Proud Central is the new Proud gallery near Charing Cross in London and they opened this week with an exhibition of photos of Prince from Steve Parke's new photography book: Picturing Prince: An Intimate Portrait.

Steve Parke got the opportunity to shoot with Prince in the early days of Prince's fame and initially worked in his mid-twenties as a painter, helping with album covers and artwork. He gradually worked up to the role as creative director and his first experience as Prince's photographer came when Prince asked if Steve also took photos and could he use one of the 'new digital cameras' Prince had heard about.

Luckily, Steve said 'yes' and they got hold of a camera and started work. It was real shoe string work in those days with cameras costing thousands and young artists having to beg and borrow props where they could.

Steve Parke, top right with the goatee, had to balance the demands of the creative demanding genius with family life, responding to Prince's constant new ideas and 'how long does that take?' questions when photoshopping fresh images. However, it all seems well worth it now with well-known DJ Danny Howles and Bill Wyman from the rolling stones supporting the exhibition and the gallery.

Steve does stress, though, that he is still just a regular photographer and well able to work with many types of clients as you will see from his website.

Proud is running the exhibition until 3 December 2017 and alongside this exhibition are lots of other iconic music images from other famous photographers in the cavern corridors downstairs.

If you are near Charring Cross or the South Bank the gallery is well worth a visit. If not, you can look up the book on Amazon.

More details on the exhibition can be found on the Proud Galleries website.
 

Words and pictures (of Steve's pictures) by Stuart Fawcett.