Picturing Prince by Steve Parke

PICTURING PRINCE sees the late icon’s former art director, STEVE PARKE, revealing stunning intimate photographs of the singer from his time working at Paisley Park. At least half of the images in the book are exclusively published here for the first time; most other images in the book are rare to the public eye.

Alongside these remarkable images are fifty engaging, poignant and often funny written vignettes by Parke, which reveal the very human man behind the reclusive superstar: from shooting hoops to renting out movie theatres at 4am; from midnight requests for camels to meaningful conversations that shed light on Prince as a man and artist.

STEVE PARKE started working with Prince in 1988, after a mutual friend showed Prince some of Steve’s photorealistic paintings. He designed everything from album covers and merchandise to sets for Prince’s tours and videos. Somewhere in all of this, he became Paisley Park’s official art director. He began photographing Prince at the request of the star himself, and continued to do so for the next several years. The images in this book are the arresting result of this collaboration.

Featuring a mix of never-seen-before and rare photographs of Prince, alongside written vignettes about working at Paisley Park with the icon, Steve Parke’s book is essential for Prince fans

About the Author: Steve Parke started working for Prince in 1988, after a mutual friend showed Prince some of Steve’s photorealistic paintings. As Steve learned Photoshop and other design programs, Prince asked him to design everything from merchandise and album covers to sets for tours and videos. Eventually Steve became Paisley Park’s official art director and spent a week out of every month in Minneapolis, often working through the night with Prince in a near-empty studio.

In the late 90s, Prince asked Steve if he could use a camera. For the next several years, Steve took hundreds of shots of Prince, most of them in or around Paisley Park. What is unique about Steve is that he not only worked with Prince so intimately and for so long-the way very few other people did-but that, of the very few people who did, he’s one of the only ones with photos.

05 May 2026
 

Picturing Prince: An Intimate Portrait by Steve Parke ISBN 9781788406611