Born in 1957 in Amsterdam, Ari Marcopoulos moved to New York in 1980. The Big Apple highly influenced his work as a photographer and director. He started his career as an assistant to Andy Warhol, photographed Jean-Michel Basquiat on numerous occasions, and worked alongside Irving Penn. These early influences can be felt in his later work: intimate and sensitive portraits of skateboard culture and the music underground.
Marcopoulous also frequently collaborated with the world of music: he photographed the Beastie Boys and produced the artwork for Jay Z’s album Magna Carta. His work is part of highly renowned permanent collections in institutions like the Whitney Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Art.
