Print Details
About this photograph
Contact sheet of Prince during the photo session for his first press kit in 1977.
In 1977, Minneapolis music manager Owen Husney and his partner Gary Levinson discovered 19-year-old Prince Rogers Nelson and promptly signed him to a management contract to begin pursuing a record deal. To entice photographer Robert Whitman to take photographs of Prince for a press kit aimed at potential record companies, Levinson came by Whitman’s apartment to play him an early version of “Soft and Wet”. Whitman photographed Prince in 1977 during three separate photoshoots - in his Minneapolis studio, at Husney’s home and around downtown Minneapolis, including in front of the music mural on the side of the Schmitt’s Music store. These photos capture the emergence of Prince's unique style and persona, marking the rise of one of the most important musicians of the 20th century.
Print sizes and editions
16” x 20” - Edition of 60
20” x 24” - Edition of 60
30” x 40” - Edition of 60
Print type
Silver gelatin print
Paper type
Ilford Fiber paper
Signature
Hand signed in ink by photographer
About the photographer
Robert Whitman explored his passion for photography while traveling the world after college. He found that with his camera he was able to experience people and places he never would have encountered. In 1977, Whitman was approached by Prince's manager to photograph the singer, who was 19 at the time and in the midst of recording his first album, for a brochure to send to record companies in hopes of getting him a contract. The resulting photos show a rarely seen era of Prince.
© Robert Whitman. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.