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Salad Days Magazine | May 8, 2024

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‘A Wah Do Dem’ – Boogie

‘A Wah Do Dem’ – Boogie
Salad Days

Known as one of the most influential photographers of street culture in the new millennium, Boogie emerges once again to spark our curiosity and narrate authentic stories in his own raw style.

‘A Wah Do Dem’, Boogie’s sixth monograph, and his first one in color, takes us far away from the familiarity of the West, and throws us into the noisy and cryptic underbelly of Kingston, Jamaica. Through his pictures, Boogie illustrates both the madness and humanity of a complex place, where poverty, violence and crime are often dominant elements of daily life. He relies on his instincts to gain the trust of people who live on the edge of society, and to photograph their world in an honest and objective way. “I was waiting in a back alley, all the way down the lane, in one of the sketchiest neighborhoods in Kingston. It was pitch dark, and it felt like I had been waiting forever. At some point, a guy wearing a creepy horror movie mask and carrying an M-16 appeared from the dark,” Boogie writes in his introductory text, “Even though I was brought there by a friend of a friend, I was really nervous, you never know when things might turn ugly. After a brief introduction, I started taking pictures of the guy, roll after roll, I couldn’t stop. It was the last night of my first trip to Kingston, Jamaica, and at that moment I knew I had to come back again very soon.”

Born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, Boogie began photographing rebellion and unrest during the civil war that ravaged his country during the 1990s. Growing up in a war-torn country defined Boogie’s style and attraction to the darker side of human existence. He moved to New York City in 1998. He has published five monographs, ‘IT’S ALL GOOD’ (PowerHouse Books, 2006), ‘BOOGIE’ (PowerHouse Books, 2007), ‘SAO PAULO’ (Upper Playground, 2008), ‘ISTANBUL’ (Upper Playground, 2008) and ‘BELGRADE BELONGS TO ME’ (PowerHouse Books, 2009) and ‘A WAH DO DEM’ (Drago, 2015). He has shot for high profiled clients and has been published in world renowned publications. His recent solo exhibitions include Paris, New York, Tokyo, Milan, Istanbul and Los Angeles. Boogie lives in Brooklyn and all over the world.

https://www.dragolab.com

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