I’m from Newark, New Jersey, but from the age of 13-14 I would go to New York and hang out in book and record stores, looking at pictures in books and album covers. I was obsessed with the raw style of Blondie photography or the punk scene in the UK and was drawn to street culture in general. There was a school near me where all the nasty kids were outside, in cool clothes, fighting. I wanted to go to such a school, but my aunts who lived in this neighborhood said, “Absolutely not. This is a terrible school. “
I was an artistic child and started taking pictures of friends in high school. Around 1987, I really got into hip-hop and started filming the kids I met in clubs. I was looking through magazines, showing them my work, or looking at the backs of record labels, calling record companies and asking if I could meet someone in the art department. So when hip-hop started to swell, I happened to explode at the same time.
Dress up a big dude like Biggie in a suit and he’ll look like a man – but he was 23, very boyish and nice
In the early 90’s I was well known in the hip-hop community and worked with magazines like Vibe that served this audience. Biggie, also known as Notorious BIG, was on the radio – he was so hot that it was as if every fifth song was his. I was a hot photographer, so when Vibe asked me to take a picture of him and Faith Evans, it was a perfect match. They were married a long time ago and were the golden couple of hip-hop. I met Faith once before when I was filming her for Interview magazine. She was from Newark, and so was I.
Vibe called me and told me they wanted me to do something important or iconic. They showed me a book with the best album covers of all time to showcase the classic look they wanted. Most of the cover photos were indoors, so I decided it would be a good idea to take them outside. Biggie was Brooklyn, so I thought it would be great to photograph him under the Brooklyn Bridge with the New York skyline in the back. I took a Cadillac from a car rental shop. I think it was in A Tale from the Bronx.
When the couple first arrived, they wanted more clothes, so Puffy [Sean “Puff” Coombs AKA Puff Daddy, Bad Boy record label boss] took them shopping. Dress a big dude like Biggie in a suit and he’ll look like a man, and he had a rough public image, but he was 23 when I shot him and actually very boyish and nice. He kept looking under the bridge and saying, “Are dead bodies dumped here?”
His mother said she liked the photo because she usually never saw it smiling
I took the picture of a 120 Ektachrome movie and used a mix of natural light and flash so there are no shadows. For the photo, they both gave me the look you’d expect when sitting in the back of the car, very connected, but when she was in the car and he was outside, they were more playful. Faith Evans was also starting to happen and they were in love. It was a really good time for them.
Later, I took a few pictures of Biggie in the car alone at night, which people now tell me looks really sinister. There was a scene from the Biggie Smiling session that the record company later used as a single cover. His mother said she liked the photo because she usually never saw it smiling.
Vibe and everyone liked the pictures of Biggie and Faith, but the East Coast / West Coast hip-hop feud was happening, and someone told me that the West Coast boys were mad at me because they thought the picture was ripping out the West Coast car culture. A few years later, The Face magazine was going to take me to LA to shoot Biggie again, but I was told they couldn’t identify him on the spot in LA because he was receiving death threats. They told him to wait until he could confirm somewhere. He was killed then.
Eric Johnson.
CV by Eric Johnson
Born: East Orange, New York. Trained: Fashion Institute of Technology, New York and intern for still life photographer Constance Hansen. Influence: “Scenes and cultures and meetings with people. There are great photographers like Helmut Newton and Janet Beckman, but I’m more interested in stories. “High point:” The cover of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was my biggest, but shooting Shygirl last year was amazing. “Low point: “Being arrested for weed in Jamaica when you’re filming the cover of the Beenie Man Tropical Storm album and sitting in the back of a police car while filming.” Best advice: “Watch out for the energy you release. People will work with you if they like spending time with you. ”
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