Once in awhile an artist finds their calling quite by accident. Carlo Cruz has such a story. As a photographer, Carlo works by day in the fields of architecture but by night, Carlo photographs bboys.
For Carlo, the world of breaking is a sub-culture of passion, spontaneity and discipline where authenticity is vital. He often recounts stories from bboys trying to make this profession a viable source of living that only a few manage to succeed. Nevertheless, the tireless tales of effort driven by one cohesive passion somehow makes it all worthwhile.
Capturing bboys and bgirls in action is an art form of its own. The moves must be captured at the moment or at a quick freeze. Besides catching the moves as they happen, bboys are also very sensitive to the authenticity of the moment. The only way to capture a real bboy in action is to allow for spontaneity and a photographer must thrive in these moments. He believes that the essence of his “break” series is that they were captured leaving a stamp to each of his subject whether it was done in a fleeting moment or a signature freeze.
Carlo also uses Photoshop to help achieve his dramatic effects. Utilizing toning techniques, Carlo presents images that push the limits of reality and often blur into surreal animation-like scenes. The end results to an image reality that is catered to not only bboys but to all photography and art lovers as well, a result he hopes that help bridge the gap between this sub-culture and to an accepted art form – one image at a time. He admittedly use photoshop but only to enhance the image that was taken but not as far as to make composites.
Armed with a Canon SLR for the vast majority of his work, his lens of choices are Canon 16-35 F2.8, Canon 70-200 MKII plus a 50 F1.2 for those shots in which he wants to achieve a shallow depth of field. A few strobes, pocket wizards, a light stand, gels, masking tape and plenty of batteries are some of the other “must-haves” he brings with him to every shoot.
Cruz has shot b-boys in various locations: throughout California, Atlanta, Detroit, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, Colorado, Vegas and Dubai to name a few. In every case, he was amazed how people from all walks of life, creeds, religions, and races could come together for the love of dancing and in some ways sees it as an expression of life and freedom.
You can see the work of Carlo Cruz on his website http://www.carlocruz.net. He is based out of Long Beach, California where he is a freelance photographer and still actively working on his “BREAK” series. He has now accumulated over a hundred photos of Bboys/ bgirls and is still growing every day.