2019

Our story began on March 6, 2019, when Muhammad joined Dorm Room Entertainment for Episode 007 of our long-form interview series. The footage from our first conversation was lost to corrupted SD cards, forcing us to ask him to return and repeat the entire interview. He could have easily walked away from a young team still learning, but he gave us another chance.

The second time, we got gold.

Afterward, Muhammad and I sat in his car and talked long after the cameras had been packed away. That conversation became the true beginning of our friendship. Only a few weeks later, he called and invited me to photograph one of the final stops of his tour at The Blue Note in Columbia. We caravanned from St. Louis, spent the night surrounded by musicians, and drove home around three in the morning after watching him headline the room.

That first concert quickly led to more opportunities. A photograph made during one of our early sessions unexpectedly became the cover for “Ungrateful,” and soon afterward Muhammad invited me to join the MVCO team as his head photographer. At that stage of my career, the title felt enormous—but the trust behind it meant even more.

Throughout the rest of the year, we documented a Tiny Desk submission at RGG EDU, a performance at UMSL, an orchestral interpretation of Muhammad’s music at The Sheldon, lifestyle imagery for his merchandise, portraits, performances, classroom visits, and smaller experimental sessions created simply to keep learning from one another.

Looking back, 2019 established the rhythm that would define everything that followed. We were not trying to create a lifelong archive. We were simply answering the next call, following the next idea, and continuing to show up.