Icon Photographer Steve Parke

Baltimore native Steve Parke is an award-winning illustrator, designer, and photographer. In the late ’80s, he met guitarist Levi Seacer Jr.—who would later become a founding member of Prince’s New Power Generation. Seacer showed the singer some of Steve’s photorealistic compositions, and soon after Steve got his first job painting tour sets.

Steve quickly worked his way up in the organization until he became Prince’s full-time art director—which included everything from designing album covers and merchandise to hand painting guitars. He also served as Prince’s official photographer, with his images featured in numerous publications including People, Vogue, and Rolling Stone.

In late 2017 Steve assembled some of the most memorable work from his time at Paisley Park into the book Picturing Prince: An Intimate Portrait. This highly-regarded volume presents the extraordinary results of unprecedented access to an otherwise extremely reclusive performer with a fiercely guarded private life. Many stunning images from this collection are also available as fine-art prints for the first time.