Profile - Zach Wolfe

Zach comes from the conservative mecca of Iowa, which he describes as an acronym for Idiots Out Walking Around. Despite his community's rejection of hip-hop, Wolfe developed a passion for the music along with a skill for photography at Mount Vernon High School. Wolfe's love for music photography has brought him across the country to new music capital Atlanta, where he has become an unlikely success considering his pristine roots, to which Zach would reply, "I'm attracted to what I'm not."

The record stores in Mount Vernon, Iowa, did not even sell hip-hop records, so Zach had to join a mail-in CD club in fifth grade to educate himself in the then-new sounds of artists like LL Cool J, N.W.A. and Bobby Brown.

Two months after Zach took his first photography class in high school, he set up a functional dark room in his bedroom closet. After attending the Art Institute in Denver, Zach went into shooting extreme sports photography for Ski magazine.

In just five years, Zach has gone from valet parker to owner of a studio conglomerate called Studio 900 that houses graphic artists and music producers alongside Zach's own shooting space, where he works with musicians and teaches Photoshop and digital photography.

Since opening the studio a month ago, Zach has held shoots with Usher, OutKast and Dem Franchize Boyz for Vibe, XXL and Scratch magazines. Zach has developed a unique fusion of music and style that provides a cohesive image of an artist. He believes that "we live in a visual world and popular music is about slamming people over their faces with colors." You can find more info about Zach and Studio 900 at www.zachwolfe.com.