UNITED KINGDOM: Photographer Gered Mankowitz exhibits Rolling Stones pictures in London

Record ID: 336506

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Photographer Gered Mankowitz exhibits Rolling Stones pictures in London
  • Date: 12th September 2002
  • Summary: COLOURED PHOTO 'PRIMROSE HILL'
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVA2M1T2HX1RCSU4K676CUP0BN53
  • Story Text: The Rolling Stones never seem to be out of the news
    for long. Now, a new exhibition by their famous unofficial
    photographer Gered Mankowitz has opened in London. Initially
    regarded as one of the family, Mankowitz trailed the band for
    three years in the late sixties and produced the first images
    that would define one of the greatest rock bands in the world.



    Unofficial Stones photographer Gered Mankowitz
    launched his exhibition of Rolling Stones photographs in
    London on Thursday (September 12). The exhibition features
    more than 80 photographs taken by Mankowitz from 1965 to 1967.

    Initially regarded as one of the family, Mankowitz filmed the
    five-man band onstage, backstage and at home, documenting
    their most important musical period.

    Mankowitz was only 18 when he started to photograph
    Marianne Faithfull. That shoot went so well that Faithfull's
    manager asked Mankowitz to take on another assignment and
    photograph a rising young band. The band's name was The
    Rolling Stones.

    "They seemed very eager to get on with it. The atmosphere
    was friendly, easy-going, not at all intimidating. I felt
    terribly confident. I had that cocky confident youth anyway
    and I just related to them as I would have done to anyone else
    of similar age", Mankowitz remembers his first encounter with
    them.

    During the next three years Mankowitz's photos charted the
    Stones' growing fame and confidence, and the highs and lows of
    life on the road. He recorded the phenomenal energy of Mick
    Jagger on stage, the weariness and the mischievousness of the
    young Stones and the hysteria of their younger fans. But he
    also says that touring wasn't all that.

    "The grittier aspects of touring. The sexier, druggier
    aspects of touring were not very prevalent. I mean there
    weren't a lot of drugs around. There was some alcohol, there
    was a bit of dope, it wasn't really anything heavy and if
    there was it was kept very much in the background, I wasn't
    really aware of it at all."
    Because Mankowitz was regarded as almost one of the
    family, he was trusted to photograph them in all winds and
    weathers - producing a moody photo of a cold and
    grumpy-looking huddle of Stones, wrapped up in their
    overcoats, at dawn after working all night.

    His most important picture, he says, is the picture taken
    for the Stones album Between the Buttons. The band, a very
    young Mick Jagger in the centre, look as though they are
    dissolving into the misty, medieval atmosphere behind them. He
    recalls that it started out as one of his most difficult
    photographs, taken very early, after an all-night recording
    session. It was freezing cold, about 6:30am, up on Primrose
    Hill in North London and Mankowitz still remembers Brian Jones
    as the most difficult band member to be photographed.

    "Although they were cold, and they were a little ratty, I
    think they understood that I was getting something, that
    something special was happening. But Brian Jones was being
    quite difficult, sort of lurking in his collar of his big
    brown furcoat, hiding, and I was really concerned that he was
    going to mess the pictures up and I said to Andrew I'm woried
    about Brian and he said no whatever Brian does is going to be
    fine with The Stones and he was absolutely right."
    In 1967, the Stones, who wanted more control over their
    careers, kicked out their manager and Mankowitz went too.

    "One day Mick in front of me came up with another
    photographer and announced to Andrew, this guy was going to do
    the record cover and this is what was going to happen and I
    just knew that was it. I packed my bags and that was it and I
    didn't see them again properly, professionally if you like
    until 1982", he remembers.

    They went their separate ways. Malkowitz continued to take
    photos of famous stars such as Jimi Hemdrix and Elton John and
    as for The Stones - they're currently on tour in The States.

    The exhibition will continue until Mid-November.
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