Jonathan Mannion (born December 3, 1970) is a photographer and film director. Mannion has shot over 300 album covers working with hip hop and R&B performers including Jay Z,

Dr. Dre Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...

, Aaliyah, Outkast,

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated Flow (rapping), flow in her rapping, alter e ...

Brandy Norwood Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), better known by her mononym Brandy, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and model. She is known for her distinctive sound, characterized by her peculiar timbre, voice-layer ...

and

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his progressive musical styles and socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generat ...

. He was the photographer behind the

Beats by Dre Beats Electronics LLC (also known as Beats by Dr. Dre, or simply Beats by Dre) is an American consumer audio products manufacturer headquartered in Culver City, California. The company was founded by music producer Dr. Dre and record company exec ...

" Straight Outta" campaign.

Early life and education

With English and American ancestry, he was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. His father and mother are both Midwest artists. His mother is from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and his father from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Mannion studied at

Kenyon College Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...

in Ohio graduating with honors. In 1996 he moved from

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Career

New York and Richard Avedon

Mannion worked for a year with photographer

Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', ''Vogue'' and ''Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and danc ...

in his

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

studio. Mannion also worked with photographers

Ben Watts Benjamin Oliver Anthony Watts; can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHyvx2EoWnk (born 19 January 1967) is a British-born photographer based in New York City, whose work has been published in various international fashion magazines, ...

, Steven Klein, and Marc Hom.

Jay-Z and hip hop

In 1996, Mannion was commissioned to take photos of

rapper Jay-Z for ''

Reasonable Doubt Beyond a reasonable doubt is a legal standard of proof required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. It is a higher standard of proof than the balance of probabilities standard commonly used in civil cases, bec ...

''.

Lawsuit

In ''Mannion versus Coors Brewing Company'' Mannion successfully sued Coors for their unlicensed use of his photograph in one of their advertisements.

Album credits

References

External links

Mannion's siteMTV News Segment, June 2008
*http://www.dotspotter.com/news/788761_Aaliyah_In_a_Jonathan_Mannion_PhotoShoot *http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1299131135&channel=196565916 *http://www.rebrand.com/page372.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20101120021434/http://www.videostatic.com/vs/sugar_management/index.html *http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=cityguide/profile&id=1138575&categories=Exhibits&venueid=791999 *http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/lifestyle-features/id.1085/title.jonathan-mannion-desire/p.2 *http://www.freshnessmag.com/v4/2006/06/26/jonathan-mannion-222-gallery-la/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Mannion, Jonathan American music video directors American photographers Living people Kenyon College alumni 1970 births People from Cleveland