Enormous limited edition 28 x 39 archival pigment print entitled ‘Prince with Comb, Downtown Minneapolis, 1977’ by photographer Robert Whitman, numbered 1/1, on a floating metal mount, signed by Whitman and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. In this image, the 19-year-old Prince is seen with a combed-out afro outside of Schmitt Music in Minneapolis. In fine condition.
This photograph was captured during one of three separate photoshoots that photographer Robert Whitman made of Prince during 1977 for an introductory press kit aimed at potential record companies. These photos, Prince’s first with a professional photographer, mark an instrumental moment in his career. Whitman photographed Prince in his Minneapolis studio, Owen Husney’s Linden Hills Boulevard home and on the streets of downtown Minneapolis, including in front of the mural of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony painted on the side of the Schmitt’s Music store. Only 15 copies of the press kit were ever produced, and otherwise the photographs from these session have rarely been seen.