User:Sailjubilant/Musician Photographer Michael Benabib

Michael Benabib is an American photographer. While studying art history and photography at Skidmore College, Benabib began working as a freelance assistant in New York City in the summer of 1984. During that time, he also began his career as a magazine photographer, which has included an extensive body of work for various national magazines including Time, Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine. As a staff photographer for Tiger Beat and Right On! magazines, he won numerous Photographers awards, most notably for his Hip hop music photos from the early days of the genre. As a regular contributor to Vibe and Rolling Stone magazines, Benabib made his transition from photographic coverage of celebrity-driven events to the worlds of Business and politics, including photos for many major companies in finance and industry. Seeking a more personal experience with his subjects, he used this experience to launch his current career as a celebrity and corporate portrait photographer

Since 1992, Benabib has been regularly shooting magazine shoots for Time, Inc, Vibe, ESPN, People and others. His celebrity portrait subjects have included Bill Clinton, P Diddy, Usher, Mary j. Blige, Michael Crieiton, Queen Latiifa, Iggy Pop,Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Keith Richard and many other notables. Benabib's work has gained attention for its intimate quality and ability to capture the emotion as well as the appearance of his subjects.

Benabib's show at Eyejammie Fine arts in 2003, is comprised of some 60 images of the greatest hiphoppers at large between 1987 and the present, including Snoop Dogg, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Cypress Hill, Luther Campbell, Trina, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, LL Cool J, EPMD, KRS-One, Salt'N'Pepa, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Das EFX, and Grandmaster Flash.In addition Billboard Books and Watson-Guptill Published a book IN YA GRILL Imagine hanging with the stars of hip-hop—in 1987, when hip-hop was on the verge of changing the world. Since those early days and right up to the present, photographer Michael Benabib has always been on the list, and his intimate pictures reveal how hip-hop started as a grassroots musical movement and evolved into the most influential image machine in the world. Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Luther Campbell, Trina, Public Enemy, LL Cool. J, Eric B and Rakim, EPMD, KRS-One, Salt ‘N Pepa, Sean Combs, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Das EFX, Grandmaster Flash, and many others are here—performing, recording, relaxing and playing at clubs, parties, and on the streets. Captions by distinguished writer Bill Adler tell the story in words, exploring hip-hop’s dynamic melding of fashion, consumerism, and excess. With its never-before-seen photos and insightful text, In Ya Grill depicts and defines the music that has changed the American cultural landscape forever.