Though you may recognize his work before his name, Eric Johnson is the photographer behind some of the most memorable music imagery of the last few decades. He’s lensed the likes of the Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans, and created unforgettable album visuals for Aaliyah, Doja Cat, Eve, Foxy Brown, Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, the Hot Boys, and Yung Miami, among many others.
As for developing his signature realistic style of portraiture, which resulted in a legion of magazine features, covers, and more, Johnson was “always very specific” about how things should look—even before he picked up a camera at the age of 16. “When my mom used to go to the disco when I was a little kid in the ’70s, I would be like, ‘Oh, you should wear this.’ That’s how I got to people pushing me towards art. I was just that kind of quirky art person…I just think that just naturally I’m a vibey person, but I’m shooting all those things without thinking about it,” Johnson tells Vanity Fair.
In celebration of 50 years of hip hop, Johnson recently spoke with Vanity Fair about what went into creating some of his favorite photographs.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Vanity Fair: Your image of Biggie and Faith for the October 1995 issue of Vibe magazine is an iconic image in hip hop, what do you remember about that day?
Eric Johnson: That was my first cover [for Vibe]. George Pitts [the founding Director of Photography at Vibe was] like all of our godfathers, he just looked out for us as a photo editor. He made us all so much better. So he was like, “Your photos are looking really great, people are really into you.” When I go to meet with George … they wanted an iconic image at the level that we were looking at books like the 100 greatest album covers of all time, things like that. One thing, no one’s really shot outside on Vibe covers. And then two, Biggie is from New York, he always represents New York. I was like let’s just get a car and park it down by the bridge. I wasn’t thinking about anything major. Nothing was planned out in regards to angles and I didn’t even know what they were going to wear. I had already shot Faith one time and Biggie was just adorable, just like a little boy following you around talking about random shit. And I’m like dude, I’m still working. But he looked so powerful in a way in photos, but he was also so boyish, because he was so young.
I did hear after the fact that the guys in LA were pissed and they were saying that Biggie was trying to rip off West Coast car culture. When I look back at it, I could see why they would think that, because they’re mad at the east coast and Biggie. And we weren’t Lowriders, it was just a Cadillac. But that wasn’t necessarily New York, but I didn’t think about that either. So all of those things together, combined just made it sick.
When the cover was out, whenever I saw [it], I just froze, it was like I just cringed or something. It was like I didn’t like it, but it was just something about it.