Richmond photographer Archives

For Isaiah Carter, aka Arcani, taking photos and making videos for hip hop artists is more than just a gig — it’s the foundation for an all-encompassing multimedia brand.

When Isaiah Carter and his mom moved to the suburbs of Richmond during his middle school years, he was initially opposed to the idea of relocating. Born and raised in the city of Yonkers, NY, Carter was not used to living in an area with no buses, no sidewalks, and no ambulances passing by every few hours.

Today, the 26-year-old photographer, videographer, and music video producer known as Arcani travels between New York City and Richmond regularly to collaborate with artists. After having moved deeper into the city as an adult, Carter has more of an appreciation for Richmond than he did at first.

“VCU itself is a big art community,” said Carter. “Richmond has its own tastes when it comes to fashion and art, just like I feel like New York does.”

Carter started with photography around 2011, and was inspired by Richmond and its hippie/hipster culture.

“When I first got out here, everybody was into full-body tattoos, and I’m seeing everyone drinking local beers,” said Carter. “It felt real vintage, from artwork to people, the way they dressed and what they were doing. So for photos I was just trying to recreate a nostalgia feeling. I would add a lot of grain, I even tried film to try to get that older feeling and to fit the area a little more.”

Carter is a fan of video games, movies and anime, and has always been influenced by the mediums as a video creator, particularly those in which the characters travel to another dimension. This influence is clearly reflected in his long-running video series, Minute Made, which features rappers and artists performing in otherworldly dreamscapes.

“I knew if I had a green screen, I could put people where I want them to be, and create these universes,” said Carter.

The first installment of Minute Made featured Carter’s friend Fly Anakin, whom he recorded in front of a green screen set up in his living room. After releasing the video, Carter invited a few more rappers and eventually began charging money because he was getting so many submissions from people who wanted to be featured.

“After the first episode, I received more DMs than I’ve ever received on instagram,” said Carter. “And I made the universe more to fit whatever vibe they were trying to fit into, and I just started going crazy with the animation, the effects and the editing, and from there it just got bigger and bigger and now I think I’m on the 60th episode.”

Part of the motivation for creating Minute Made was to make Arcani a platform where artists could promote themselves, not just someone you could hire to make videos. Another series he created with a similar purpose is Organiq, which puts artists on a rooftop or street corner somewhere in Richmond and has them rap with no music or backing track.

“If you like the artist in an Organiq episode, I feel like nine times out of ten you’ll just like the artist, because there’s nothing extra,” said Carter. “You don’t have video effects to sway your opinion or audio effects to be like ‘Oh, this sounds pretty good.’ It’s just them talking into a camera.”

Carter first heard the name Arcani from his grandmother, and before he decided to adopt it as his moniker, he looked it up online. When he found out it means “meant to succeed,” he knew he’d found his brand. He plans on hiring a video team and creating more shows to go along with Minute Made and Organiq, as well as build Arcani up to a well-known multimedia brand.

“I don’t want people to just go to me to shoot a video because I’m a videographer,” Carter said. “I want people to go to Arcani, the company, because of the look that you can only get from me.”

Photos via Arcani

Local advertising photographer Kip Dawkins did not intend to take his craft, which has long been a professional endeavor, to expressive visual artistry.

He did not expect photographs of the rustic scenery of America’s back roads taken while traveling for his professional photography would revitalize an appreciation in photography as an expressive art. And he certainly did not anticipate an exhibition at Quirk Gallery when showing these photographs from his travels to gallery director, Katie Ukrop. However, his exhibit, “Vacant” is now up at the Quirk Gallery.

Dawkins first got into photography as a means to carve a participatory place into the music scene. Having a passion for music, photography allowed Dawkins a place in the music scene despite not playing an instrument. In time, this led him to a career in advertising photography. However, being a photographer for 20 years, the creative appreciation began to dissipate.

“I enjoy doing it but it kind of sucks the soul out of it,” said Dawkins. “I got my start photographing punk rock bands and that’s what I love more than anything because music is everything to me.”

Kip Dawkins does plenty of traveling all around the United States and sometimes internationally for his work and has worked with everyone from Better Home and Gardens, Bloomingdales, Destination Hotels, Stolichnaya Vodka, GMC, and Morey’s Piers & Beachfront Water Parks.

To break from the insipid scenery of the highway, Dawkins will often take alternate routes off the highway, which is where his inspiration strikes. .

“If you’re not on 95 going 75mph you just see a lot of different stuff you don’t normally see,” he said.

On the back roads of America, Dawkins began stopping wherever an opportunity for a good shot seemed to be – often abandoned or bucolic scenery.

“I’ve always been drawn to things that are forgotten or lost or you know, just old Americana or whatever it may be,” he said. “It really got started at this abandoned mid-century hotel in Georgia that my dog and I found in the middle of nowhere.”

Once Dawkins inadvertently started the project, he began seeking out places to shoot. “I started using Google maps to find abandoned things and you can always see the swimming pools,” she said. As you may imagine, an empty pool full of algae sticks out.

There are lots of variables on which the value of a shot is dependent on. Dawkins keeps a keen sense of his surroundings while on the road because sometimes, it’s the perspective that makes the shot.

“There was one in South Carolina,” said Dawkins. “There were all these bones hanging in this guy’s driveway. I just happened to drive by there when it was rainy, creepy, dark, cold, and there are cow bones and Halloween decorations hanging up and I just happened to be there at the right time, because years later I drove by in daylight and it doesn’t have the same impact.”

One important lesson Dawkins takes from having an eye for the photogenic is to always have a camera on him. “A long time ago I missed this one shot of a children’s bike chained up to a topless bar in Austin, Texas. Looking back I’m like ‘what an amazing shot that would have been, it was a pink kid’s bike.’ So you always have to have it.”

Through his creative photography, Dawkins’ appreciation for photography in all forms was revitalized. “It wasn’t my intention, I’ve never thought of myself as a true artist. I’m kind of a technician,” said Dawkins.

“I totally fell in love with what I do again too, I started looking at how light was reacting when I was doing different shots. My work went to another level because I think I started to care more about it and I started to understand visual queues more than I used to.”

“Vacant” will be up at the Quirk Gallery until April 9th.

Images via Kip Dawkins Photography

Arcani: Building A Unique Look

The Road Less Traveled: RVA photog Kip Dawkins discusses his exhibit ‘Vacant’ at Quirk Gallery