Lenny Kravitz thought of a new way to handle the paparazzi. As a rock star, he is accustomed to having cameras on him at all times. He decided to turn this into a creative project and take pictures of paparazzi and fans taking pictures of him. His photos have developed into his photography book called Flash.
Recently, Flash appeared at the Leica gallery in Los Angelos. In an interview with Billboard, Kravitz revealed that the first photo he captured was likely in Florence, Italy. He was on a tour accompanied by his godchildren who he brought along for the journey. When he was "bombarded" in an effort to take other photos, he decided to turn it into an excersie — instead of being frustrated.
A friend of Kravitz recommended he use his photographs for an exhibit.
"When a friend of mine, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who is a great photographer, was looking at them. I was showing him all kinds of photos that I had done and he said, 'I really think that you should go with this theme as your first exhibition.' I liked the photos, but I didn't think to do anything with them." Kravitz told Billboard. "And he said, 'This has never been done.' Which I was surprised, because everything's been done, right? He thought there was a real calmness to the photographs, even though they were in these real hectic situations of being hunted. There was a real calmness to them and beauty to them, so he was the one that convinced me to move forward with it."
Interestingly enough, Kravitz revealed that the subjects of his photos (people taking photos of him) never say anything about Kravitz capturing shots of them. Instead, it fuels comments like, "Well, we'll get this picture now, he's holding a camera," he relayed.
Flash "captures the essence of what it's like to be a rock star who's constantly in the public eye." According to Billboard, Germany is the next stop for the gallery exhibit.
