Tupac Shakur with Chi Modu
Over the years, people have always said that my images of Tupac let them see a side of him beyond the Thug Life image, more about the human being. Before he was loved by the world, he was a young man trying to make his way in a society that is extremely cruel to the less fortunate. He made it his mission to speak for those in his community who needed to hear âkeep your head up!â As I travel the globe, Iâm amazed at how many people have told me that Tupac saved their lives. His words and passion inspired a generation, and these pictures that we created together help to keep that inspiration alive.
Itâs always sad when people die young, but if you leave behind the kind of legacy that Tupac did, you never actually die. You remain forever in the hearts and minds of people for generations to come. I knew that about him when we first spent time together in Atlanta, Georgia back in 1994. We both knew the importance of images and we set out to do a thorough job, not knowing what the future would hold. He died two years after that meeting in Atlanta, but his words and these images are all part of his lasting legacy.
When I met him on location in Atlanta in â94 he was quite cooperative and a really nice guy. It was a shoot for The Source magazine, and he arrived early. Tupac was the ultimate professional, and he respected my time and my skills. The public might not know that about him. They think he was just this crazy guy who had no real limits, but he completely understood who he was, and if he understood what you brought to the table, he was easy to deal with. In fact, we got along great. I think a lot of people want to buy into the âthug lifeâ image and the younger side of him, because he was still a young man. Letâs be clear, you kind of forget the ages of these folks. To be so prolific and so young, and have so much powerâââitâs hard to imagine
Even with all the childishnessâââwhich I believe was age appropriate in a lot of waysâwhen you throw power and money in there, even with all that, he had a lot of care and love for his community and for the less fortunate. He always spoke on behalf of black people who were struggling.
Even though he wrote songs that many would consider typical hip-hop party music, he also included a lot of black empowerment in his lyricsââââBrendaâs Got a Baby,â âDear Mamaââââwhich I believe is why women liked him. They loved him because he was real and he cared. We knew the silly side of him too, but who isnât silly at the age of twenty five? So that never surprised me when he did the zany stuff. He was young and full of power in a world thatâs biased against blacks, so what do you expect?
Normally when I would see Tupac, I would always think of him being on blastâââexcited and moving at a hundred miles an hour. But when I first met him he wasnât really like that. Itâs funny how everyone always thinks about Tupac and the ladies, but I never really saw him chasing women that much. He was much more focused on his mission. I think thatâs what made him stand out so much from his peers. Because while everybody was partying, this man was trying to make sure he created his legacy. And so here we are decades later talking about the man as if heâs still around. I donât think you can take lightly the fact that this is two decades later and weâre still talking about this man.
After we finished his first Source cover shoot in Atlanta, we went back to his home in Stone Mountain, GA to hang out. He called me aside and showed me his entire gun collection in his bedroomâall his AKs, banana clips, Glocks, everything. Then he moved a picture on the wall in his bedroom, revealing a bullet hole. This was from when he fired a shot in his bedroom because he was on probation and prohibited from going to the firing range. We all laughed afterwards.
We wouldâve all been in our 40s together, but he never got to his 40s, he didnât even see his 30s with us. So thatâs quite a body of work and experience that he put in during his short time on this Earth.
He was one of the few stars who could cross over without compromising his roots. Tupac wasnât going to compromise, that wasnât him, but Versace still wanted to use him for their campaign. Itâs funny when I see rappers trying to do that sort of thing. I think when you start to move in those commercial circles they make you change yourself to fit. You lose your authenticity, but Tupac wouldnât allow that of himself. He took the streets with him wherever he went.
The portrait shots of Tupac, like the one thatâs on the cover of the book, were actually done with a 4x5 camera, which is a view camera. Itâs the camera where you put the curtain over your head to focus. Itâs large format. It sits on a tripod, and you put the film in, come out from behind the camera, you click it, then you switch the film. Kind of like the old style cameras. At that session in Atlanta, I photographed Tupac with my 4x5 with no assistant. It was just me and his people. When you shoot using a 4x5 youâre really very close to the subject. I was no more than three or four feet from him. Iâm there but the gap between us is the camera, even though Iâm right there with them. When youâre that close to someone frame after frame, thatâs really how they get to know you. Youâre almost breathing on each other, and Iâm telling him, âLift your head, bring your eyes down.â Iâm giving him instructions so he can look better.
Once you spend hours with someone like that, you know them forever. Iâm looking at every pore on your face. Iâm on your team. In doing that first photo shoot in 4x5, I think thatâs what made Tupac so comfortable with me because I was looking in his eyes, he was looking in mine at the same time, and real recognizes real. Once we got to that place we were cool. He gave me pictures he didnât give anybody else and he said, âThese are for you, Chi.â
Everybody knows the Thug Life Tupac, and we know that well. But they donât know the Tupac in the quiet moments. Like that picture of him tying his bandana over his head, the profile shot. Thatâs an outtake. He was fixing his bandana with a cigarette in his mouth but he was relaxed enough around me where I could just photograph him.
As a result you see a picture of a much more gentle Tupac. For me gentle and soft are not the same thing. Tupac was gentle but you wouldnât dare step to him. He was prepared to take it where it needed to go. He wasnât afraid. Thatâs who he was to me, and we got along from the first time we met. We were cool, so I got access to him that no one else could get.
Tupac wanted me to shoot his album Me Against the World, he told me to get in touch with the art director in New York. By the time I went there to meet, they had already given the assignment to someone else. Whatâs funny is I had already taken what would later become the most iconic imagery of Tupac. So when you look at the more famous portraits of Tupac like him tying his bandanna and the Rolling Stone cover, I had already created those pictures before I went to meet the art director to discuss the album. No one knew at the time that the photos I took of him would be the images people remember and not the ones they used on the album. In a way you end up getting your justice if you wait long enough
When I set out to take these photographs I knew they were important. I wanted to make sure the images stayed within the community. I wanted to make sure the person who created them was from the community. Historically that never really happens. Most of the visuals of the greats are owned and controlled by other people. Thatâs tricky because then they can put their interpretation on it. But when you look at my photographs, Iâm there with them. Iâm one of them even though Iâm an observer. I was close enough to live it and I had the skills to document and record it.
I had four sessions with him, and since we were close he let me in close. Itâs friends hanging out with friends and there just happened to be a camera present. You can see the closeness and the warmth because I didnât really look at my subjects as just celebrities. I saw them as young black guys like me. It allowed me to get closer and it allowed them to be comfortable and just be who they were. I offered no judgment. I was just there to document and make people look good.
Even though I was the creator of these images, Iâve always felt more like the caretaker of them, because he was the worldâs Tupac, not just my photo subject. He burned bright when he was here and his flame continues to glow. Thank you for being the voice of the voiceless, Tupac. Rest in peace, brother.
Excerpted from Tupac Shakur: Uncategorized by Chi Modu, a 200-page hardcover book featuring over 100 powerful images of Tupac Shakur.
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