https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo ... _brand=tny


Conzo first began taking pictures as a pretense. It was his way of communicating with people, moving between different South Bronx cliques, from local basketball stars to the pretty girls he may have been too intimidated to approach otherwise.

At the time, something new was taking root in the neighborhood: young d.j.s were combing old records for new rhythms, others were rapping over these so-called break beats, dancers were contorting their limbs in radical new ways.

Black and brown kids were representing, but there were few camera crews or journalists around to record it. So Conzo began documenting everything he saw. His photos from that time, which are collected in the volume “Born in the Bronx,” provide some of the most intimate glimpses we have of what would become known as hip-hop.