Timing is one of the key secrets to success, especially in the world of photography. Having adopted this notion as his guiding principle, Chi Modu has become a master at capturing some of the most striking, original and magically serendipitous images in hip-hop and other genres. Through his lens, Modu enables time travel with the click of a button, documenting some of the most memorable eras in music history. A graduate of Rutger's and New York's International Center of Photography, Modu began working in 1990 at The Source, the definitive magazine on hip-hop culture. At that time, the music artists were still just scraping by in a genre that had yet to gain mass appeal. According to Modu, "I remember riding around LA in Puffy's VW Rabbit, and it had holes in the roof." As Director of Photography for The Source, Modu attacked each assignment with his characteristic zeal and before long was in on the ground floor of hip-hop, developing relationships with the artists, when few others were paying attention, and gaining photographic access only dreamt of today. Modu was a businessman as well as an artist, shrugging off large payouts for his images in lieu of copyright ownership, banking on the notion that hip hop would grow and the value of his images would grow right along with it. During his seven-year stint with the magazine, Modu's work appeared on over 30 of the its best-selling covers, which included images of notable hip-hop figures such as L-L Cool J, Mary J. Blige, Tupac Shakur, and Notorious B.I.G. Modu's work with The Source was just a first glimpse of the photographer's talent, which record companies began to cash in on by 1993. His photos have appeared on albums including Snoop Dogg's multi-platinum selling debut Doggy Style, Method Man's Tical and most recently, Tupac's platinum-selling posthumous release Better Dayz. In total, over 10 million albums sold have been blessed with Modu's images. As the respected photography trade publication Photo District News stated in 1998, "Chi Modu Knows Hip-Hop". Modu's timeless, unique photographs have summoned calls from publications such as XXL, People, Newsweek, Time, The London Times, The Guardian and Vibe magazine, in all of which his work has appeared. The high demand for his images has also extended to television and film. His photos are constantly requested by producers for music documentaries such as MTV's Diary along with VH1's Behind the Music and Driven series. Since staging a display of his work in the 1994 retrospective All About Color, Modu's photographs have also been featured in exhibitions such as the Roots, Rhyme and Rhythm hip-hop exhibition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. In 1998 Modu acted on something he had been observing for a while - the world around him had become increasingly diverse, yet the world of stock photography was lagging woefully behind. In an effort to fill this void, Modu launched his own stock photography company, Diverse Images. The comprehensive library focusing on subjects of color consists of over 200,000 images spanning figures in entertainment, sports, and music, in addition to a number of documentary and lifestyle images. "Not just African Americans," Modu explains, "but Asian people, Latin people, and other groups that are underserved photographically." Once again, Chi Modu is ahead of the curve, thanks to his uncanny sense of timing.

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	© Chi Modu 2004-2008