Can You See Me
Renowned photographer Gered Mankowitz on photographing Hendrix shortly after he burst onto the London scene in ’66, including the iconic image that graces this issue’s cover…
“My first session with Jimi was very early February in ’67,” recalls Gered Mankowitz, who had already witnessed Hendrix performing before astonished Londoners at The Bag O’ Nails club in late ’66. “We began about 12:30 and finished about 4:30 when the roadie collected Jimi, Mitch and Noel to take them to the evening’s gig. That was what we laughingly called an all-day session. There was just the three of them and me, because I didn’t have an assistant, and Chas Chandler would never bother to come to any sessions of mine. The first thing I did was fed them – because I’d already learned that most musicians were always hungry and if they were coming to me at sort of 12-ish they would have just got out of bed and wouldn’t have had any breakfast, so feeding was key. It was a great icebreaker. And Jimi was lovely: very quiet, very modest, very funny – lots of giggles, lots of laughing. Not remotely the wild man that you experienced on stage. I think they were talking about the gigs because they were working so hard and one night was beginning to blur into another: they were playing Hastings Pier that evening, if I remember rightly.
“One thing sticks in my mind: it was a time when all musicians, male ones, wanted to be mean, moody and sexy. But every time they tried to be in the camera, everybody broke up laughing – particularly Mitch who had this sweet little baby face. In those days, the laughing pictures never really got seen. But they’re the most charming. When you look at Mitch and Noel [later on], you see people perhaps slightly dressing for the part. They had their hair permed to look more like Jimi, to give them sort of Jimi-type afros, but in that very first session they hadn’t done that yet and there was a funkiness to the band that began to get lost almost within weeks. I don’t think they ever looked better.”
To immerse yourself in Gered’s superb work with Jimi, seek out his book The Experience: Jimi Hendrix at Mason’s Yard from Insight Editions (http://bit.ly/2aW2aeZ ) or visit www.mankowitz.com