13/09/2026
Before she photographed hip-hop history, Lisa Leone was living it. 📸
Growing up as a B-girl in the Bronx, she danced and MC’d in her neighbourhood, immersed in hip-hop before it became a global phenomenon.
While studying photography in high school, Leone began taking publicity shots of friends who were appearing in films like Flashdance and Style Wars. From there, she found herself documenting some of the most iconic names and moments in hip-hop.
Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean jamming on a Harlem rooftop. Grandmaster Flash in Rock Steady Park. Snoop Dogg on the set of “Who Am I (What’s My Name?)”.
As Leone once recalled: “You’d be hanging out and you’d get a phone call, like ‘come down, we’re shooting “Big Poppa” over at Nell’s’… I live down the block so I would just walk over.”
Not looking in from the outside, but capturing the culture she came from. 🖤