Purple Reign: Photographer Brian Ach shares his experiences of working with Prince
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Paris, France. June 2011. Brian wanted to show what it was like to experience a Prince performance, so he decided to shoot in a more artistic and editorial way than is typical for concert photography. This is the first shot he showed Prince, which was the shot that defined Brian’s stint as Prince’s tour photographer. Photo by Brian Ach.
Celebrity and concert photographer Brian Ach was Prince’s European tour photographer during the artist’s 2011 “Welcome 2” tour through North America, Europe and Australia. Brian shared some of his tour stories with us in his closing talk at PIX 2015, and this morning he chatted again with us about his experience photographing and working with Prince, following the musician’s death this week, aged 57.
You were hired to photograph the European leg of Prince’s tour in 2011. As a huge fan of his music, and knowing his reputation for hard work and high expectations, how did you approach this job?
I didn’t get a chance to meet Prince before the first show in Paris. Since I didn’t have any direction from him about how or what I should shoot, I decided that I was going to be true to myself and shoot the show the way I thought it should be shot. I decided to go for broke and shoot it in an artistic way, to make it worthy of his art and his performance.
When I was ready to deliver the edits to Prince after the show, I opted not to show them to him in chronological order. Instead, I picked what I considered to be the most interesting 6 or 7 shots and put those first. Prince entered the room and said, “You have something to show me,” so I pulled the first picture up on the screen. He stared at it for 15 seconds in complete silence and then got up and walked out of the room. I assumed I was going to get fired after a single shot, but a minute later Prince walked back in with his whole band. He pointed at the screen and said, “Look at that,” and then stood back with a smile on his face. He asked his manager, “Where did you find this guy?” and I answered, “Queens.” He laughed, and from that moment we had an understanding. He expected the best, so as long as I did my best work, we’d work well together.
Purple Reign: Photographer Brian Ach shares his experiences of working with Prince
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Gdynia, Poland. July 2011. Being Prince’s photographer gave Brian the opportunity to be more creative. Photo by Brian Ach.
You have a lot of experience photographing musicians, from U2 to Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Bruce Springsteen. Was it different to photograph Prince?
The advantage of shooting for an artist is that you get to shoot the whole show rather than just the first 30 seconds of the first few songs. This gives you time to be more creative as long as you get the basic shots out of the way, and it gives you access to areas of the stage that you wouldn’t normally have.
Prince was an epic performer, so photographing his show meant going for the epic shots. I shot a lot of wide angles from behind the stage to bring people right into the performance, and I had the luxury to swap out different lenses to try different things. Normally I would never shoot a concert with a 50mm F1.4, but I used it during a few quieter moments to really capture the feeling of the moment. I had time to experiment, to catch a strobe, get him backlit, drag my shutter. Prince was an artist, so he was going to “get” it if I took some chances to be more creative. However it was still a huge risk if he didn’t like what I shot!
Purple Reign: Photographer Brian Ach shares his experiences of working with Prince
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Rotterdam, Netherlands. July 2011. This shot was initially rejected by Prince because of his animated expression. Brian argued that it was a powerful and emotive shot, and Prince eventually agreed. Photo by Brian Ach.
Prince owned his public image. He was one of the first artists to start buying out photographers and his music, to refuse to have his interviews recorded. He made sure there was nothing out there that he felt cheapened his image or his music. He had strong opinions about what he wanted, and over time I was able to learn what he was looking for. Sometimes I argued with him about shots that he rejected and sometimes he conceded. Because even though he knew what he wanted, he was also collaborative. His entire career was one risk after another, so he appreciated and respected when I took risks and challenged him.
Purple Reign: Photographer Brian Ach shares his experiences of working with Prince
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Paris, France. June 2011. This shot was rejected by Prince because of the empty seats behind the stage. Photo by Brian Ach.
When I took this shot [above], I thought, “Yes! I got it!” I showed it to Prince and he said no, we weren’t going to use it. It was a great shot of him walking on stage singing with the crowd bursting into applause, but it wasn’t going to work. I asked what was wrong with it and Prince said, “There are empty seats behind me. It can’t look like there were empty seats at my show.” Those seats had to be empty because they were behind the stage, but even though there was a good reason, it told the wrong story. I agreed with Prince and that photo wasn’t used.
Purple Reign: Photographer Brian Ach shares his experiences of working with Prince
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Rotterdam, Netherlands. July 2011. Prince didn’t choreograph his shows, so Brian had to be on his toes at all times. He couldn’t just sit back and shoot or he’d have missed shots like this one. Photo by Brian Ach.
Prince didn’t play a concert; he put on a show, and it wasn’t the same show every night. His band had to know at least 300 songs and they had to be ready to play any of them, as they would often see the set list for the first time when they walked on stage. Nothing was choreographed, so it kept you on your toes thinking, “Man, he’s never done that before.”
One time, Prince did a guitar solo, ripped off the guitar, and threw it into the audience. When I saw him after the show he smiled that little smile he’s famous for. “Did you get that guitar in the air?” “You know what? I did.” “Right on.”
Purple Reign: Photographer Brian Ach shares his experiences of working with Prince
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Rotterdam, Netherlands. July 2011. Prince saw Brian about to take this shot, so he moved his guitar from behind the mic stand to make it a cleaner shot. Photo by Brian Ach.
Do you have a favorite photo you took of Prince?
Prince was an amazingly energetic performer, but this photo [above] was taken during a very calm, peaceful moment. He was completely in the zone, and it was rare to catch him like this. At the same time, even as he committed himself to this moment, he still knew what he needed to do. Before the shot, he saw me there so he pulled his guitar from behind the mic stand. He knew I was going to get the shot and that it would be good. It’s that kind of awareness that you don’t see in many musicians. So confident in his ability that he didn’t have to think about performing; it just came naturally.
I once commented that his guitar playing seemed so effortless for him. He told me, “Yeah, that’s from practicing so long that my fingers bled. I’d play 8 hours a day when I was growing up. That’s called putting in the work. You’ve gotta put in the work.” He said that a lot, that you have to “put in the work”. I’ve found that to be true for my own work as well. I can’t be free to be creative if I’m thinking about the settings on my camera. A violinist plays scales for hours until they can play music without thinking about the notes. You’ve got to put in the work if you want to be good at something, and Prince put in the work.
Purple Reign: Photographer Brian Ach shares his experiences of working with Prince
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Rotterdam, Netherlands. July 2011. A photo from the last show Brian shot. Photo by Brian Ach.
What is your favorite memory from working with Prince?
Before the last show I photographed, I left a handwritten note for Prince on the table in his dressing room. I told him how I’d never have believed that the kid in Ohio watching Prince perform ‘Purple Rain’ at the 1985 American Music Awards on TV would some day be living his dream photographing Prince on tour. I thanked him for the opportunity.
Prince didn’t say anything to me before the show or after the show, so I was worried that he didn’t get the note. But at 4am as the night was winding down, he put his arm around me and said, “Thanks for your note; that put me right to go on stage tonight. You make art. These aren’t photos; it’s art.” That was the one of the best things anyone has ever said to me. As a photographer I don’t get feedback or validation very often, so to hear that from one of my heroes was huge for me.
Prince never shared most of the photos I took of him during this tour. By the third show, he said that he wanted to keep the photos for himself rather than send them out on Wire Image. At the end of the tour he told me that the photos were art and needed to be shared, so he picked a few from each show to send to Wire Image. By then the tour was already over so the photos weren’t seen by many people, and Prince kept the rest in his personal collection.
A number of news agencies have called me asking if I have unpublished photos of Prince. I do – I have tens of thousands of them. But they aren’t mine to share.
