My big break
Rock photographer Neal Preston on the Jimmy Page shot that made the photo world sit up and take notice
Now 65, Neal Preston continues to photograph rock bands all over the world. He’s visited Russia with Billy Joel, China with Wham! and Japan with Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Michael Jackson. He’s shot stories and covers for magazines including Newsweek, Time,
RollingStone and People. www.prestonpictures.com
When they began their ninth American tour in 1973, the British rock band Led Zeppelin were at their peak. By the time they took to the stage at the San Diego Sports Arena on 28 May, they had already played 15 out of a total of 37 concerts featuring a set list of their best-known songs. Among the accredited photographers that evening was 21-year-old Neal Preston: “Before the band went off for their first encore, I shot a picture of Jimmy Page,” he says. “He’s not playing guitar but he’s holding his left hand in a very weird way with a very strange smile on his face. It turned out he was in a lot of pain because he had hurt his hand two or three days before.”
Neal grew up in New York and became passionate about photography while still at high school. “I started taking my camera to rock and roll concerts as something to do,” he recalls. “I was a huge music fan and into photography, and those two hobbies ended up working together.” After graduating, Neal moved to LA in 1971 and secured a retainer deal with Atlantic Records. He believes this picture of Page was instrumental in the band leader’s decision to select Neal as Led Zeppelin’s official photographer for their 1975 North American tour. Exhilarated and Exhausted “Jimmy had seen that photo afterwards,” he says. “It may have been printed in the Los Angeles Times. When my name was proposed the following year to go out with them as their official guy in 1975, Jimmy had to okay it, and I’m pretty certain that picture had something to do with it.”
Neal’s unique access to Led Zeppelin is a big part of his new book, Exhilarated and Exhausted, which features more than 350 of his photos from a career spanning nearly 50 years, including shots of The Who, Queen, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bob Marley and the Rolling Stones. But it’s Led Zeppelin who Neal believes are number one: “When you work with someone like Led Zeppelin, that’s the top of the mountain. You can have the Rolling Stones, you can have my favourite band, The Who, but if you say to someone, ‘I worked for Led Zeppelin, I took the famous picture of Jimmy Page drinking Jack Daniels, or I took the picture of Robert Plant holding the white dove,’ to this day I get a look that’s some kind of amalgam of wonder, jealousy, amazement and disbelief.”
Exhilarated and Exhausted, by Neal Preston, is published by Reel Art Press and is on sale now for £45/$75