Rough Around The Edges: Jonathan Mannion's Polaroid Exhibit

You might not know who photographer Jonathan Mannion is, but if you've been a fan of hip hop in the last 18 years, I can almost guarantee that you've seen his work, because he has shot just about everybody in hip hop from Jay-Z to 50 Cent to Rick Ross and pretty much anybody you can think of. He's also provided us with many of the album covers we've seen on the shelves, most notably Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt. If you remember DMX's Flesh of Flesh, Blood of My Blood, he provided the photo for the album cover, as well as Eminem's The Eminem Show and Ludacris's Back For The First Time. In total, Jonathan has a total of 19 album covers under his belt and has taken countless portraits of hip hop artists.

In his new exhibit at Milk Gallery, he displays portraits that he has taken over the years. What makes this exhibit cool is that all of the photos on display were taken with 665 Polaroid film on a 195 Land Camera, essentially meaning that he would take the photo, instantly get a Polaroid copy, and he could save the negative to use in the future. Rough Around The Edges: The 665 Polaroid Work of Jonathan Mannion opens June 18 through July 7th. I wish I were able to check out the gallery, and I suggest if you're able to to go ahead and do so. If you aren't able to see the exhibit, you can see some of the images below and read more about exhibit here.

Photos by Jonathan Mannion