Michael Putland
First-rank photographer BORN 1947
Charming, able and energetic, Harrow-born Michael Putland began photographing musicians in his teens. In 1971 he was made staff photographer for Disc & Music Echo: his debut assignment shooting Mick Jagger led to a long association with The Rolling Stones and cemented a remarkable career that saw him, he quipped, photographing “everyone from Abba to Zappa.” Among his most celebrated images were John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the White Room at Tittenhurst Park in 1971 and David Bowie painting his ceiling at home in Beckenham in 1972, but as his portraits of The Who, The Clash, Prince, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin, Bryan Ferry, Queen, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan, Blondie, Leonard Cohen – plus a memorable triple-header of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Jagger – and many more showed, his talents went much further. Putland lived in New York from 1977 to 1983 and founded the photo agency Retna; he also continued to work in the music press and for major labels. Until recently he sold hand-made silver gelatin prints, and this year published his career-spanning book, The Music I Saw. He had been suffering from cancer.