London Book Launch - Friday 4 September 2026 | 7:00–10:30pm | ForeverGood, 54 Druid Street, London, SE1 2EZ

The Palm, On Piru
£40.00

A book by Ben Brooks

– 208 pages
– Hardback
– First edition, 2026
– Limited to 300 copies
– 29.6 x 23.6 cm
– ISBN: 978-1-0369-9789-2

Pre-orders now open. Dispatching September 2026.

Shipping worldwide.

Bulk orders: For UK orders of more than 10 copies, or international orders of more than 5 copies, please contact benjaminbrooks_@outlook.com for a tailored tracked shipping quote.

 

Shot throughout 2025, The Palm, On Piru is a photographic volume documenting G-Funk and Gangster Rap artists across Piru and Blood-affiliated neighbourhoods in South Central Los Angeles, Compton, Carson, and Inglewood, offering a visual perspective of the communities foundational to West Coast Hip Hop and Southern California’s parallel gang culture. Tracing a lineage from the rise of the Crips and the Piru Street Boys to the formation of the Bloods, and the emergence of Gangster Rap, the book situates contemporary voices within a broader cultural history that continues to shape global rap music.

Photographed on Kodak Aerochrome infrared film, originally developed for military surveillance during the Vietnam War era, the work renders the red and pink spectrum as both aesthetic and symbolic language, illuminating themes of collective identity, spirituality, place, and the enduring legacy of the “Red” side of West Coast Hip Hop and Rap.




Awarded 3rd place at the Sony World Photography Awards 2026.

Recipient of the Gold Medal in the "Old Process" series category at the FotoSlovo Awards 2026.

Exhibited at: Somerset House, London (17th April - 4th May), Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini, Milan (10th June to 4th October), Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo (20th June - 20th July), Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles (6th July - 10th July)