The
Vox photo editor said, “We want pictures of Ice-T holding a gun,” and I remember thinking, no-one on this planet tells
Ice-T what to do. But what the hell? Doesn’t necessarily hurt to ask. As it happens, Ice was perhaps the most consummate professional I ever photographed, and the session at his gorgeous white house in the Hollywood Hills was progressing well, so I said, “Ice, can we do a picture of you holding a gun?” He smiled and disappeared for a few minutes, returning with a luxurious-looking black briefcase. He slowly opened it, and nestling in the black velvet lining was what I - an Englishman who’d never even come close to a gun before - figured was a bad-news matte black semi-automatic pistol. I followed him up onto the sun-drenched white roof overlooking Hollywood, and he took out the gun. Without requiring art direction from me, he put on this "don’t-fuck-with-me" face. Job well done.
