“People know one thing: I’m where the happening’s at,” says the photographer and cultural archivist Sthaddeus “Polo Silk” Terrell. “If they don’t know what’s happening on the weekends, they know they can call me.” The New Orleans-based photographer got his start photographing hip-hop, Mardi Gras, and Second Line culture in the 1980s, surrounding himself with up-and-coming rappers who were trying to prove that hip-hop was more than just a fad. Against this cultural backdrop, Polo Silk was able to capture a youthful and newly-vibrant New Orleans—think Polo shirts, eight-ball jackets, and Jordan 3s. He is now known as the photo historian who changed the world’s perception of Black New Orleans. Shining light on the love and passion that flowed throughout the city’s forgotten areas, and blending elements of fashion, portraiture, and street photography, Polo Silk presented a new New Orleans—and did so with style. —Nyla Gilstrap