“I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me.”
Tupac Shakur
A simple question: what happens when at 10 am in a studio in Los Angeles you are offered a Montecristo where half the tobacco has disappeared and has been replaced by marijuana? The only person who did it was Tupac.
At 10:15 a.m., I started to get high. At 11:00 am, I saw him as Martin Luther King, my hallucination became real. I asked him to drop his jacket. Little by little, he appeared before me as the emblematic pastor during his march for civil rights.
John Singleton was him, but the current did not flow and I see that this shoot is fizzling out. John is certainly a huge director but he already saw himself as a professional photographer.
“Michel, you should shoot him like this, or this way. ”
I gave him the device and said:
“My dear John, I see you want to take pictures, I leave the team and the studio to you, good luck to you. ”
Tupac laughed and always with his devastating smile declared:
“Relax John, let him work. ”
The second image is less funny, I’m still on my journey in the footsteps of Martin Luther King and I have a flash. Why not photograph Tupac bare chest, eyes closed, revealing his tattoos. The moment I press the shutter, I felt death brushing past me. In my frame is superimposed the death of Martin Luther King and that of Tupac Shakur. I have only had this premonition three or four times in my life.
Tupac was like that: carefree, laid back, a sort of twentieth century dandy, an “Apache” straight out of Jacques Becker’s Casque d’Or. I photographed him in 1993, in 1994 he had five bullets removed, in 1996 he’ll receive four more including one lethal. He kept bad company.
I wanted with this virtual gallery, to offer to the greatest number unique shots of this legend of US rap, while waiting for the publication of my book Anthology – Legends which will be published on October 29th by Yuri & Laïka. A way to discover one of the facets of this genius of hip-hop culture.
Michel Haddi
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https://themichelhaddicollection.com/3d-exhibition/
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