♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ It's just everybody here is down to try something new, and I love that.

♪♪♪ That's what binds us.

♪♪♪ They were down to get their feet wet and hands dirty and actually get into the culture.

Because it's something that is important to the people here.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Man: We've got some fresh, new young talent doing some things that I know you haven't heard before.

1, 2, 3, listen.

♪♪♪ You know, the most important thing to me about art is conversation.

That art that exists in a vacuum and doesn't talk to people or to someone else isn't, for me, always very moving.

Sometimes a visual artist says something, and you want to respond, and that's the kind of collaboration that I think is foundational for artistic growth.

People are hungry to do something new, something fresh.

You know, I meet a lot of people that are maybe not from here, but they end up here.

Noftsinger: You know, it is the heartbeat of the South here, but it's got this progressive thinking that, you know, people underestimate it and undervalue it.

Kirk: We're just here creating, and Atlanta is so small that because of that, so many of these artists, so many creatives, so many influencers are legit friends, and we create more from a free standpoint.

Killamari: They didn't want to go to New York, they didn't want to go to L.A.

This is the place to be because they got here, and, like, I came here with intentions of Atlanta being a stepping stone.

This, more than any place I've been, people are just down to, like, collaborate and try something different and work together, and I love that.

♪♪♪ So, one of the things that's really powerful about Taria is that she is almost exclusively taste.

She can taste the room, she can taste the color, she can taste music.

♪♪♪ Taria: So, because I have gestural synesthesia, which basically literally means I translate everything through taste, no visual memory, no auditory memory of any kind.

There are times I feel a little odd for sure in the way I see the world, the way I experience flavor.

Okorie and I have been friends a long time, and one of the things that I really love about him is how much he's willing to put himself out there.

Like, he will collaborate with anyone that wants to play.

So, today we're going to get a chance to go do -- re-create this tour that you took me on, what, some seven years ago, right?

Yeah, seven.

We're going to go experience Buford Highway.

We're going to engage perhaps the international heartbeat of Atlanta.

Yes.

♪♪♪ So, Buford Highway is home to almost every international cuisine you could find.

I know it's where chefs eat.

It's where they find inspiration.

It's where they go to relax.

You'll literally see every culture shopping and eating all along the road.

♪♪♪ It's where you're going to find the freshest produce.

Buford Highway is where you shop.

OkCello: And we're going to go and find inspiration so that we can create our own kind of homage to Atlanta and its international community and kind of do it through things that are personal and authentic to who we are.

Taria is -- she's a genius.

Taria's a genius.

She gravitates to things in such a unique and highly accomplished way.

But she's -- she's just got a history in those -- in those places.

And I don't know -- she's got this desire to kind of know the world broader than kind of what's right in front of her.

And then, I think she engages it so respectfully.

What we're about to collaborate on is like one part our personal friendship and history, it's one part our relationship with the city... Mm-hmm.

...and a third part specifically our relationship with Buford Highway.

Right.

Yeah.

It's definitely your relationship with food and my relationship with sound and all of it coming together to create, like, one meal.

This is a way for me to package that so that, when you eat this, you will taste the experience from my perspective.

So even when you play, I can't hear it after you're done.

It's gone.

I've forgotten everything.

But I do remember what it tastes like.

Wow.

Okay.

Let's do that.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Taria: While we're working together and he's playing, the aroma of everything that we chose earlier in the day, we're doing it together.

There was no separation.

The lines were so blurred between him playing and me cooking in the same space that it was one.

♪♪♪ OkCello: And I'm kind of watching her to some degree.

Like, there was actually a moment -- it wasn't in the song, but I got a chance to watch her chop, and I was trying to time my bow and when I was playing perfectly to what she was chopping.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Taria: When I look at the plate, I saw home, comfort, and potential.

You know, I was really thinking kind of family and warmth.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ Down-tempo music plays ] ♪♪♪ Killamari: Okay.

Lotus Eaters Club is a collective of artists from all walks of life.

♪♪♪ Some of us are animators, designers, painters.

The Lotus Eaters themselves have been doing murals and doing art.

They wanted to add, like, some kind of interactivity.

And we started doing these A.R.

art drops, had a lot of positive feedback.

And so we kept rolling with it, and it went from doing free art drops and then eventually to doing this mural on the Beltline that comes to life, and it plays music, and animates and moves and everything.

♪♪♪ We drink every day at lunch.

And that sounds terrible, but, you know, that's who we are.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ We work hard, we play hard, and I think that's what the Lotus Eaters really are all about.

We like to make art, and we love to collaborate with people, and we also jump on the opportunity to collaborate with anybody else who has the passion that we do to make something new and something different.

And we're really excited to work with Orpheus Brewery.

We like their beer.

♪♪♪ We're on Piedmont Park.

We're on the Beltline.

This is -- I think where we are right now is the core of who we are.

I mean, this is a town of, before we had laws that would encourage breweries, we had an amazing beer culture.

People don't know yet.

I travel around the world for breweries, and the brewery scene in Atlanta is second to none.

Well, it already seemed like such a perfect collaboration just because a lot of what we do is hanging out.

We drink, we chill together, and just have a good time.

If it's food or booze, we're all about it.

Alvarez: It's a lot of fun.

They were already working on a beer, and they were looking for a name or a collaboration, so we walked in at the perfect time.

We have this beer, Lotus Eaters.

It wasn't called Lotus Eaters at the time.

It was actually going to be called Through the Mist.

It was just going to be just a little tasting-room-only, non-canned beer.

Met up with them and let them, you know, taste and smell the beer where it was at a few weeks ago.

Hicks: Jason at Orpheus, who's a very cool guy.

He gave us a bunch of different beers to sample.

He had us sample -- It wasn't the finished product of our Lotus Eaters beer, but it was before the hops got put in, so we got to try it and get the different fruity flavors in there.

And really liked the tropical-fruit character of that.

And so we thought, "Okay.

We can actually -- we can work with this.

We can can this beer."

And so they went with that tropical vibe on their label.

And so it's -- I mean, to me, it's a great pairing.

So we were able to come up with a theme for the beer based on the notes and flavors of what they were making.

Well, we already knew we wanted our augmented reality involved, and we all had our fingerprints on it.

We all touched it in a different way to make it a project that we all, you know, worked on together.

And then, Rod went ahead and illustrated, and I went ahead and animated what he -- what he made.

Fishes are separate, the fish are going to move, and the plants are going to sway back and forth in the wind, and the volcano will kind of puff smoke.

Everyone enjoys having a beer together.

It's a very social thing.

So doing some art for their cans, and they're already known for having some really great can art, so it was a really great combination of us getting to make some art with them, just getting to sort of hang out together and enjoy the product of our collaboration.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Just thinking about how we hang out and how a beer is, like, always in someone's hand, to have a design of the Lotus Eaters Club on a beer can that we can share amongst each other, having that be something that also interacts with our app is really awesome.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Maybe bring the actual dish and bring me the green gel, because that might be kind of dope because he's Jamaican, too.

♪♪♪ [ Camera shutter clicking ] ♪ The scene is getting crowded ♪ Atlanta kind of puts their own spin on the way things are done here.

I shot with Hoodrich Pablo, we shot with Gunna.

I just did a project with Saks Fifth Avenue.

Literally, I've shot, like, Lucci.

I shot his album cover.

Hey, world, what's poppin'?

I am YFN Lucci.

♪♪♪ He's been here a number of times.

So I don't really have a crazy plan for today.

I'm kind of going to go with the wind.

♪ Know what that means ♪ ♪ Your team has taken more L's than the DNC ♪ ♪ I'm making rappers, supporting they careers ♪ ♪ My verses is hunting like Plan B ♪ Lucci: You know, in Atlanta, like, all our artists, like, we like working together.

When we work together, like, it just bring the best out of both of y'all.

It's more just this free spirit of creating.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ One of the centerpieces and one of the things that make you a legit photographer, in my eyes, was they had a studio or they had something, this place where this guy creates and where he makes his magic.

So what I wanted to create was an inviting space, to feel comfortable in an environment that, like, helped you along the way.

So we got the jean-- the denim with the Yeezys.

And then I think -- I'm thinking white tee.

Kirk: I met Maddie about a year ago.

And at that time I had the idea of Cam Kirk Studios, and I had attempted to launch it.

And it was much more of my private studio, but it was like an idea that I tried to put the idea out there, but to be quite honest, it just wasn't received.

And it was one of my biggest hurdles that I was trying to get over.

Like, "How do I start a business?"

And when Maddie came along, I was able to express, like, where I wanted to go with it.

And she was one that was able to actually make it come to life.

Cam Kirk Studios is a place and a hub for creatives.

Kirk: And that idea evolved just as I've gone along in my career to, I don't want a studio.

Atlanta wants a studio, and Atlanta needs a studio.

But our black, do you want me to wear this same outfit?

So should I just put the black over top of this?

We want to shoot both tees, right?

So I absolutely have no concept in my head, to be honest, quite frankly.

But it's our studio's one-year anniversary.

We did this really cool collaboration T-shirt.

So what I'm trying to do is get some content around the T-shirt.

Or do you want to just do one or what?

I think we should.

[ Camera shutter clicking ] When I shoot, it's like I'm in a completely different mode.

It's like my whole thing changes, like... [ Camera shutter clicking ] I start shooting, and it's like, "Forget that."

I'm on the ground, I'm rolling around, I'm...doing whatever.

All right.

Go.

[ Camera shutter clicks ] I think our lack of traditional business systems, in terms of the creative world, actually makes us be able to create more freely.

So when I was creating at the beginning, it wasn't about money, it was just like, "Wow!

If I get to work with this artist, if I get to do this, I would love it."

Ivey: So you can really see, like, him in his element.

You know?

I took a few shots, then I wanted to get Maddie in it and just kind of, like, everybody can have something that they can champion and say, you know, it's our anniversary.

So I want to keep the same theme going.

Know how this thing goes.

I know.

I'm just gonna start -- Gonna shoot really fast, just keep moving.

All right.

So it's really just a clean white shoot, white background, simple light setup, shows off the space but also shows off the subject.

All right, look right at me.

[ Camera shutter clicking ] Hmm...

Does it look cool?

I'm really the worst model, honestly.

No, it looks dope.

It looks dope.

You know, I would tell you if I didn't like it.

That's true.

Usually when you talk, that means that you don't like it.

Yeah.

You haven't been talking that much, so that's a good thing.

Cam is a super-fast-shooting photographer -- like rapid-fire.

Like, whenever he shoots, it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom -- lights flashing, crazy.

[ Camera shutter clicking rapidly ] All right, all right, all right, all right.

♪ Yes, I am so, I'm on my ♪ ♪ I'm on my, I'm on my, I'm on my, I'm on my ♪ [ Camera shutter clicking ] ♪♪♪ I never would have thought that, as a photographer, shooting the likes of Gucci Mane and these rappers, that I would eventually end up coming back to one of my first loves, was soccer, until Atlanta got a soccer team.

♪♪♪ I was trying to understand the vibe in Atlanta and be educated on the city, and I heard about this up-and-coming photographer in the hip-hop scene.

Kirk: And they wasn't trying to just come here and hire who they heard from out of town or was the representatives of Atlanta.

They were down to get their feet wet and their hands dirty and actually get into the culture of who's really shaping and influencing things here.

I mean, he is the eye of Atlanta.

Cam Kirk is the eye.

And he sees it through a lens that sees no color, sees no boundaries, sees no language barriers, just like the sport is, and started working with him essentially from day one, whether it was insights, getting to know people, uniting people from different cultures to come to the match and just experience it and documenting that journey of the first time you experience the sport.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ What's been really cool to see is Atlanta's always had a soccer culture.

It was just kind of underground until Atlanta United really became as big as it is.

♪♪♪ ♪ Oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪♪♪ Eals: Well, it's been incredible.

We're a new team in Major League Soccer.

We started in 2017.

And we're drawing an average crowd of nearly 50,000, which puts us top 20 in global world football clubs.

♪♪♪ Longshore: You know, it just needed this.

It needed somebody to come in and do it in a first-class way.

And now you have, like, elements of punk rock, you have elements of hip-hop, you have a Latino influence.

It's just this really cool melting pot.

I think people were waiting on this.

I don't think anyone knew that there were this many soccer fans.

All watching at their local bars.

♪♪♪ It's the team that everybody, no matter where they move from, it's new.

You don't have any allegiance to anybody else.

You can just jump right in.

This can be your team.

♪ Scarves are up, flags are high ♪ ♪ Whoa-oh, oh-oh ♪ ♪ Scarves are up, flags are high ♪ ♪ ATL until I die ♪ ♪ Whoa-oh, oh-oh, oh ♪ Noftsinger: The supporter culture in Atlanta is unlike any other in the world.

We're really fortunate that right now we have four supporter groups, recognized supporter groups, and each a reflection of this incredibly diverse city.

♪ A ♪ ♪ T ♪ ♪ L ♪ ♪♪♪ It's a railroad town Terminus -- You know, it's Terminus of the south It's where everything kind of came to a head in the southeast.

So it's a good representation of who we are in Atlanta.

♪♪♪ ♪ A, T, L ♪ ♪ Atlanta United ♪ ♪♪♪ Eals: The tailgate scene we have before our matches is something that you have in gridiron football in America, but it's taken to a whole new level with our our supporters groups.

So they'll get there four hours before a game and start the party.

Everybody comes together.

There's fireworks going off.

And it's just one of these traditions that has become very strong very quickly.

Then they'll march into the stadium, and the party continues there.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ What it does is, it brings the whole city together.

So Atlanta United's become this -- this almost cultural icon for the city.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ I would put the Atlanta United fan experience up against any stadium around the world.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪