Hip hop exhibition of photos and artwork

To celebrate all things Hip Hop and the 25th anniversary of the release of the definitive Hip Hop film ‘Wild Style’, last year PYMCA created ‘Wildstyles’ an exhibition that featured classic rare photographs hailing back to the old skool days.

Now, the exhibition has moved to Bar Vinyl in Camden Town and this time they're hosting a photography and art competition sponsored by Pentax. The exhibition will run from the 19th May – 16th June 2008. Hip Hop competition showcase will run from the 17th – 22nd June 2008.

Wildstyles is an exhibition that wants to take you to the heart of Hip Hop, showing how this music became a way of life for a generation through the eyes of those who were there. Photographers involved include Normski, Janette Beckman, Eddie Otchere, Ted Polhemus, Naki, Paul Hartnett and more.

PYMCA have collaborated with some of Hip Hop’s grand masters to take you back to the halcyon days of Adidas shell toes and Run DMC. Back in the days, the founding fathers of an emerging scene, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash, could not have imagined the now global reach of the new form of music that they pioneered. Or maybe they could? Hip Hop exploded like a bomb from the projects in the late '70s and early '80s. The combination of scratching, rapping, breakdancing and graffiti have formed a complete subculture, which has taken on the mainstream and won. How? It's just about the most popular music in the world right now.

From the first block parties thrown by Kool Herc in '74 to the ultra swing of modern Hip Hop and R&B, Hip-Hop has gone through many stages of development. Yet people still dismiss it as throwaway! PYMCA is now on the hunt to not just represent great pictures but emerging new talent through a competition. To promote the Wildstyles exhibition, PYMCA is hosting a Hip Hop art competition to capture and define the  movement through imagery, which will be awarded with the very latest PENTAX cameras.

Click here to find out more.