Bluffer’s Notes
The life and times of a rock ’n’ roll iconoclast
At a glance, learn about pop and rock portrait pro Gered Mankowitz
Any list of the great rock and pop portrait photographers would have to include Gered
Mankowitz. In a career spanning 55 years, Mankowitz has created classic images of a wealth of stars including Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Elton John and Kate Bush.
What was his background?
Mankowitz was born in London in 1946. His father Wolf was an author and playwright, and his mother Ann was a psychotherapist. After a troubled education, he left school at 15 with no qualifications. However, some photographs he took on a school trip to the Netherlands were seen by photographer Tom Blau, who took Mankowitz on as an apprentice at his photo agency, Camera Press. How did he get into music photography after that? In 1963, he began working for the show business photographer Jeff Vickers and started taking pictures of celebrities. After shooting an album cover for the folk rock duo Chad & Jeremy, Mankowitz began working in the fast-growing music industry. He opened his first studio in London and shot portraits of Marianne Faithfull. Through that connection he was asked to photograph the Rolling Stones in 1965. How long did he work with the Stones? He began by shooting the cover image for the Stones’ third album, Out of Our
Heads. Band manager Andrew Loog Oldham invited him to be the official photographer on the 1965 US tour to 48 cities in nine weeks. Mankowitz was just 18 years old.
He continued working with the Stones until 1967, shooting the cover for
Between the Buttons and other albums. Which other musical artists did he go on to photograph? Many of the major solo artists and bands of the 1960s onwards, including The Small Faces, Free, Traffic, Slade, Eurythmics, Duran Duran and Oasis.
Mankowitz’s professional work isn’t restricted to rock and pop portraits, though: he has also had a career in advertising, creating images for brands as diverse as Shell and Jack Daniels. What’s his most famous picture? His iconic shot of guitarist Jimi Hendrix, taken in 1967. He photographed the guitar hero before his worldwide success. Hendrix was wearing a vintage Hussars military jacket bought in London’s Portobello Road. Mankowitz had hoped it would be the cover of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first album, but the record company wanted a colour shot. It’s now one of the great rock portraits of the era. What does Mankowitz do now? He continues to hold exhibitions and maintains his extensive archive. He lives in Cornwall and lectures at Falmouth University. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2016.