It’s apt that in a year of so much turmoil, angst and chaotic worry that we end 2020 on a street corner in the Bronx, NYC. The year took an interesting turn for Radio Juxtapoz in NYC this past March, as suddenly the pandemic gripped the city while co-hosts Doug Gillen and Evan Pricco were producing podcasts for Armory Week. For what NYC and the world has endured since those early months, to be here talking to Steven Sweatpants as he was finishing up a photoshoot with the NY Knicks feels like an incredible full circle odyssey.

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Steven "Sweatpants" Irby had one of those years that you talk about decades later. Already an editor of the wildly popular Street Dreams mag, he, like most of us, thought his 2020 would be on permanent pause. A few shoots, maybe, but nothing like what we saw this summer across America. With the George Floyd murder sparking marches in almost every city, Steven was assigned by the New Yorker to capture images of protests on the streets of his hometown of NYC, diving in as photojournalist, activist and citizen. His incredible photos testify to an artist with an eagle eye, a participant himself, capturing the mood of Black America, as well as a wellspring of unity that became a calling for so this year. His work continued with the Washington Post, New York Magazine, and Juxtapoz featured him as both an artist and documentarian in our Winter 2021 issue

In this candid talk, Steven talks about his start in photography and how to be actively present during a protest, his particular camera toolkit, as well as his family roots in NYC, exuding pride in the moment he knew he had captured one of the great photos of 2020.

The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 061 was recorded via Skype from NYC, San Francisco, London, December 11, 2020.