Who Shot Rock and Roll

Tupac Shakur, August 1993. A photo from this session appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1996 after Tupac was murdered.

"I'm very much about capturing the spirit of the moment in a loose way. Tupac seemed excited for RS. He showed up on time and only had one guy with him. At the time hip-hop groups would bring their whole posse to a shoot. He was ready to work and he was into it. Very professional. During the shoot we thought he should change his shirt for some variety. When he did I saw his tattoos and said, 'Hey, those tattoos are great. Can I take some shots with the shirt off?' He said sure. The other thing I remember about the shoot is that at the time I was keeping a Polaroid book. Basically I would take a Polaroid from the shoot, put it into my book, and then have the artist sign next to the Polaroid. He had written something along the lines of, 'If a portrait is worth a thousand words then photographers are worth a million.'" -Danny Clinch