involved in is (for lack of a better phrase) your calling? If so, was there a time when doing something else, potentially the very opposite of this line of work, was a strong option? If so, what was it? And what changed?

I’m still trying to find my calling. I think I always will be searching cause i refuse to settle into doing 1 thing for the rest of my life. Not to say that I do not value the diligence it takes to become a master of your craft. But I do believe that over the course of a lifetime, many crafts can be mastered. If you had asked me 5 years ago, I don’t think I would have guessed I would be doing what I do. I’ve always been creative so I knew I would working within a creative field – but, I would have thought I would be involved in music and/or acting. I didn’t follow that through cause I became bored and disillusioned by it all for a minute. I still love it though and will revisit it soon.

But to me it is all inter-disciplinary. I can take what I have learnt from one arena of the arts and apply to another. It just works like that.

When I was a kid I thought  I would to be an astronaut but all that astrophysics scared the hell out of me. That would be that “opposite line of work” you mentioned – cause I still really wanna do it.

AS: What’s the very last item you spent more than five dollars on?

Easy. sushi. and shoes. My current obsessions.

AS: What was the last movie you went to that had a brief offensive moment that for the sake of not f–king up your high, you decided to let it go. Describe that moment. [[as an example, for us it was Transformers, when Jazz introduced himself doing some sort of ridiculous and unnecessary hippity hop shuffle. terrible...]]

Ummm. so I told you I’m into universe related crap and blah blah. So, I was naively pretty psyched to go see ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’…. in IMAX no less. The whole movie was a “brief offensive moment.” The moment just lasted nearly 2 hours and insulted my intelligence the entire time. I can’t even pick a particular scene cause I erased the details from my memory. It was like THAT.

AS: What was the last cultural event you attended?

I was just in Miami last week for Winter Music Conference. 7 days of bliss, sun, parties, exhibitions, guns, and swamps. You’re probably like… WTF?? Guns & Swamps? Check the pictures: http://thecocofutura.blogspot.com

AS: Recommended reading?

Does it have to be a book?? I am on the internet too much to read a book right now. But if I had to pick one: “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell.

AS: And finally, the “when’s your album droppin’ son” question that we typically try to avoid but, inquiring minds (ours!) wants to know…What can we expect from Coco Black in ’09?

Ummm. I am a sucker for missing deadlines. In 09 i actually will be focusing more on my music… the two projects that are closest to my heart are my music project, and the photo series I mentioned earlier. So we shall see. I always like to give myself ample time cause it is something in short supply. But… this year I got my work cap on in full effect. I don’t want to make a big to do… but I will be out on the street heavy come May/June doing my thing. To quote a great man – my dad (now that’s cute): “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” So I gotta take this time to plot & plan – for myself and my brand. Make some important decisions about how I want to present myself now that I’ve made a 180 degree drop and roll with my life.

I’ll be laying low till the middle of the year though. Partying is not conducive to working. Not in my case anyway. And I really work better in two’s so I will be looking for a special person to collabo full time with.
Boring blah blah.
I’m planning on first conquering NY and then the world. That is the short answer.
Hollerrr at you guys for caring enough to ask me these questions. And waiting an eternity to get them. Ya’ll are the most patient mofo’s I know – I love it!!!
Love.
Coco Black

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Linkage:

Coco Blog // Trace Blog // Twitter // Email