Kanye West recently previewed his upcoming tenth studio album, DONDA at Mercedez-Benz Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
Guest invites were exclusive and high profile celebrities and press presence was limited.
So you can only imagine why opinions are divided on the photographer who literally forged his entry into the event, resulting in some of the most viral photographs of West circulating at the moment.
The photographer in question, Thornton Drury posted a video to his TikTok (since deleted) which documents his diabolical plan which saw him with a floor position at the arena, allowing him to take prime real estate photos of Kanye West.
In the TikTok, Drury shows how he ended up inside the arena, starting off by turning up to the venue without a pass to take a photo of one.
The photo wasn’t good enough, so he ends up using a photo of the DONDA merch from Twitter which he ends up photoshopping into a pass.
Drury then prints it off and returns to the venue with his photography gear. “From here on out it’s confidence and moving quickly so they don’t get a look at the pass,” he narrates.
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He makes it passed security and says, “Like a charm baby.”
Eventually Drury finds himself in the venue.
He recounts, “I ended up right on the floor. I also had my professional cameras on me so security wouldn’t think twice. So I figured why not get as close as I possibly could. As you can see I got pretty close. I actually had better seats than Kim Kardashian.”
An image taken by Drury also was allegedly purchased by one of West’s producers. West’s DONDA album is now set to release on August 6th. Watch the TikTok video here.
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