Polo Silk learned to take photographs as a teenager at the Boys Club on the West Bank. In 1987, he first brought his Polaroid camera to take pictures of his fellow partygoers at Club Adidas, a teen hangout in Marrero that later moved to Canal Street and Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans. By the early 1990s, Polo and his camera were a fixture at uptown clubs like Big Man’s. Known as the Picture Man, Polo brought the photo studio to the nightclub, complete with hand-painted backdrops by his cousin Otis Spears. The colorful backdrops were designed to capture the latest trends: clothing labels, shoe styles, sports teams, and, of course, the hottest songs being introduced in the clubs. Clubgoers posed in front of the backdrops alone or with friends while Polo captured their sartorial performances and memorable nights out. He then sold these Polaroid portraits to club patrons.

HNOC recently acquired 13 Polo Silk photographs of Cash Money Records artists. These images highlight Polo’s talents behind the lens and include a range of portraits, action shots, documentation, and street photography. They depict important figures in the development of New Orleans hip-hop and bounce who influenced the genre at a national level, including Terius “Juvenile” Gray, Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter, Christopher “B. G.” Dorsey, and Byron “Mannie Fresh” Thomas. The photos also show the spaces in which these music scenes evolved, such as Club Whispers and Odyssey Records. Two of the photos selected for acquisition feature Spears’s backdrops, including a self-portrait of Polo posing with Juvenile.

Now established as a prominent artist, Polo Silk has held five solo exhibitions and has participated in group exhibitions in New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Miami Beach. His photography was featured in the book Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap (2021), and he has collaborated with Reebok on a footwear collection. His body of work serves as a unique archive of Black portraiture, neighborhood establishments, and creative expression in late 20th-century and early 21st-century New Orleans.