Zach Wolfe on shooting Outkast, the Atlanta Hawks, and manifesting your dreams

Zach Wolfe moved to Atlanta with hope and a dream — to shoot Outkast and become a hip-hop photographer. 20 years later, he’s made that dream a reality, shooting Andre 3000, Three Six Mafia, Big Boi, 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane and most of the iconic rappers who put Atlanta on the map, past and present. Since then, he’s started shooting NBA players and athletes as well as taken a dive into the film world as a cinematographer. 

You’ve told this story a million times, but can you give us a quick refresher on how you got started with photography or what made you want to start photography, specifically hip-hop in Atlanta. 

So I was living in Denver and going to art school. I grew up in a small town in Iowa where I essentially had to be a hip-hop fan by myself, because there wasn't anybody else. That was from a very early age. At some point, I think maybe in my junior or senior year of high school, I had just given up on — not given up on loving hip hop — but just was like, "Fuck it, I'm going to listen to rock or whatever everyone else is..." You know what I mean?

I moved to Denver and instantly had 30 friends that were turning me on to early '90s hip-hop — the golden era — '91, '92, '93. I'm just like, "Oh my god, my life has fucking changed for the better. And thank God, there are other people that listen to this shit, and that I'm not crazy." 

You were just in the wrong place…

I was in the wrong place, 100 percent. A buddy of mine put on OutKast's first album and I'll never forget it, man. I literally had chills. It was just this feeling like, "What the fuck is this? I have never heard anything like this. I've never felt anything like this.” I was like what, 19 years old? So in my mind, I’m thinking, "Whatever it takes, I'm going to be around this." There was nothing that was going to stop me. So, that's kind of how it happened.

And then there's also the moment of kismet, I guess. You moved to Atlanta, you were behind your apartment building, talking to a young lady, and she was like, "So, what are you doing out here?" And she turned out to be who?

Her name is Sloane. I forget her last name. Sorry, Sloane. But she was Lil Jon's kind of everything — secretary, assistant, whatever. Nothing had really happened for Lil Jon at that point. It was like a tiny house close to Clark Atlanta University where she had a desk at and he had a desk at. She was just doing whatever she had to do for him because she believed in him. She was like, "Yeah, come over and meet Lil Jon." I kind of chuckled. Lil Jon? I'm a New York hip-hop lover, so I'm like, "Lil Jon? Who's Lil Jon?" Again, not understanding what was happening in the South, even though I was into OutKast. There's a whole other layer there. Everyone knows now, but at the time, I did not.

So what happened next?

I went there in this house which, unfortunately is no longer there, but the roof was burned down and it had these big tarps on the roof. So, I'm pulling up to this house and I'm like, these weren't my dreams of shooting Nas or Jay-Z or whatever dreams I had of shooting hip-hop. But still, it's like, "Let me go in and hang out." I don't know how to explain it, but I was touched by the South really quickly. Lil Jon was super organized and knew what he wanted to do. 

Next thing you know, everyone you could think of was coming through that house, T.I., Killer Mike, David Banner...David Banner was living in this Chevy Astro van at the time. He'd drive up from Mississippi and he had white T-shirts on that he wrote ‘Mississippi’ on with a black sharpie. That's how broke he was. That's what my first introduction was. How lucky was I? You know what I mean? To literally get in before the money came, and I flipped my thinking from, "Oh, this isn't what I want” to, "Oh my god, I want to be a part of this. I don't know where it's going. I don't know what I'll get out of it, and I don't care...I want to be a part of whatever this is."

That was like right before Lil Jon blew up too.

Right before. Maybe six months. He had a little bit of attention, but I think the most attention he had at that time was from people who were writing about his album cover, where they were burning a Confederate flag. It was like attention for that, but not for his music. 

There's a picture you took, a very famous picture and I was like, "How did he get access?" It's in the back room at Wax 'N' Facts music shop. Only a few people are allowed to go back there...When I saw the picture, I was like, "That looks very familiar." Then I saw a second picture, I was like, "Hell yeah, that's the backroom."

So I got a call from Esquire Magazine to shoot André 3000. I was like, "Wow!” At that time, he hadn't been shot in years. Literally, my dream is in front of me. I had gotten a few of OutKast back in 2005, but it was a really terrible photo shoot; I just choked, for lack of a better term. It bugged me every day since then. So to get a chance to redeem myself was important.

Anyways, André's manager was talking with Esquire and then to me. Basically, André wanted me to present locations. This went on for two weeks and I was at a loss. I spent a few hours in Little Five Points just scouring every nook and cranny. And I went into Wax 'N' Facts. I was like, "Hey, I've got a shoot with a pretty big artist”, but I didn't want to say who, maybe just to not blow it up, right? I mean it’s André 3000. I asked how much would it be to shut the store down for the day or for a couple hours. They told me they don't shut the store down, but I was totally welcome to shoot there. And I was like, "Yeah, but seriously, what's the number to shut it down for a couple hours?" They're like, "You cannot shut the store down. There is no number." 

Day of the shoot, we're in the parking lot of Junkman's Daughter. André pulls up in his Rover — by himself — and walks right up to me. He goes, "What's up, man? What you want to do?" I'm like, "Oh my god, I can't believe this.” I was just trying to take it all in because he was being so chill and normal. 

So, we go into Wax 'N' Facts, and the old heads that run that shop, their jaws are on the ground. And I'm like, "This is it, man. We still good to shoot in here?" And they said, "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to see our back room?" And I'm like, "Back room? Yes, we want to see the back room." I didn't know there was a back room. No joke, they've got to have 500,000 records back there. It is the biggest hoard of records I've seen in my life. 

We go up the steps and that’s where I got the iconic photo, where he's sitting in a pile of records; the photo of him surrounded by the piano, the keyboard, and all the records, I didn't do anything. I don't even think we talked. I think I just kind of looked over there. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

He just went and sat in that little corner. I'm literally shaking with the camera, because I'm like, "This is everything I've asked for. Everything I've asked for right here. Don't fuck it up, dude.” I think I took 10 photos in that little spot, because I'm literally shaking, because you want something so bad for so long, and it's right there. And then we just vibed. No one is forcing anything, and we were all having a good time.

The hip-hop world and the sports world have always had this marriage, especially with basketball and the NBA. Can you talk a little bit about how you started in sports? And any similarities you see between shooting both?

I started in Colorado working at SKI Magazine as an intern, and then I ended up, like an extended intern. I worked there for about a year and a half. And then I realized I had a chance to chase my dreams by going to LA and then coming to Atlanta. I didn't really do anything with sports until about 2013 when I started to shoot for the Atlanta Hawks. If I could have done that from the minute I moved here, I would have because I’m a huge basketball fan, but I wasn't in. 

I remember the first year I shot the Atlanta Hawks campaign, whoever was the creative director of the Hawks, sat me down before the day of the shoot and took me into a room. I can't remember what the deal was. There was some racial tensions in the Hawks organization because of the general manager, Danny Ferry. This had just happened two or three days before the shoot. So this guy tells me, "Hey, I'm putting this on you to fix it." I swear to God he said that to me. I was like, "Wait, dude." I literally laughed at him like, "You're kidding me, right? What?" He was like, "No, I'm not kidding. I think you can change this for the better."

He asked me, "What would you do?" I was like, "I know what I would do. I'm going to play the music I want to play." And he was like, "Yeah, but we've got kids here and family." I was like, "Tell them to go. Tell them to go and let us vibe out for real. We're working here. Tell the kids and the family to go home. Let me play the music I want to play as loud as I want to play it and let me do what I do,” which is create a vibe. And I'm telling you, that saved the shoot. Ever since that shoot, I really want to find a way to get more into basketball with the camera. That's kind of how that happened.

What was it like being the one white guy being surrounded by all this? When it was happening real time, what was it like?

I get asked that all the time and it's a totally fair question to ask. Being so young and loving hip-hop so much, I think everyone except me thought of that. I'm not going to say it never crossed my mind, but I wanted to be a part of this. No one ever came to me and was like, "This is not your place. You are not welcome here." So, what was it like? It was like it was the best thing ever. And things are different now. There are all kinds of people working in hip-hop now. But yeah, back then, I was the one white guy in many scenarios. But it was nothing but love.

Normally, we like to ask people what their dream job is or what’s something they wish they could have worked on or someone they want to collaborate with. But you pretty much got that moment with André that day and everything that has followed after that. So, what's next for you?

That's a really good question. I don't have a clear answer for you. I'm just trying to move forward creatively and technically at the same time. I just want to be better at whatever I'm doing. In the past, when something really stood out to me, that’s what I wanted and I willed it into existence. I wanted OutKast and André 3000 so bad, that the universe presented it to me because that's where my head was at. Like tunnel vision.

And the truth is, I don't have that right now...I need to find it, but I can't force it. For me, I'm studying color grading for video. I've got a remote control car that my camera goes on. I'm studying different camera techniques. I'm very into learning technical things right now, but I don't have a big pie in the sky goal and I need to. I really do think I have to hone in on a new big goal and that's to be determined.