Each photo screams “Aaliyah” in different ways. There’s the photo showing a more rock ’n’ roll aesthetic that she was later leaning toward, as Aaliyah is decked in black leather and leaned up against a hot rod with flames chasing along the side of the car. Another look includes Aaliyah wearing a crop top with her real hometown of “Brooklyn” sprawled across her chest. The background varies from a deep blue to one where she’s posted up with the projects in the distance, in a New York City public playground, leaned against a geometric jungle-gym dome.
There’s the shot of her in the Roberto Cavalli dress that’s so long it kisses the floor, as Aaliyah looks almost like an angelic mermaid posing gracefully for the camera. Another shot shows Aaliyah in a denim bikini top lying against a patchwork tapestry made of various sewn-together denim fabric pieces (some even have jeans pockets). Another studio shot shows Aaliyah dressed in a formfitting fur coat with snow leopard-print pants, leaned casually on a weathered brown leather chair. The aforementioned Cuban bedroom décor shot was taken in an ocean-blue scenery with a white bed, as Aaliyah is clad in a dress that matches the blue walls, gazing seductively into the camera.
Then, of course, there’s the fluffy cheetah-print faux fur coat and white pants ensemble, as Aaliyah dons rose-tinted shield sunglasses. These shots were later used as the artwork for the I Care 4 U project. “Some of them had to be pretty simple,” Mannion explains, “because it was press; it wasn’t about a super-elaborate setup. We got through it, and we gave it all a different vibe through the styling, coupled with the simple sets we brought in.”
Mannion portrayed Aaliyah as multidimensional, which was accurate, considering she was then twenty-two years old, full of experiences in both her personal and professional life. She had fully come into her own, as an R&B princess who had taken form and was on the brink of stardom. Looking back, the shoot runs almost like a timeline of the span of her career—from her youthful Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number days, to her One in a Million era, with flames and leather, to entering a more seductive phase as she entered adulthood with Aaliyah. This shoot had it all, serving as the most comprehensive visual journey of Baby Girl.
“How can I say it more eloquently? It’s like, she’s our version of Marilyn Monroe,” Mannion says. “She dealt with a lot, survived a lot, like really battled through, still made really pure, amazing music from her soul—working with incredibly talented artists like Tank and Static Major. And you know, it’s just like, those are the people that you really want to win and deserve to win.”
In just a few short hours, Mannion managed to capture the essence of Aaliyah. The photo shoot became iconic. So much so that years later Jonathan Mannion gifted Drake a giant original print from the shoot to hang on his wall. Mannion knew that Drake had a tattoo of Aaliyah on his back, and when he visited Drake’s home he saw that there were empty walls with no art. Aaliyah’s portrait ultimately began Drake’s art collection, as prior to that Drake was photocopying images and hanging them on his walls, not investing in high art. Now he had Baby Girl as the first of his art pieces.
Given the switch in Aaliyah’s schedule that day, this photo shoot would be regarded as Aaliyah’s last, and had the magazine photographer not changed the timing of the second shoot of the day, Mannion’s photo shoot wouldn’t have been the one to visually close out her legacy.
“I used it in one of my TED Talks actually,” Mannion reflects on that shoot. “It’s like you never know what moment is going to be a really critical moment, years from the moment that you’re experiencing. I think that this was one of those things. Like, had I not given the energy that I did, maybe I would have gotten five shots. Maybe it would have been like, ‘Oh, man, it was just too hard to get these other ones.’ But to say now that I just gave it my all—and then to know that I did that and achieved the pictures that I did—now means something more to the world because they’re the final images that were taken on a professional level. So you look back at these things, and it holds more weight.”
If on an abstract level a photograph is intended to take a still of the spirit of its subject, then Jonathan Mannion succeeded tenfold in his shoot with Aaliyah. It marked a strong finish to her history, while also leaving an impression on Mannion that he still thinks about to this day.
“Quite frankly, when people are like, ‘What’s the most important photo shoots that you did? What’s your sort of favorite?’ this is always in the top three,” Mannion admits. “There’s something about her, where everybody wanted to embrace her and protect her and really cherish the sweetness of her spirit.”
PHOTO OUTRO THREE: THE FINAL SHOT
In November 2001, Vibe magazine released what many regard as Aaliyah’s final cover story. The whirlwind of events that happened in the United States from Aaliyah’s death in August until the magazine’s release made her passing a delayed reaction for the world. It somehow was solidified as real with this cover. On the cover is Aaliyah in black and white, wearing a spaghetti-strapped white slip dress. In block letters at the bottom it reads: “AALIYAH DANA HAUGHTON, 1979–2001.” There it was: set in stone. She was gone. The photo remains a vivid part of her memory, perceived as the final image captured of Aaliyah. It wasn’t the last photo physically taken, yet it was the last photo seen by the world.
New York City photographer Eric Johnson met with Aaliyah for their photo shoot in 2001, right before her world started moving quickly. Johnson was and still is the quintessential representation of the gritty New York City photographers who so brilliantly capture the spirit of their subjects. He is a self-defined outcast of popular culture, yet his work has become cultural moments for everyone. Johnson is known for iconic photos, like The Notorious B.I.G. cuddled up next to Faith Evans in the car; a pic from that shoot also became the cover art for his eponymous single, “The Notorious B.I.G.” Johnson also shot the infamous visuals for Lauryn Hill’s masterpiece The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and his photos for Maxwell, Bruno Mars, and Lady Gaga all equally achieve Johnson’s gift for freezing a soul in time from behind the lens. His loft in midtown Manhattan became the stuff of legend, where he would throw epic parties and also photograph his subjects. It’s affectionately called Upstairs at Eric’s. To this day, Johnson shoots some of the most groundbreaking artists, using a combination of his own flare for edginess and the artist’s true essence. The day he shot Aaliyah, all bets were off on his traditional formula.
Aaliyah met Eric in passing prior to the shoot, exchanging hellos at one point or another at a restaurant in the city. He was assigned a photo feature in Entertainment Weekly with Aaliyah as she was in the chaotic promotional cycle for her final album. “Honestly, I would have definitely shot Aaliyah for any publication,” Johnson explains, “but once VIBE used the photos, it kind of took away from the fact that they started at EW.” He knew that her star was rising and that she was becoming a big deal in multiple industries. “They were preparing to make her the doll in films, which was rare,” he says, noting that musicians rarely make a successful transition to the movie world, but per industry rumblings, he heard that Aaliyah was going to be really groomed for Hollywood. That wasn’t why he agreed to shoot her; he genuinely enjoyed who she was and the music she was making. The fact that she was gorgeous and a “doll” (as he reiterates) made her the perfect muse for his camera lens.
It wasn’t his thing, really, to take very conventional photos of stars. On the contrary, he loved pushing his subjects to their creative limits. There was something different about Aaliyah from the moment he walked into the studio. The shoot took place in New York’s Pier59 Studios, just off the West Side Highway. Johnson arrived hungover after a night of raging, and Aaliyah was already there getting ready. “Her being bad the bitch that led, she got there early to set everything up,” he remembers. “She was someone on a mission, who knew what she was doing.”
Aaliyah arrived with a very specific vision for the shoot. She wanted it clean and stripped down. Her hair wasn’t in its usual poker-straigh
t style, but full and wavy. She was made up, but not dramatic—just a simple pink lip and a little eye shadow. Her shimmery slip dress was a stark contrast to the black and leather rock star chic phase she was just entering into with her final album. “A lot of those photos of Aaliyah, they could be in like a beauty campaign or something,” Johnson adds, “but you will never find another photo shoot of mine that ‘clean’ in a way. I feel like I really followed her lead—and I’ve worked with everybody—but there was something about her that I really respected, like she’s the boss. Whatever she wants. This is Aaliyah’s world and I just wanted everything to be nice.”
That “clean” look went against the grain of who Aaliyah was becoming, and instead of utilizing the creative eye of a photographer known for exploring that darker side, she posed a challenge for him to keep it light. It was a first for both of them. “I didn’t feel inspired to make her look like she was trying to be cool or edgy or any of those kinds of things,” Johnson continues. “These photos felt like just for her in particular.”
In the midst of the photo shoot, Eric recognized something in Aaliyah, where the two connected. “She knew who to click with, not based on us having a history,” he expresses. They saw each other. He was Eric Johnson, legendary photographer who preferred to exist on the outskirts of the mainstream. He was known to get “live” as he put it, parlaying the NYC party life. She was Aaliyah Haughton, musician who chose to work with fellow outcasts Missy Elliott and Timbaland to create something beautiful and substantial. She lived on pop music’s periphery; she wasn’t saccharine yet still came with the sweetness. He felt it; she felt it. During her prep of hair and makeup, a friend of Eric’s called him in the middle of the shoot. It was Michael Boadi, famed British hairstylist who Eric described as “cheeky, Black, and eccentric.” When Eric told him that he was shooting Aaliyah that day, his friend responded, “Let me speak to her.” Boadi and Aaliyah had actually known each other. Eric wasn’t handing the phone over that easily. “You would never have an artist on set and say, ‘Oh, my friend wants to speak to you,’ ” Eric adds, but given this unspoken connection, he acquiesced and asked Aaliyah if she would speak to his friend. “She was like ‘Gimme that phone!’ ” he continues, relaying how he watched Aaliyah gleefully chat with his friend. “They were like schoolgirls on the phone while she was getting made up. It was just another testament to how down she was.” To grab a phone and chat with an eccentric hairstylist was not out of the ordinary for someone as down as Baby Girl.
The photo shoot was immaculate and gorgeous. Aaliyah changes looks, from the Vibe cover’s white outfit to a black tank top, and then a black and gray marbled top, made of two pieces of fabric that meet in a cross at the front. Her poses are delicate, but without the fashion and makeup bells and whistles you see something greater: Aaliyah as an adult. This was not the same girl in her baggy pants, hiding behind dark sunglasses. She didn’t need a bandana or a beanie cap or even a flatiron to perfect her hairstyle. It was tousled and natural. She was a woman, and her spirit was captured in those photos before it was time for her to go.
After the shoot, Aaliyah reached out about the photos, which in and of itself was unique, judging from Johnson’s past experiences. “She wanted to see them. I feel like that’s rarely the case. Those people get shot all the time,” he explains. Aaliyah took the time to even survey the whole contact sheet and return it back to him. “She marked Xs on them and Os for the ones she appreciated, and the ones that she didn’t,” he says. It felt like everything moved far too quickly after that. “She asked for the photos, she signed which ones she liked, and then she passed away.”
He did get to see her one last time, however, which is how he knows his was not the last official photo shoot. “The last time I saw Aaliyah, I was walking the streets of New York and I walked past my one friend and he was with Aaliyah and they were doing a shoot for i-D magazine,” he explains. “My shoot was definitely one of the last, but it wasn’t the last.” The night she died, he was at a house party in Greenwich Village with Boadi. The radio was blaring Aaliyah back to back until they all paused to finally listen to the DJ’s interjections as to why this playlist was happening. That’s when he learned that she died. He and his friend were devastated but remembered that moment they both shared not too long ago. “It was cool we were together, because we had a connection together,” he remarks. “She was connected to us, somehow; we were like all real outcasts.”
The one image in white that has now circulated was defined as her last one. “The photos took on a life of their own,” he adds. Since Vibe used it for their cover, that became the story: Aaliyah’s last photo shoot was for Vibe magazine. “The kids online like to say that,” Johnson says. “People think they were for Vibe; they asked to see [the shoot] for their tribute cover and then they became iconic.”
His shoot was also featured in Vikki Tobak’s Contact High. “I mean, the thing I love about Eric’s photos is the story of how he showed her the images and she marked up which images she liked, which made it kind of collaborative,” Tobak says. “I was sort of taken aback at how many images she didn’t like; they’re all so beautiful, you know? They’re all perfect, but it just reminded me even a little bit about how women are when they look at photos of themselves, or when they try to, like, capture themselves in photos and they’re so critical. I was like, ‘Oh, right, Aaliyah is still that girl’; she was very much like every girl, you know, every girl in hip-hop, making her way in the world. I felt the photographs captured that expression.”
Over the years, Johnson has given fans the gift of the X and the O shots from that fateful photo shoot. While Aaliyah in the moment didn’t approve of certain shots—which he expresses were all categorically perfect thanks to the subject—in the absence of other relics from her stardom, he wanted to contribute to her legacy still in some way for the fans. There’s a lack of enough content from such a short life as it is, but even bigger than that, these were images that he held near and dear to his heart. It’s an act of kindness, while also making a statement. “When I look around and I see her image on all of this cheap bootleg stuff and see how people can rarely find her music, I kind of feel as if it is a bit of my responsibility to tell the story in a way,” he explains.
That day at Pier59 Studios was more special than either even imagined on the day it happened, yet there’s a reason why Aaliyah came with her own goal for the shoot in mind and blueprint for how the photos would and should look. It was like she chose the photographer for it, without even realizing it. “We landed in front of each other with a specific purpose that neither of us knew at the time,” Johnson remarks. The purpose was to create a final image of Aaliyah, where she looked so angelic that the image looks as though it were taken in the afterlife. And like so many, he says that she embodied that angelic aura, here on earth. “I just want kids to know that this was not because she passed away,” Johnson adds. “There was something about her when she was here. There was something deep inside of her that we all caught wind of but couldn’t explain it.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, thank you, God, for always keeping me and my pen up high (even when I’m low).
Thank you, Aaliyah. I hope you view this book from the heavens as a love letter to you. You were strong, you were brave, you were bold. You are my hero. I hope I made you proud.
To my mother, Anna Acquaviva Iandoli. Mommy, you are the angel on my shoulder and the light of my life, always. I know you and Grandma (and Pop-Pop and Great-Great) will continue to watch over me. I love you and miss you so much. #AnniesDaughter forever.
Prodigy, I hope you’re hanging out with my mom up there. Miss you.
To the Haughton and Hankerson family, thank you for birthing an icon. Rest In Peace to Michael Haughton, Mintis Hankerson, Eric Ferrell, Static Major, and DMX.
To Robert Guinsler and Sterling Lord Literistic. Thank you for always believing in me and my literary vision. And also for being my friend. Love you.
To Will Watkins and ICM, thank you for your support.
To Amar Deol and Atria Books/Simon & Schuster. I appreciate all of your help with this and talking me through this process. Thank you to Rakesh Satyal for bringing me into Atria, too!
Thank you Daddy and Rosie for checking in to see how my writing was going (in a pandemic). My sister Gina, my brother-in-law Travis, my brother Jimmy and my sister-in-law Ev. Love you all. To my nephew Tommy, get used to seeing your name in books. Zia loves you.
To Aunt Camille, for being my sounding board and fairy godmother, always. Love you, and Aunt Gae, Uncle Mike, Kevin, Kelsey, Danielle, and our angel Vince.
Thank you to Uncle Joe, Aunt Nancy, Kim, and Joe. Love you all.
To all of my Iandoli, Acquaviva, and Saccomano family. Much love and appreciation. Love you and thank you to my godmother, Roe, as well as Robin, Gloria, Felicia, Anita, and Mary Lou.
To my best friend, Maryum, for being right there with me when I went to Aaliyah’s gravesite. You literally are always beside me. I love you mostestest.
To my cousin Jenn and the Barber Family, for having a permanent scar, just so we could jump into the AstroTurf at Giants Stadium in ’98 to be closer to Aaliyah. Love you for always being down to ride. Hi Luvenci (and Nesta!).
To Christina, who cut off all of her hair when Baby Girl died. We mourned together that day. I’m still so sorry she passed on your birthday.
To Paulie, for being there through most of my Aaliyah fandom. Love you, Boo Boo!
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