Eight years after he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose, Prince’s legacy continues through his music, influence, and now the most significant collection of images of the legendary singer has been released, ‘Prince: Icon’.
The beautifully curated photography book combines portraits, album covers, photographs of performances and rehearsals, rarely seen private moments, and candid snapshots of Prince.
This collection from ACC Art Books & Iconic Images – publishers of the bestselling book Bowie: Icon – was curated in consultation with Steve Parke, the award-winning illustrator, designer, and photographer who worked with Prince for 13 years as his in-house art director at Paisley Park, and its impact is both powerful, and inspiring.
The book has a foreword from costume designer to Prince, among others, Stacia Lang, who said:
“Prince is my forever muse. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. To the many creatives who were lucky enough to work with him, Prince Rogers Nelson was the most brilliant and thrilling collaborator imaginable.”
Released on 01 October 2024, the book does not just focus on Prince’s best known looks, but creates a sense of the man himself, and all the elements that afford him ‘icon’ status during his decades-long career.
Prince’s prolific creativity was well known within the industry, with recording sessions regularly lasting between 15 and 24 hours, and he would only sleep for four hours a night. According to the BBC, he forced his engineers to keep pagers on them at all times, often ordering them into the studio at all hours of the night, and every engineer Prince ever worked with quit due to burn-out.
Nancy Bundt was the official photographer for the Purple Rain Tour, however, the photographs in the book are from the first time she photographed Prince at his birthday concert at First Avenue in Minneapolis, in 1984.
“This was an on spec freelance assignment for a New York agency that came out of the blue,” she writes, “Prince was a very generous person; unasked, he gave collaborative opportunities to many creative people. He was an extremely serious and hardworking musician and creator, and demanded that everyone who worked with him give the same.”
Since its recent release, the ‘Prince: Icon’ has hit the number one spot on Amazon for photography collections and exhibitions.
The 264 pages are a mix of images and personal essays from Prince, from his early days in Minneapolis to his world tours.
Prince released 39 studio albums and 106 singles over his 40 year career. After he died in 2016, archivists were granted access to a large underground vault in Paisley Park, his private estate in Minneapolis. They discovered enough unreleased material for him to posthumously release an album every year for the next 100 years.
Photographer Rob Verhorst first shot Prince on 17 August 1986 on the ‘Parade Tour’.
He says: “Prince was in fantastic shape, full of action and energy; it took all my concentration to keep my lens trained on him. This was back in the time of analog, so I had two cameras, one with black and white film and the other with color.
“I’ll never forget my experiences shooting Prince. I only wish I could thank him for those breath-taking photographic moments, and for his ground-breaking music.”
'Prince: Icon' is now on sale with a list price of $75/£60.
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