New York-based self-taught photographer Ari Marcopoulos is showcasing new work as part of an exhibition titled Into the Now. The footage has been created on the Super-8 film and will be exhibited alongside 14 vintage prints of Spike Lee, Chuck D, and other hip hop artists.

Into the Now will be hosted by Paris’ Galerie Frank Elbaz where one of the highlights will be a digitized 7’21’ Super-8 film titled Brown Bag named after a brown paper bag filled with exposed Super-8 film cassettes that the artist found in his studio. “I sent the film out to be developed and digitized. When the material returned it turned out to be mostly skate footage from the mid-’90s in New York. The film had sat in that bag for almost 25 years, a true time capsule. I sat down with the footage and edited this film.”

“I have been thinking a lot about living in America during a global pandemic that has simultaneously exposed failure of the health system as well as exposing the blatant racism and white supremacist brutality the US suffers from. These are questions I have long grappled with as an ‘outsider,'” said the artist, speaking about his work that shows connection to the current COVID-19 lockdown and the social and political unrest.

One of the more recent works to go on display is a “recto/verso” edition that documents the artist’s experiences in the past year, featuring the doctor who administered Marcopoulos’ COVID-19 test, his sons and stepdaughter and spotlights of numerous hip hop artists.

See an excerpt from Brown Bag below and visit Galerie Frank Elbaz’s website for more details. “Into The Now” will be on view from September 5 to October 10.