Atlanta in the Frame

Ren Leo works out of Atlanta, and his photo archive reads like a map of the city's music economy. Jeezy appears in one frame, the Def Jam artist whose 2005 album Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 is routinely named among the records that built modern trap. Lil Jon appears in another, the Grammy-winning producer who carried crunk from Atlanta clubs to global radio through "Get Low" and Usher's "Yeah!".

The archive keeps widening from there. Killer Mike, a four-time Grammy winner and half of Run the Jewels. Bone Crusher, whose So So Def anthem "Never Scared" defined a season of the city's sound. Yung Joc, whose "It's Goin' Down" went platinum through Bad Boy South.

These photographs document proximity and presence over years of working rooms: studios, offices, stages. The credits described here belong to the artists pictured. What the archive shows about Ren Leo is simpler and still meaningful — that he has been in the room while this history was being made.