There have been many photographers who have chronicled the history of rock ‘n’ roll, but few have managed to put their stamp on the decade of the ’60s like Gered Mankowitz. His images have adorned numerous album covers, but it’s his work with the Rolling Stones beginning in 1965 that has made the biggest impact. Incredibly, Mankowitz was only a teenager when he began shooting some of the era’s biggest stars.
An exhibition of Mankowitz’s photographs will open at The Morrison Hotel Gallery on Saturday, Oct. 27. Fifty images spanning his career will be on display, including large, 30-by-40-inch prints of the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix that have never before been seen in America and are exclusive to this exhibition.
Born on Aug. 3, 1946, Mankowitz’s introduction to the arts at such an early age is not surprising when you consider his father was famed author and playwright Wolf Mankowitz. His direct inspiration for taking up photography was through a family friend, actor Peter Sellers.
“He and my father worked on several films together in the ’50s and early ’60s,” Mankowitz recalled.
One Sunday in the late ’50s, Sellers visited the family to have lunch and work on a script. A keen photographer, he arrived with two cameras, a Hasselblad and a large Polaroid.
“He took some amazing Polaroids of myself apparently holding my younger brother in the palm of my hand, like Tom Thumb, which was a movie he had just completed,” Mankowitz said. “I was intrigued and hooked. Afterwards he allowed me to play with the Hasselblad. I knew what I wanted to be.”
Leaving school at the age of 15, his photographs were seen by the legendary photographer Tom Blau, who offered Mankowitz an apprenticeship at his photo agency, Camera Press. He snapped everything from architecture to fashion models before moving on to working for portrait photographer Jeff Vickers. Manokwitz primarily snapped actors until 1963, when he met the singing duo Chad & Jeremy.
“During my first couple of years as a photographer I worked in the theater and photographed a few actors, including the young Jeremy Clyde,” he explained. “He told me about his singing partner Chad Stuart, and I went to a coffee bar in Mayfair to see them play and take some shots. We all became good mates, and in fact Jeremy is still one of my closest friends.”
That friendship paid dividends when Chad & Jeremy got signed to a small British label called Ember Records and the label bought several of his photos of the duo. Almost by default, Mankowitz found himself in the thick of things.
“They also began to commission me to shoot other artists for them,” he said. “Suddenly I was in the music biz.”
That same year, at the age of 17, he opened his first studio.
Things moved quickly from there. A few months later he began photographing Marianne Faithfull. Mankowitz’s iconic photos of the singer got the attention of her manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, who also happened to manage the Rolling Stones (Faithfull also became Mick Jagger’s main squeeze). He was soon asked to work with the band.
In 1965, Mankowitz shot his first Stones session, which produced the image used on the cover of their album “Out of Our Heads.” He was also asked to accompany the band on a nine-week, 48-city, 1965 tour of the U.S., including the final stop in San Diego on Dec. 5. Mankowitz continued to work with the group through 1967, producing further covers including “Between the Buttons,” “Got Live If You Want It” and “Big Hits.”
Mankowitz names his images of Hendrix and the Stones as his favorites.
“They have been incredibly good for me,” he said. “I take tremendous pleasure in their popularity. But I also feel pretty good about my portraits of Kate Bush, Eurythmics, Marianne Faithfull and several other lesser-known artists whose image was pretty good but whose music didn’t quite make it.”
These days, Mankowitz rarely takes photographs but does make exceptions. Current projects include singer-songwriter Patrick Woolf and Brit-pop band The Kooks, but his main focus is on a new book set for 2008. The retrospective will feature 130 subjects, taking in 600 of his photographs.
Though he enjoyed taking pictures before he was drawn into the world of music, his work since has fulfilled his wildest dreams.
“It all seemed to work really well from the moment I started working with musicians,” he said. “Regardless of what else I’ve tried to do, the music business was always my primary source of work and inspiration.”
The Morrison Hotel Gallery, 1230 Prospect St., will host a reception for Mankowitz on Saturday, Oct. 27 from 6 to 9 p.m. For information, call (858) 551-0835 or visit www.morrisonhotelgallery.com.