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MICK ROCK P Surname) Wasinlondon Born In1948,One Rey,Del Kate Moss and Father John Misty

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MICK ROCK P Surname) Wasinlondon Born In1948,One Rey,Del Kate Moss and Father John Misty NIGHTMARE “PhilPHOTOSHOOT? Lynott, 1973. I’d just met him. We got on very well. My photos appeared on the back covers of three Thin Lizzy albums. But it was my first time using a Hasselblad and I loaded the film the wrong way round. But he was very amused by it all and we did a great re-shoot!” Rock and Pop in New York in 1999 With Bowie in 1973 Rock with Syd Barrett in 1971 “MUSIC IS MICK ROCK WHAT PUMPED MICK ROCK 54 MY DESIRE TO 55 COVER STAR PURSUE THIS. With Lou Reed in 1975 I LOVED THE figures. Somehow, those two shots seemed to ROCKERS, THE have defined the images of both forever.” What eventually led Rock to both Pop and POWER THEY Reed was his fateful decision to photograph Bowie in 1972 – and he went on to document STAR COVER COVER STAR COVER PROJECTED He documented the 1970s, working with some of the most famous artists Bowie’s meteoric rise. “Somebody had given With a relaxed Freddie Mercury in the 80s MICK ROCK ONSTAGE, THEIR me a copy of Hunky Dory, which had yet to on the planet, including David Bowie, Bob Marley, Queen and the be a hit, although it was starting to percolate. UNPREDICTABLE I loved Life On Mars?, for which I made the Sex Pistols. Teri Saccone meets legendary photographer Mick Rock video in the summer of 1973. Besides the NATURE” music, I’d seen some pictures of David, with his innovative hairdo and wild outfits and I hotographer Mick Rock’s searing of three children. His father, David, was a civil shop and took over. This really wasn’t much of I loved the rockers, the power they projected decided to seek him out, which wasn’t difficult images have dominated pop servant. Attending Cambridge University a career trajectory in the late 60s.” onstage, their unpredictable nature, the back then, as he was eager to get publicity.” music for nearly half a century. on a scholarship (“my parents couldn’t Serendipitously, Rock found himself at the freedom they fomented. And I was game for One notorious image Rock shot depicts He’s not only shot seminal have afforded that education”), studying centre of both the glam and punk movements, just about anything then. I was not interested Bowie kneeling before guitarist Mick Ronson portraits of countless musicians, modern languages and literature, Mick began and had a talent for spotting burgeoning stars, in a career. I wanted adventures.” – what’s come to be known as the ‘guitar but also over 100 album sleeves. photography quite accidentally, while he was and an instinctual knack for photography, fellatio’ picture. Many years later, in 2002, Rock possesses a larger-than-life personality under chemical influence. despite never studying it. STARDUST MEMORIES when they were collaborating on their first Pbut is devoid of pretence and remains self- “I was tripping on LSD with a young lady. “I wasn’t constrained by too much technical Rock’s work can be divided into two spheres: book about the Ziggy Stardust era, the singer reflective. An avid yoga practitioner, he’s still I picked up a friend’s camera and loved the knowledge,” he says. “I learnt as I went along. the more stylised, studio shots and those told Rock the shot was merely him trying to got the fire inside. When we speak, he’s just added intensity and explosions it made as And often the mistakes I made turned out with a gritty, raw vibe. His album sleeves ‘bite’ Ronson’s guitar, not simulate oral sex returned from Mexico City for a museum I clicked,” he says. He also realised that: “Rock to be creatively positive! I barely used a light encompass both sides. “I don’t do it much as many presumed. “‘At first, I was standing retrospective of his David Bowie photos. ’n’ rollers were the modern-day equivalent of meter, would clip-test the film, and judge anymore, but back in the day, I was a wicked and biting,’ David explained. ‘But it was the Despite being dubbed ‘The Man Who Shot the poets I was enamoured with, the English from that how many stops it would need performance photographer. The covers of way Mick swung his guitar that forced me to The 70s’, he remains relevant and highly in- and French Romantics: Rimbaud, Baudelaire, to be pushed to achieve the result required. Transformer and Raw Power are both live go down’. David immediately knew that this demand; recent subjects have included Lana Byron, Shelley, Keats and the American “Without rock ’n’ roll, I would not have shots. You learn how to do lots of different gesture would garner attention. As he came Del Rey, Kate Moss and Father John Misty. Beats: Kerouac, Ginsberg…” Rock’s career developed as a lensman. I had no interest in things when you shoot in a variety of ways. offstage, he asked me: ‘Did you get it?’. David Michael David Rock (yes, it’s his real progressed organically. “I wasn’t looking to be being a fashion or news photographer. Music Back then, not many people knew much of liked to stir things up in terms of his sexuality surname) was born in London in 1948, one a photographer. It moved into my life, set up is what pumped my desire to pursue this. Lou or Iggy. They were strictly ‘underground’ then, so the timing didn’t hurt.” Mick and Joan Jett in 1982 CLASSIC COVERS “Deadmau5,RELUCTANT until I showed him SUBJECT? a copy of my book Exposed with a double-page spread of Tommy Lee from Mötley Crüe, who turned out to be a very good friend of his. Then he was ready to shoot.” MICK ROCK Sex Pistols, Aerosmith, Siouxsie And The and long-time friend. “She was so photogenic, Banshees, Tina Turner, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, you couldn’t take a bad photo of her. Truly the Thin Lizzy and Jerry Garcia during the Dead’s modern-day Marilyn Monroe.” lauded Europe ’72 tour. Rock makes no secret of his former excesses One of Rock’s most beloved shots is the (“I snorted half of Bolivia”). However, the album cover of Queen II. “I didn’t really know debauchery caught up with him and he their music, but when they played me their underwent a quadruple heart bypass in 1996, album, I said: ‘Wow, Led Zeppelin meets featured in the 2016 documentary SHOT!. “It Ziggy Stardust!’, which sealed the deal. They was an interesting experience and it cleaned were a democracy except when it came to the me up. Now I use yoga, meditation and Furthermore, the onstage pairing of Bowie visuals. Then, Freddie normally got his way.” massages instead of chemicals.” and Ronson made them “the most fabulously His fame enticed high-fashion label Gucci beautiful-looking duo in music ever”. PICTURE THIS to shoot their latest, edgy campaign earlier Rock’s first studio experience was shooting In addition to music photography for this year. “Gucci are super-hip. When they Bowie in 1973, resulting in the famous ‘suit magazines, albums and record labels, Rock approached me, I was taken aback, but they SYD BARRETT QUEEN and saxophone’ photo. He took over 5,000 was the chief photographer on the set of The were fans of my work. It was the Bowie THE MADCAP LAUGHS QUEEN II pictures of Bowie as Ziggy Stardust alone, Rocky Horror Picture Show and directed iconic connection which planted that seed.” reconvening with him in later years for videos such as Bowie’s The Jean Genie and We ask Rock what it is, in his view, that “I didn’t know what I was doing and the result is grainy, which “This was actually inspired by a photograph of Marlene Dietrich more shoots. Rock was pretty much the lone Space Oddity. These videos are now lauded as defines a compelling shot. “You want more made it look painterly, reflective. We wanted to use the shot from the film Shanghai Express. When I explained the idea to photographer on the glam scene at the time, timeless classics and have become as revered than just a pretty picture,” he replies. “You with the naked lady in the background, but we (myself and Syd) Freddie, he got where I was coming from right away. We also shooting the New York Dolls, Roxy Music as some of Rock’s still photos. “I recently want something as strong as the music. were not in charge of that. We were friends for years, took shot it with an alternate white background, which ended up MICK ROCK and Cockney Rebel, among others. lectured at the Brooklyn Museum on directing A great photo should be like a hit single, LSD together. Syd had everything: the looks and talent. inside or on the back. It took time to set up those shots and I used MICK ROCK “People ask me why I have all the best the Bowie videos. Not my photographs! I also something that keeps drawing you back I’d photographed musicians before, but this was different. Syd a ladder to shoot from above, which was quite a feat. Freddie 56 pictures of that era, and it’s only because there did videos for The Kinks, McCartney and for another look.” was very charismatic and he had the aura of a poète maudit, was the arm-twister in that band. He wanted to go for the black- 57 were no other photographers around until Ace Frehley in the 80s. I do these lectures, When he started out, rock stars were which made him the perfect subject for me.
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