The title of this book, I Give You Power, is a play on one of rapper Nas’s classic hip hop songs that had a big impact on hip hop culture. The similarity in the title is intentional because the song was one of the inspirations behind this project. Released in 1996, Nas’s “I Gave You Power” is an allegorical narrative about urban street life told from the perspective of a gun.

A shy person by nature, I chose the title I Give You Power also because the camera was my passport into places where I previously would not have ventured.

It gave me the confidence to communicate with people who would not normally start a conversation with me, people who became my subjects and literally gave me carte blanche to photograph their lives. My camera made people see me as someone they can trust, I suppose because artists are often viewed as liberal thinking people who embrace social justice issues and who are supportive of the marginalized.

Photographers like Jim Goldberg, Larry Clark, Diane Arbus, Arlene Gottfried, and Nan Goldin are all part of that tradition and inspired me when I started doing photography.

I Give You Power is the first installment of an urban trilogy. The other two planned volumes will be very different from the works in this book, but they will continue the theme of urban street life.

Rulx Thork

A LIMITED EDITION OF 700 copies. Printed and bound in Hokkaido Japan.

Published by Little Bigman Books