The four-time Grammy award wining musician Lenny Kravitz has spent the majority of his life in the spotlight of the media. The retro rocker developed a taste for photography at a young age when he picked up his fathers Leica camera. His skills blossomed as his music career demanded him to be at the forefront of magazines and newspapers. He essentially grasped his photographic techniques from the great photographers who documented him.
Unaware of the success that anticipated him, Kravitz sporadicly picked up his Leica M9 camera and began documenting his life on tour. The gracious musician playfully turned his lens around on paparazzi and fans, which was the beginning of his creative endeavours.
“I would go outside but people would start coming at me; it was disrupting my shooting. After several days of this happening, I decided to go with the flow because as an artist, we are given what we are given. I decided to turn that into the subject and shoot them.” -Lenny Kravitz
The very people who would chase and photograph Kravitz around cities became the subject for his art. Paparazzi and fans caught onto Kravitz’s game and began to play along. They would smile, pull faces and even pose for the rock idol.
“Through turning the lens back on them, I have indirectly taken a deeper look at myself and the surreal world that I live in when on the road. What once was intrusive has now become a beautiful moment of a dance between the hunter and its prey.“ (Lenny Kravitz)
Kravitz gathered his collection of photographs and published them into his book flash. The book is a unique and intense perspective of a life in the public eye, and explores the essence of what it is like to be a nomadic musician. on March 5 2015, Lenny Kravitz celebrated the premier of Flash at the Leica Gallery in Los angeles.
This June, “Flash” by Lenny Kravitz is on display for the public at the fashion emporium Colette. The exhibition is a beautiful collection of portraits, people and moments from the vantage point of rock legend.
