What It Was Like to Be Prince’s Personal Photographer
The lensman behind Sign o’ the Times talks about some of his most iconic Prince shots.
https://pitchfork.com/features/photo...m-cover-photo/
In 1985, Prince was, as usual, exceptionally busy. Along with dreaming up new solo records and androgynous alter egos, he was figuring out the visuals for the debut album by a new funk band he had put together called the Family. Prince wanted some playful shots to counter the album’s formal black-and-white cover, and Jeff Katz, a then-25-year-old rookie photographer for Warner Bros. Records, was called in to assist. “Initially, I just set up the camera, composed the shot, and Prince would push the button,” Katz remembers over the phone. “After about an hour of that, he said, ‘You seem to know what you’re doing, why don’t you just go ahead for the rest of the day?’”
Two months later, Katz was asked to be Prince’s personal photographer for Under the Cherry Moon, a movie the superstar was filming in Nice, France. “It was like, how fast can you say yes!” Katz recalls. Within 10 minutes of their first shoot there, Katz captured the dramatic portrait that would become the cover of the Cherry Moon soundtrack, 1986’s Parade. For the next decade, Katz served as Prince’s exclusive photographer and was entrusted with everything from intimate portrait sessions to documenting the biggest dates on his globe-trotting tours.
The rest is history...
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