KANYE WEST
Photograph by Martin Schoeller
Jan. 23, 2006
Los Angeles

''It wasn't my easiest shoot,'' says Schoeller of his session with the hip-hop maestro at L.A.'s 5th and Sunset studio, which had been hastily rescheduled after West previously canceled at the very last minute. ''When he arrived, the first thing [he said] was that he was bigger than Elvis, and during the scheduled four hours, three were spent just talking to him about his clothes and how he should be posed. He wanted the very best, and a very classic photo, and kept asking us about how we would have shot the Beatles.''