“I don’t wanna be a doctor, I don’t wanna be a teacher. I want to be a dancer. And it’s going to happen,” SFUAD dance major Alexandria Chavez says.

For Santa Fe-based documentary photographer David Scheinbaum, art is at its finest when related to social issues. “To bring attention to some of the ills and inconsistencies of society,” says Scheinbaum, “is to use art at a higher level.” Scheinbaum’s newest book, Hip-Hop: Portraits of an Urban Hymn, is a collection of photographs of hip hop artists that sheds light on the “ills and inconsistencies” of society’s general view of hip hop culture. Scheinbaum’s book depicts a community that, contrary to its reputation, connects art to social issues. Scheinbaum first saw the discrepancy between mainstream media’s representation of hip hop culture and the actual work coming from hip hop artists 13 years ago when he drove his 12-year-old son and several of his friends to a hip hop concert at Albuquerque’s Sunshine Theater. Scheinbaum stuck around to see if the scene was appropriate for the kids and was struck by the positive atmosphere of the concert. He began to attend more shows, bringing his camera with him to try to capture the socially responsible, relevant and dynamic scene he witnessed again and again. As Scheinbaum grew closer (both literally and figuratively—he eventually gained access to the stage and backstage areas for better shooting angles) to the hip hop performers who visited Albuquerque, he realized that not only is their art form inextricable from social issues, it is much more complex and involved than most outsiders realize. Hip hop, like most creative cultures that begin at the fringe of society, arose out of a necessity to express the inequality being experienced by the marginalized. In an essay in Scheinbaum’s book, Gaye Theresa Johnson, an associate professor of black studies at UC Santa Barbara, explains that the art form originated as and still is “a serious...