Alicia Keys, photographed for The Diary of Alicia Keys in NYC by Warwick Saint in 2003.

Warwick used a Pentax 6x7 film camera to capture the singer half covered by a piano. 

“This image is a test shot, and it was actually taken from the Polaroid,” the photographer tells social media. “In the days of film photography, you would capture your best shot on a Polaroid because that's when the energy on set seems to be more relaxed. You're just doing a light test, and everybody appears to be kind of relaxed.

Then, when you say, ‘Okay, now we're shooting,’ and you load the film into the camera, there's this sense that now we have to do it.

Sometimes, that wouldn't be the best shot because there's all this anticipation and energy that now it has to be the perfect shot. In this particular instance, the Polaroid was the best shot and it gave very beautiful quality for this album cover. I'm really, really proud of it. Kudos to Alicia Keys.”

A painter, photographer, and mixed media artist, South African-born Warwick Saint has captured the visual landscape of millennial culture. In the 2000's, He reimagined the role of lighting in photography by adapting techniques from scientific applications of flash and stroboscopics. Creating album covers for artists including Missy Elliott, Whitney Houston, and Lady Gaga. In 2018, He moved beyond traditional photography and began exploring his work through painting.