On Tuesday October 22, Twin Cities fans of global music, and cultural icon, Prince, met at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. They gathered in order to hear from the authors and independent photographers whose works were compiled in the book “Prince Icon.”
The event space, which Magers & Quinn improvises within its most conspicuous browsing area of roughly 20’ x 20’ space is squeezed among bookshelves. This accommodated several rows of between six and eight metal folding chairs each.
The participants consumed the first 15 to 20 minutes of the one-hour event with each recount how they began to work with the soft-spoken biracial Black man. In the beginning Prince Rogers Nelson was neither the national nor global cultural icon known by either the royal moniker or circa 1970s gender symbol. He began some people’s careers! Before Beaulieu’s career became something, “I was doing local artists before Prince, or fashion”.
Among the three photographers who took part, Steve Parke and Allen Beaulieu were the most quotable, and memorable.
When prompted by moderator, Paul Peterson, Parke recounted how the book project began. A peer from the United Kingdom contacted him about leading the effort. “Part of my job was to contact people (photographers) and convince them to take part.” An annoying wrinkle in the process/project what the nuances of image rights. This was why some photographers’ works were omitted from the book.
Per Magers & Quinn, “the most opulent visual anthology of Prince that has ever been published, Prince: Icon gathers images by renowned and little-known photographers from around the world, close friends, and colleagues, as well as album covers, photographs of performances and rehearsals, rarely seen private moments, and candid snapshots. A must for the Prince devotee in all of us.”
Later in the at-times free-wheeling conversation, Peterson asked Parke and Helgeson “how do you capture Prince, who wouldn’t sit still?” Helgeson said “you had to be ready and move.” It was a little nerve wracking for each. Prince was artistic, mercurial and demanding. Each wanted to excel and keep the work coming.
To capture indelible and iconic images, later Peterson asked each “what was it like? How or where did the concepts (for any of the photos or album covers) come from”. Beaulieu “it was all Prince’s concepts”. For studio concepts, given that Prince being a Gemini astrological sign, he built a set for Prince’s “day” and “night” moods.
Being a Twin Citian who revered some of Prince’s talents, and the “eyes” of renowned photographers, this event was special. It provided perceptive, and humbly candid insights into the work of conceiving of and capturing Prince’s image and sensual mystique from circa 1970s and 1980s. That was the era of Prince beginning, instead of being and reigning.
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