EXCLUSIVE: Celebrity photographer Manny Hernandez talks capturing iconic candid snaps of O.J. Simpson, young Melania Trump, Jennifer Lopez, and other stars in Miami in the late 1990s

The June 13, 2000 edition of the tabloid National Enquirer carried a grim warning for the party-loving blonde splashed across its front page.

'O.J. Attacks lover: You'll die like Nicole,' blared the headline, a none-too-subtle reference to the grisly 1994 killing of Nicole Brown Simpson.

The young woman photographed cozying up to O.J. Simpson was Christie Prody, the former NFL star's latest squeeze and a dead ringer for the ex-wife he was infamously cleared of murdering.

Prody didn't end up dead but their on-again, off-again romance did eventually fizzle.

That particular tabloid tryst is long forgotten but what lives on is the comical image of Prody and O.J. goofing around in a sombrero – and the extraordinary story of how it came about.

It's one of numerous surreal scenes depicted in an upcoming book by showbiz photographer Manny Hernandez who marked the launch by giving DailyMail.com an exclusive glimpse into his archive.

'I photograph the famous and the infamous. And I never ask too many questions,' laughed Hernandez, 52, recalling his chaotic encounter with The Juice.

Hernandez was heading inside Caffe Abbracci, a swish Italian eatery in his native Miami, to look for O.J. when he spotted a mariachi band serenading nearby diners with guitars and trumpets.

'I told the mariachis: "Hey O.J. wants to meet you and take your picture". They were ecstatic,' he recalled.

'I went into the other room and said: "Hey O.J. the mariachis want to meet you". They all came into the room and it just happened, O.J. grabbed a guitar, one of the guys put a hat on him.

'It wasn't exactly conventional but everyone had a lot of fun and I got my pictures.'

Hernandez made his name chronicling the array of stars who flocked to Magic City's pulsating dance clubs and neon-lit beach parties in the 1990s.

Over the past three decades he has photographed the likes of J.Lo, Charlie Sheen, Dennis Hopper, and Donald Trump, along with seven other US presidents dating back to Jimmy Carter.

His collection includes Bill Clinton paramour Monica Lewinsky and ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who flew in for a book signing and was lauded by Cuban exiles who shared the Iron Lady's loathing for socialism.

There's also an unlikely shot of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev taken as he left a Miami Beach restaurant during a trip to the States in the late 90s.

'I asked how his dinner was and he said, 'good steak'. It wasn't much but I'll take it from the man who helped bring down the Berlin Wall,' Hernandez chuckled, imitating Gorbachev's thick Russian accent.

Hernandez shot several young starlets, some of whom he had never heard of. 

One of those was Christina Aguilera who was about to go global with her 1999 smash hit, Genie in a Bottle.

A sweet, shy Colombian singer, largely unknown in the US, brought her mom and dad along to her shoot. It was none other than Shakira.

Then there were his efforts to photograph the ever-elusive Prince, who owned Grand Slam Nightclub in Miami Beach but tended to perform in near-darkness.

'He was always eccentric, very shy. When he was on stage they said he had a button on the floor which he would hit when he wanted a light on him,' Hernandez recalled.

'You might get three songs and the first is in pitch darkness. I'm a good photographer but I can't shoot in the dark.'

Raised in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, Hernandez dabbled in music and DJing but discovered photography in college.

His teacher grumbled that he wasn't taking pictures of dogs and flowers like the rest of the class.

But while his peers were submitting work to the student newspaper at FIU, Hernandez was combing the clubs for exclusives he could sell to the Miami Herald to make ends meet.

He tapped into Miami's status as the 'Hollywood of Latin music' and began to take photos of late Mexican singer Selena, Gloria Estefan, and legendary Cuban singer Celia Cruz.

'Miami didn't have the fanfare of New York or LA. People would come for the weekend to leave the spotlight and let loose a little. They let their guard down,' Hernandez explained.

'I would get tips from everybody from waiters to restaurant owners saying, guess who's here. People gave me access because I was polite, respectful. I wasn't intrusive.'

The thriving Latin scene was becoming a major draw for mainstream celebs, leading to a 1993 encounter with one of the biggest actors of the era, Eddie Murphy.

'I was a young guy, 20-something years old. I didn't expect to see a world-renowned star at one of these events. Suddenly I'm looking at Eddie Murphy from Beverly Hills Cop,' said Hernandez.

'The bodyguards let me shoot but when they needed to push me out of the way they did. I almost got run over by his limo.

'The adrenaline was really pumping. During that time I was shooting film. You shot what you had, ten exposures, 15 exposures.

'It was very different to having a 1 gig card and shooting 2,000 pictures in a second.'

Trump is another larger-than-life figure who features frequently in Hernandez's back catalog, either hitting the Miami party scene or hosting galas at his Palm Beach residence, Mar-a-Lago.

'At the time he was the big mogul from New York. He would work the room and make his way into all the pictures. I don't know if he chased fame or if fame chased him,' said Hernandez.

Among his latest collection is a 1999 snap of Slovenian model Melania Knauss taken at a party for Ocean Drive magazine.

The future Mrs. Trump looked into the camera with something akin to a faint smile – or perhaps a mild glare – as she clutched a copy of the magazine bearing her photo on the cover.

'She wasn't married to Donald Trump at the time, they were dating. Melania was fairly reserved, maybe because she didn't speak much English and was much younger than Trump.

'But she loved her cover, that's for sure,' Hernandez remarked.

Hernandez spent time in New York where he honed his skills under the tutelage of legendary showbiz photographer Ron Galella, the so-called 'Godfather' of paparazzi, who died last year at age 91.

Galella would famously go to extreme lengths to get his shot, once spending days locked in a warehouse to be in position to snap intimate photos of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor bickering over breakfast.

His dedication to his craft left a deep impression on Hernandez, who has dedicated CANDIDS Miami 2, which launches this weekend, to his mentor and close friend.

Hernandez has worked for the likes of Getty, Ocean Drive, and the New York Times but he's never had any qualms about selling his shots to the tabloids - or shooting the wild characters they're interested in.

But he cautioned: 'There's a careful line between being obnoxious and being respectful. I never hide in trees. I wouldn't stand outside a restaurant waiting hours for people, that's for sure.

'You could get a picture of somebody slipping and falling on the floor but that's not what I'm looking for. I like to capture moments. Something unique, something candid. There's an artistry to this thing.' 

CANDIDS Miami 2 is published by Wynwood Books and launches this weekend at the Miami Book Fair