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Day two. Forums on New Media and Film & Photography. Speakers who have curated and created and documented, and made the pilgrimage across our cultural landscape in search of the good stuff. It was a day that left us with pearls of wisdom like “The internet, like radio, is a place where ugly people can be successful” and “Shame: It’s a brand name”. And we all got to flip the bird to Four Pins editor-in-chief Lawrence Schlossman (at his request). It was a good day.

Photography by Andrew Johnson.

Check out our CARBON day one recap here.

New Media, presented by acclaimmag.com

Fresh out the door from the CARBON New Media forum I am feeling inspired, buoyant even; keen to work, even keener to fail. Hard work and failure were two of the key themes in the CARBON forums so far, and the line-up of ACCLAIM’s Andrew Montell, Booooooom’s Jeff Hamada, Fuck Yeah Menswear and Four Pins’s Lawrence Schlossman and NY restaurateur and storyteller Eddie Huang didn’t deviate. Man, I don’t even know where to start. Content warning: I am in rave mode, it was that good.

First up, our very own Andrew Montell, founder of ACCLAIM magazine. Andrew used his story of survival and adaptation (started from a one-page black-and-white zine now he here) to show us that we need to hustle, however we may define it. He’s proof that constant progression and a belief that “work is worship” can overcome anything. Even though I work for Andrew, I couldn’t believe some of the things he’d picked himself up and dusted himself off from. But in his words, “Despite the doubts I kept going, and thank God I did.” I couldn’t stop tapping notes during this one; there were so many practical lessons in it. A few key tips for burgeoning media moguls: surround yourself with good people, learn to sell yourself to agency big wigs, and always, always make sure you’re proud of what you put out there.

Second was the charming Jeff Hamada, founder of Booooooom.com. I loved Jeff and his message of courage in the face of failure and embarrassment. One of the things that really hit home with me especially was this question that he asks himself: “What am I doing that a good looking robot couldn’t do better than me?” Indeed – what makes us human is that we are original and unique – and Jeff made the point that if he just wanted to have a profitable blog he could create an algorithm which collated and re-blogged all the top rating art content from the internet each day. But he doesn’t. Because he’s a human, and he’s original, and he’s creative. And his success is founded on it.

Lawrence Schlossman made me sit up in my seat, and not only because he introduced himself as the least impressive speaker at CARBON and asked the crowd to collectively flip him off in a photo to send to his mum. He’s a self-aware, honest guy with a strong voice, and it sounded to me like writing saved his life. Lawrence wanted to blast the myth of what he called the #influencer, i.e. professional cool guys. To Lawrence, the real cool guys don’t set out to be #influencers, in fact it’s a sure fire way to fail. Start with a passion, explore it as a hobby (blogging, says Lawrence, is the hobby of ‘sharing and being an undiagnosed narcissist’), and then if people like it go professional. A highlight was Lawrence’s trailer to his book Fuck Yeah Menswear: Bespoke Knowledge for the Crispy Gentleman (his self-described greatest achievement so far) posing denim heads like drug addicts.

Finally, Eddie Huang. When Eddie stepped out and spoke today, I got an education. He entered to KRS 1’s 9mm Goes Bang, wearing big-tongued kicks and a tri-color Olympic windbreaker. Huang is a dark horse. Wise. Bucking with passion, blinkers focused on what he wants to achieve, not just for himself but for minorities, underdogs, the unheard, and society as a whole. Eddie’s talk was about not letting anyone shame you, and he used various historical examples to show how you can “own your shame,” using it to find your voice and “run shit.” Lessons in this included ODB using his own food stamp card as an album cover, and Mayer Rothschild turning his enforced role as a moneylender in to an international banking system that lasts to this day.

Eddie’s really pissed off with how the finance industry is messing with the economy, molding it like putty with what he calls cheap money. “Humanity is just constantly shooting itself in the dick every single week,” he says. Don’t borrow money if you can avoid it, and make a difference through getting involved not only with the online aspect of what interests us, but also with a brick and mortar store. Support the scene, and don’t support corporations with opposite ideologies.

Despite Eddie thinking his talk was “much more sobering and much less entertaining than what people might have expected,” I thought it couldn’t have been better. Like each of the speakers before him, he spoke with a conviction for a cause and passion that we can all aspire to. I wish I never had to get off the CARBON train.

Jessy Edwards

Film & Photography: Presented by Burton Snowboards

The old saying about leaving the best ‘til last was certainly the case for this year’s addition of CARBON, with the final forum of the festival on the theme of Film & Photography. The last 40 years of the global street art and graffiti phenomenon has seen a number of documentarians preserving the work of thousands of hard-working underground artists, and this forum’s speakers are amongst the original and the best. Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant need no introduction, uniting their expertise, passion and knowledge in the production of (what some call) the Graffiti Bible in Subway Art and the monumental hip-hop documentary ‘Style Wars’ (on its 30th Anniversary). It’s easy to see why the room was filled to capacity. The final addition to this forum was London photographer Will Robson-Scott, who has already produced an impressive body of work, which includes being the chief photographer for art agency TopSafe, who most famously produced the Crack & Shine book series.

The presentations began with Will Robson-Scott, who opened his portfolio while discussing the process and stories behind the images. The skateboarder turned self-trained photographer confessed that he is definitely a city boy, feeling there’s a lot still be shown in our global metropolitan communities. From drug dealers, king-pins, graffiti writers, jailed friends and even Robin Hood type characters, it was clear to see why he has kept his subject matter to people, as the stories behind the images helped paint a picture for struggle and the hustle a lot of people go through to live in this day and age.

Martha Cooper followed in her ultra fresh black and white Adidas tracksuit matched with a big wide smile. While her influence and appeal in the global street art and graffiti community is astronomical, she opened proceedings with an insight into her career leading up to books such as The Hip-Hop Files and Subway Art. Being the photographer with the most formal training on stage, Martha talked about how she spent a good section of her early career shooting for publications such as The New York Post. She spoke about how the newspaper sent her to locations like Japan to document the art of tattooing in the 1970s, a story that was ultimately rejected but reborn some 30 years later. Coming from a publishing background, she discussed a number of rejected works and stories. She proclaimed that failure doesn’t give you reason to give up and that you should never let a good story go away, and instead hide it away until it’s ready to be shown at a later date. Declaring herself done with shooting on film, she enthusiastically discussed her support for Instagram, particularly her own account.

Martha’s most famous co-conspirator, Henry Chalfant, took the stage next to close the already massive weekend of CARBON’s speakers. And the artist-turned-documentarian did not disappoint. Revealing a number of seen and unseen photos from his time as a one of the first people to document hip-hop culture in New York, a number of stories were also revealed about that period. Whether it was his neighbours complaining about having graffiti outside of his studio, the risks (both physically and legally) he took in getting some of those iconic images and his first meetings with Martha, it was an interesting ride through a time that a lot of people (inside and outside of the culture) romanticise. It was very clear that New York has changed a lot between then and now, with some of the photographs giving the audience a clear reason why the city is as successful as it is today. Together, Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant gave fans a look inside the lives of those who made something out of nothing in the streets of 1980s New York – whether it be kids at play, the beginnings of hip-hop culture or a couple of photographers who were at the right place at the right time.

Overall, the final forum did not disappoint. It was an interesting mixture of new and old photographers who share the same passion as one another. As CARBON closed its 2013 installment, you have to wonder what each entrant took away from the many lectures presented over the last two days. This final forum in film and photography covered a lot of ground: longevity, skills, DIY, failure, hustling and self-belief were discussed by each speaker, which was a comprehensive reminder of what it takes to make it in the creative industries.

Matt Handby