Queen Beyonce doesn’t bow down to many but the singing diva has always praised the legendary Prince as one of her influencers and the “Lemonade” singer gets to pay homage to him once again. Beyonce just penned the forward to a new book about the Purple One called Prince: A Private View. The hardback features photography of the late musician by longtime friend Afshin Shahidi.
Part of Bey’s salute includes, “Truth be told, the word ‘icon’ only scratches the surface of what Prince was and what he remains to me…”
Shahidi was also friends with the late musician for over 20 years and photographed the Purple Rain creator for over a decade. The book will detail their close friendship and professional relationship through photographs. The book’s description reads:
“When Prince wanted to document his One Nite Alone tour in 2002, he turned to Afshin Shahidi. Again in 2004, he went along on Prince’s record breaking Musicology Tour. Afshin met Prince in 1989 and became his cinematographer and later his photographer. He was the photographer closest to Prince for the last fifteen years of Prince’s life. Afshin is the only photographer to shoot the legendary 3121 private parties in Los Angeles that became the most sought after invitations in Hollywood.
Prince: A Private View compiles his work into a journey through Prince’s extraordinary life. With many never-before-seen photos, this is the ultimate collection of – some intimate, some candid, some in concert – shots of Prince, but all are carefully directed in the artist-as-art style that we associate with him. Deep photo captions are brief, but complete stories about Prince’s life at that moment – some are incisive, others are personal and even funny.”
Prince: A Private View will be released Oct. 17 via St. Martin’s Press for $35.
