To The 5 Boros

Photo by Sue Kwon

New-York-based photographer Sue Kwon is known for her portraits of an incredible collection of hip-hop’s most illustrious names, from the Notorious B.I.G. to the Beastie Boys and the Wu-Tang Clan, and this November Testify Books is releasing 20 years’ worth of her work in a beautiful hardcover book entitled Street Level. The book is cleverly segmented into chapters corresponding with geographical sections of the city, including the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy and Times Square, and the breadth of the imagery in the book goes far beyond the expected collection of recognizable portraiture of pop-culture’s elite — it includes countless photographs of everyday pre-Giuliani New York, warts and all.

Photo by Sue Kwon

Kwon’s work is reminiscent of another celebrated icon of street photography, Helen Levitt, eschewing grandeur for brevity, with every shot compounding the wonderful love that Kwon has for her home city. Leafing through the book, one feels the same sense of wonderment as when going through a photo album of your very extended, dysfunctional family, where impromptu bikini contests at the local BBQ picnic spot are de rigeur. The honesty and unrelenting beauty of each image, as well as the cultural insight and relevance across localized geographies and cultures, transforms this book from “just another photo book of New York” into a great cultural document that serves as a true snapshot into the ephemeral nature of New York city’s many histories.