Michael Schmelling's 'Atlanta' Launch



Between 2007 and 2009, Schmelling and his collaborators gained unprecedented access to the underground hip-hop scenes (Gucci Mane, Shawty Lo, The-Dream) bubbling beneath the city’s surface and the lives of the young musicians and fans at its core. In a stunning series of black and white photos, he captures the heretofore-undocumented teen party scene – alcohol-free parties catering to the underage crowd, typically thrown by promoters in office parks after dark.

“There were a thousand YouTube videos of kids dancing in their living rooms, beats and songs were being made on PCs and uploaded to SoundClick or SpitYoGame. Something new was happening. And something new kept happening.”

Sanneh puts things into historical perspective, describing how Atlanta replaced New York City as the hip-hop capital “by default – the place where you could hear the next hit first, the place where kids and grown folks alike still seemed excited about hip-hop, the place where you could get the best mixtapes” and taking readers inside its many subgenres."

Michael Schmelling's last book, The Plan (J&L Books) documented hoarder's apartments around New York. The Week of No Computer was published by TV Books and Schmelling's work is regularly featured on tinyvices.com

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