There have been many great photographers specializing in rock ’n’ roll since the genre first captured the public’s imagination. However, only a select handful can claim to have been there at truly historic moments in popular culture. And only one, Ethan Russell, can lay claim to having designed album covers for the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. In a career that now spans more than four decades, Russell has used his keen eye for imagery for a wide variety of projects. Moving on from still photography, he became a video director, producing clips for Paul Simon, K.D. Lang and Emmy Lou Harris, as well as working on John Lennon’s “Woman.” More recently he has moved into the world of photography books, with an acclaimed volume of his Rolling Stones photographs, “Let It Bleed,” released earlier this year. On Saturday, Oct. 25, The Morrison Hotel Gallery will host a reception for Russell, from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibit will run through Nov. 20. “Taking photographs came naturally to me,” Russell explained. “I never studied it, never took a course in it. The process of photography, i.e., being in the darkroom, developing your own pictures, wasn’t something that initially appealed to me, at least when I was first exposed to it in high school.” However, Russell did enjoy looking at photographs. His earliest influence came via a book, “Family of Man,” focusing on a 1955 exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “It was, as the title suggests, about the ‘family of man.’ The feeling in it, the sense of common humanity, was what captured me,” he said. In addition to the images, the book was also interspersed with quotes, so “the language supported the pictures, which I think helped,” Russell observed. He didn’t start shooting until he reached college during the early ’60s. Working on a career as a writer, he was an English major when he met someone whose writing impressed him and who happened to know a bit about photography. “He taught me to develop film, what an f-stop was, that kind of thing,” Russell said. His first subjects were almost entirely children, outdoors, unposed. But by 1966, just prior to heading to England, he had shot images of his first band, Blue Cheer. The San Francisco group, famed for its stomping version of “Summertime Blues,” was managed by his brother. His first major shoot, with Mick Jagger, took place in 1968. In keeping with the fast pace of the times, it only took Russell a few months to become established in London. Though history has given many of the proj-ects he has been involved in major significance, at the time, that was far from the case. “I knew it was extraordinary to be there, but after the first initial sessions, especially with (John) Lennon, it got to be within the realm of the imaginable,” he quipped. Having photographed Lennon as part of the Rolling Stones’ “Rock ’n’ Roll Circus” in 1968, he was invited to shoot the Beatles during the session for what would become the “Let It Be” album. “I worked with the Beatles pretty constantly for a few weeks to a month (but) I don’t remember exactly,” Russell said. The sessions were being filmed, so he was among a number of technicians.  “It wasn’t hard for me, certainly, but I don’t think it ever worked for them,” he said. “You couldn’t get a garage band today to wake up at 8 in the morning and go to work. It speaks volumes about their work ethic.” Russell’s photographs would grace the album’s cover. He continued to work with musicians through the early ’80s, including Linda Ronstadt and Rickie Lee Jones, taking a detour into video, before coming back into photography in 2005. “The transition to digital made it feel fresh,” he said. Having used computers and digital effects in his film work, he could appreciate the technological advancements made in cameras since he started shooting, but what impressed him most was the quantity of pictures he could now take. “The file sizes they could create made it practical to work professionally,” he commented. “That wasn’t possible before 2005.” Despite a catalog of shots that numbers into the tens of thousands, Russell waited until 2003 before he staged the first exhibition of his work. “I always tend to be most interested in what I’m doing now,” he remarked. “The motivator was finding out, rather late in life, that I was going to be a father for the first time, so, I’d better get off my duff, as the English say.”   With so many to choose from, he finds it hard to pick a favorite image in the exhibit. “Obviously I like everything in the show for one reason or another, or it wouldn’t be there,” he commented. “But, for a long time, ‘John Lennon Listening to the White Album’ was the only print I had hanging in my home.” Though still actively involved in photography, he has welcomed the look back at his work that staging photography exhibitions has offered. “When I saw all my work collected together in that first exhibit, I was kind of impressed with this window on history that I had,” he said. The Morrison Hotel Gallery, 1230 Prospect St., will host a free reception for Russell on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. For information, visit www.morrisonhotelgallery.com or call (858) 551-0835. n