Boombox Portrait Props with @superattractiveghettoblaster

For more of Thibault’s boombox adventures, follow @superattractiveghettoblaster on Instagram.

Wandering the sale warehouses of Shanghai, French architect Thibault Ressy (@echtoby) stumbled upon 25 vintage boomboxes — and he bought them all. “I have a group of close friends in Shanghai, and we used to meet every Thursday night for after-work drinks, but we could not find a proper place,” Thibault says. “The music was never that great.” Thibault and his friend Clément decided to take matters into their own hands by starting a weekly event called Super Attractive Ghetto Blaster.

At first, the boomboxes were just party props, but in early 2014 Thibault saw a creative opportunity. He began shooting portraits of people throughout the city with the boomboxes, and he created @superattractiveghettoblaster to showcase them. “When I first traveled to Asia, I took a lot of street portraits and everyday life scenes. It is not that easy to approach people from other cultures, especially when you do portraits. They are often scared about the camera,” he says. “With the boombox, it is totally different. It is amazing how it attracts people.” Thibault’s travels have since taken him to Suzhou, Hong Kong, Chengdu, Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Spain and finally back to France, always with a boombox along for the journey.