Hype Williams To Release Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes Photo Book
Legendary hip-hop music video auteur Hype Williams is set to release a book of photographs he shot of one of R&B’s most dearly missed icons, TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, according to Williams.
For context, Williams and Lopes became friends after he worked with TLC on their acclaimed cybernetic “No Scrubs” music video and Left Eye’s debut solo release, “Block Party," according to fan site TLC-Army.com. The acclaimed video director accompanied Lopes on one of her soul-searching journeys to Honduras in 2001 to seek out Dr. Sebi for spiritual healing. According to the fan page, Lopes had originally planned to release a visual book, which she wished to title Open, of her trip to the Latin American country. Thanks to Williams, it appears her dreams will finally come true.
Williams recently announced the news of the book via social media. On October 30, he posted a behind-the-scenes photo from a shoot he did with Lopes during the Honduras trip, as she’s seen dressed in a bubblegum pink pajama set.
“Left Eye was the sweetest! Like my little baby, and a good friend. We shot this in Honduras at Usha Village about a year before she passed,” the acclaimed video director reflected. He also noted that he was sitting on “hundreds of rolls of film” containing unreleased footage from the trip.
As an outpouring of love and support from TLC fans filled the comments, begging for Williams to drop a few more previews, Williams graciously thanked the fans for their support. “The real thing to do would be to release them all as one Lisa Lopes book. That’s what she wanted,” he stated.
Williams popped back into the comments a week later with the exciting news that the Lopes family had reached out to him to do a “special limited book and gallery show” paying homage to Left Eye’s legacy. On Sunday (Nov. 17), Williams took to Instagram to give fans an update on the status of the photo book and spoke on its theme.
“Lisa’s photo book is about openness, what she wanted to convey with the images we took almost twenty years ago was what she found in Honduras at Sebi’s Village, the feeling of finally being free,” he wrote in the post’s caption. “Very happy that the images we took that trip and that she always wanted to share with her fans is finally in the works!!! Hopefully before 2021!!!!”
In the meantime, Williams has been publishing some of the exclusive portraits he captured during their trip, including images of the two grocery shopping at a local market. Although it’s not clear if these same photos will be included in the forthcoming photo book, it’s an intimate look at some of Left Eye’s final moments.
It’s safe to say that the TLC’s rapstress legacy is in good hands with the legendary Hype Williams.
