by Gucci Mane
First published 2020
Vincent Desailly arrives in Atlanta with his camera, drawn to the world behind trap music's ominous beats and gritty verses. The French photographer moves through the city's streets, capturing the reality that feeds the American South's distinctive hip-hop sound. He photographs dealers in their territory, musicians between sessions, and residents navigating daily life in neighborhoods where music and survival intersect. His lens finds guns and crime scenes alongside moments of ordinary existence. Desailly seeks the atmosphere that creates trap music, where "trap" means both the snare of circumstance and the places where deals go down. Each image reveals the tension between beauty and danger that pulses through Atlanta's streets. The photographer's elegant eye transforms raw urban scenes into art, showing how music emerges from the collision of hope and hardship in a city that birthed a genre.
Genres: art, african-american, contemporary, 21st-century, photography, urban
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: documentary, social-commentary
Setting: Atlanta
Period: 21st-century
128 pages · Hardcover · Hatje Cantz
Content warnings: graphic-violence