August 30, 2023
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’s not that I didn’t like it, but it was just something about it.
The amount of times that people have hit me up about recreating different photos, but especially the Biggie and Faith. And they have so much enthusiasm as if when they tell me, the idea is going to blow my mind. I get if people out in the world are going to do that, I can’t really control it. But I’m like that is such a basic idea, when you look at the fact of what went into that day and Puffy’s badass, everybody was on top of the world, a nice summer day. We were in our youth, just everything. That’s why they came out like that. So people think you’re going to sit someone in the back of the car and think you’re going to get that same kind of magic? It’s insane.
How did the image with Foxy Brown orange fur trimmed jacket come about?
There was a studio on Broadway and she came over and we had a stylist and a make-up artist and those outfits. I was always into those punk images. If I saw someone on the street in London, I would just lose my mind, there’s something so pure about it. We’re all in New York and it’s kind of cool for people in middle America and the rest of the world to see as New Yorkers. I’m not super conceptual, but it’s little details like that that make the photos public connect. That is Foxy Brown on the street, no big set up, you could have run into her, you could have walked past and saw so that happening. So something about that I always like. And I think those pictures, they’re like amongst my favorites.
It’s the 25th anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, what do you remember about shooting the visuals for this album?
The buzz for the project was insane. With what had happened with the Fugees, [Lauryn Hill] was just like the doll. So just her having the album coming out, everybody was just certain it was going to be big. I didn’t know it was going to be big like with ten Grammy [nominations], because I don’t think like that, but I kinda knew something. I just felt like, they’re giving that to me?!
I still love Lauryn to this day, she’s one of my favorites and we had such a cool working relationship. She already had her ideas, she had the album title and she wanted to shoot in a school and we looked at a couple of schools, but then we were like why don’t we just shoot in her school. So we went there and we shot in her school. I looked around and I liked the bathroom, because I always liked the girls bathroom, and then went to this classroom, and then we’ll shoot in the hallway. We just did all of these different scenarios with no specific cover, just to do a shoot in the school. So that’s what we did. Our families are cool with each other, but actually, my mom did her hair. My mom has a beauty salon in the hood in Newark.
It’s funny because in different stages of my life, I would be at the beauty salon a lot, so you don’t have to go home and be by yourself. So I would be at the beauty salon for hours sometimes. I feel like there’s something cheeky about that experience.
It seems like that experience helped shape you and how you see, have seen and are able to capture women.
Oh, my God. I’ve never even thought of that. And I never heard that before. Literally. But I never I never put those two things together until you said that. But like of course! You literally can learn something new everyday.
Do you have a favorite photo that you’ve taken?
I have so many favorite photos. I started putting photos on my wall and I think I have about 40, 50 photos on the wall of some of my favorite photos over the years. There’s so many good ones, you know? One of my most recent favorite photos of all time is the photo I shot of Doja Cat coming down the stairs. It looks like she’s at a ballroom, like in the ‘70s. You know those houses and those balls and things, I didn’t go, but I know. I’ve seen Paris Is Burning and I’ve seen things about it. For her to be a rockstar, that photo is so live! So I look at that photo and presently that’s my favorite photo. Not that it’s better than any of my other ones.
Is there anyone that you haven’t worked with that you would like to?
People ask me that and I kinda want to shoot everybody, everyone is popular, everyone is alive and has a story to tell. You know what, Cardi B! I feel like that makes a lot of sense. Especially with my kind of genuine style, she’s that type of person that we need to cross paths. It totally makes sense. I’m beginning to shoot all of the hot new artists that I like. I like Lil Uzi [Vert]. All of them. I want to shoot everybody – whoever fucks with me, I want to shoot them.
