Mix

How an ethereal shoot like Dazed Maxx’s NY cover story comes to life

Much of Richie Talboy’s work has an otherworldly quality to it – blurring the lines between what’s real and fantasy. For the second of three covers of Dazed Maxx, the first-ever US edition of Dazed, the photographer brought his signature surrealist style to capture sports subcultures in New York. The shoot took place against a perfectly cloudy screensaver-style scene, with birds flying in the background and Olympic breakdancer Sunny Choi towering over lush green hills, balancing on one hand. She was joined by Maggie Chen and other members of New York’s Tai Chi Youth Group, with knees bent and ready for battle. 

For the first-ever issue of Dazed Maxx, in partnership with Nike, Dazed invited three athletes at the top of their fields to join us as cultural editors: Choi; Bijan Robinson, running back for the Atlanta Falcons; and Tobey McIntosh, the mastermind behind Crenshaw Skate Club. Inside the special issue, the athletes-turned-cultural editors guide us through the sports scenes in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, crafting experiments that explore the future of sport through Nike’s new AirImagination platform. Alongside Talboy, stylist Ron Hartleben, makeup artist Michaela Bosch, hair stylist Ledora Francis and set designer Lauren Bahr all worked together to bring New York’s breakdancing-meets-tai-chi cover story to life. 

Ahead, Talboy talks about creating his own ‘fantasy meadow’ on set, watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Stomp the Yard as shoot prep and capturing the conversation between breakdancing and tai chi for Dazed Maxx New York’s cover story.

Tell me about how you got into photography! Have you always taken pictures? 

Talboy: Since I was 7 years old. I used to make movies until I realised photos were much faster ways of telling stories. This happened around the time I discovered the work of Miles Aldridge and how he could condense an entire film into an image. Every once in a while, I’ll email him. He never responds, but I’ll always love him anyway. His influence still motivates me to this day to create narratives in cinematic worlds.

Dazed Maxx is all about sports subculture clashes and community. How did you want to bring this all together for this cover shoot?

Talboy: I loved the idea the team at Dazed had with the fusion or conversation between breakdancing and tai chi. My only experience with either sport is seeing them in the parks of New York, so creating this kind of fantasy meadow in the images – within a studio – felt like creating my own fantasy space for these two to coexist.

Talk me through how the cover image came to life!

Talboy: I was asked to shoot this about a week before the shoot date, so I scrambled together a few sketches. Between drawing, I watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, one of my all-time favourite movies, back to back with Stomp the Yard, which is where I got the idea of Sunny being on the phone as she’s break dancing. This idea came to me the night before. I posted on Instagram asking if anyone had a flip phone; luckily, one of them had a giant collection of them.

Looking back on that shoot day, what was your favourite part?

Talboy: I was constantly surprised at the skills people had. One of the kids could jump incredibly high, and he kept jumping out of my frame. I had to keep asking him to jump lower to the ground. His legs were like springs. Also, Sunny spending most of the day inverted on one hand was insanely impressive. I mean, god, everyone was so sweet and talented. You have no idea how rare it is to meet people as cool, iconic and talented and gorgeous as myself, so I was very happy that day.

What does it mean to you to represent New York?

Talboy: I feel really cool when I go home for Christmas and my aunties and cousins say my life must be so exciting there.

  • For more: Elrisala website and for social networking, you can follow us on Facebook
  • Source of information and images “dazeddigital”

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button

Discover more from Elrisala

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading