Description
Photographer: Chris Floyd · 1999 · Chung King Studios, New York
Image details
These pictures were taken on an afternoon in July 1999 for the Sunday Times Magazine.
After the appointment was cancelled twice, each time arriving at the studio door with several cases of equipment only to be turned away due to unexpected circumstances, I got to do this on the third try.
I was told I’d have 5 minutes to do a sit down portrait with him in the lobby of the studio, the Chung King House of Metal, aka the Abbey Road of hip hop, on Varick Street in New York.
However, after the portrait, when I was packing up, his assistant Coco came back to the lobby and said, ‘David says that if you’d like to go through into the studio you can spend a bit of time in there taking photographs while he works with the other musicians.’
My five minutes ended up becoming about an hour and a half.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said?
He was funny, he laughed a lot, he sounded like he was doing an impression of himself. You could hear Bromley, he smoked constantly, and he told really indiscreet tales about other famous people. Surgically sharp observations on the nature of fame and ego.
He noticed me humming his song ‘The Laughing Gnome’ ever so quietly to myself as I was photographing him and said,
“I’ve got better ones than that y’know.”
All prints are made to order and supplied carefully packaged.
Signed and numbered by the photographer.
Printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag ® 340gsm.
Each image is printed with a white border accommodating signature and edition number.
Comes with a certificate of authenticity.
Available editions:
- 11" × 14" Limited Edition of 20, signed and numbered by the photographer
- 16" × 20" Limited Edition of 10, signed and numbered by the photographer
- 20" × 24" Limited Edition of 10, signed and numbered by the photographer
