Michael Putland has turned his lens on music's virtually boggling stars – hither, he tells united states of america the story backside some of his nigh memorable shots
Michael Putland had decided to quit photography because he "couldn't go whatever piece of work" when he was sent on an assignment for a music magazine to photograph Mick Jagger. Having left school at 16 ("got more than or less kicked out I call back, I wasn't very academic") to pursue paradigm-making, it took fourth dimension offering photographs he'd taken at concerts to music magazines likeMelody MakerandNME before he was given "an bodilyassignment", and shooting Jagger was the start of his at present fifty-twelvemonth long career in photography. "In one case I started working for one magazine, the record companies started to know me and the printing offices got to know me and the artists got to know me," he says. "And that'southward how information technology congenital. I'm very lucky."
A new exhibition at Amsterdam'south Gallery Vassie entitledIt'south Been a Fantastic Ride… is a survey of Putland'southward boggling photographs of music industry legends. The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Bryan Ferry, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry accept all stepped in front of his lens – among many other legendary names – the former having invited Putland along on tour with them in 1973. "The affair about beingness on tour is information technology was so different in those days because it was film plainly not digital," the photographer remembers. "So, for instance, on the get-go night of the Stones tour which was in Vienna, I did the shoot at the concert, did a press shoot before with Mick, and and so the next morning I'g on a plane back to London. I go straight to the studio and process the moving picture. You and then make prints, yous wash them and all the things you have to practise. Then y'all become in your car and hand evangelize them to all the magazines. And and so you get dorsum in your car and go to the airport and fly to the third night."
Putland's images are characterised past a sense of spontaneity: whether Leonard Cohen laughing, cigarette in paw, in a hotel room, David Bowie mid-song on stage or a topless Mick Jagger raising an arm to thousands of adoring fans, it'south clear that he is an good in capturing the pinnacle moment. At that place is a warmth to the image-maker's black and white shots (though he does work in digital, Putland says that his "big dear is blackness and white film") emphasised past the effulgent smiles that many of his subjects offer. Here, he talks united states through a few of the serendipitous tales behind some of the images in his immense oeuvre.
"At that place was a magazine in New York, what was it called? I think it wasGig Magazine. Anyway, Lynn, the woman in the moving picture, is a very well-known photographer in America. Another stone and roll lensman. The wanted me to go and photograph v or six rock photographers in New York for some kind of slice and show their archive, and Lynn was 1 of them. And so she said 'come on over, I might be shooting'. I get there and she was shooting Patti Smith in her lovely little studio correct off Fifth Artery. Very upwards market. And so I arrive and I've never met Patti earlier and she was slap-up, she was really really sweetness. And she said, 'why don't you photograph me photographing Lynn?' Which I did. I did some shots of Lynn and I did some of Patti. And so Patti took pictures of me. Information technology was the merely fourth dimension I shot her really autonomously from on stage. It was just one of those fun things. For the exhibition I was looking through pictures and I suddenly realised there were 3 of us in the room and here'due south pictures of Lynn and I, and Patti must take taken them. It was a long fourth dimension ago so it's difficult to retrieve but manifestly she was using my camera or Lynn's camera – it must have been mine – in the pictures. That'due south really the story and Lynn, as you can tell, was very glamourous, very beautiful New Yorker, and it's just a great picture isn't it?"
"The Stones were playing a gig at a theatre in New York, a small theatre. It was the beginning bout where they were filling stadiums where they played to 90,000 people. They were but making that change to be 90,000 people instead of 12. Merely this was probably 2,000 people. After the gig I had to go back to the dressing room and at that place were hundreds of people. At that place were probably a 100 people all on this stairwell – it was a small theatre – outside this terribly tiny dressing room and I couldn't arrive at that place, I just didn't desire to fight through the bodies. I was turning around to go and the publicist said 'no come in, come in' and then I become in. Mick'due south only come off stage, and in that room were Paul and Linda McCartney, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and all The Rolling Stones. Information technology was about the size of a handkerchief, this place. Mick had just come off stage and Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were sitting – there were only a couple of sofas there and they were sitting on one. And Mick, he had worked so hard, he was tired, drained, and he got a beer and so he had nowhere to sit! And then Bob and Pete moved slightly to i side, Mick squeezed in, and I simply happened to be there with my photographic camera and they all gave me such a lovely grin. Only a picture fabricated in heaven."
"There was a journalist strike in London. I think information technology was IPC, the publishing visitor. They used to have a lot of the music magazines. So all the journalists went off and somebody put money into starting a new mag, which was calledNew Music News. Somebody came up with the thought of having vi important pop stars – if that's the right term – to come up and have tea at the Royal Garden Hotel. So I get at that place. For some reason I think the shoot was at 2.xxx, for afternoon tea at 4. So Blondie turns up, who was the biggest star at the fourth dimension, right on the button – two.30 she's in that location, professional, with Chris Stein, the other guy in Blondie. And then all the others came in directly reverse order of their fame. I think it was lovely Viv Albertine from the Slits who arrived two and a one-half hours later. And they merely did this actually sweetness photograph for me. And then they all went and had tea. You know, 2 people have tried to get funding to recreate that afternoon and make a film documentary on it, and they've both asked if I would practise the photographs again. Poly Styrene, who's sitting in the front row, her daughter was prepared to sit in for her mother, who's obviously no longer with us. So it still would accept been a sugariness picture, but neither of them could get funding. Apparently Debbie Harry was similar 'yep count me in. I'll be there. I'll do it.'"
Gene Simmons of Osculation with a lady from hospitality, 1977
"I suppose you have to hear a little bit about Kiss. Obviously they wore the face paint and everything – they were all about seven foot tall with their shoes, it was hysterical. But regular guys really, but obviously they had developed this persona. And so I'm doing this picture outside the dressing room with Gene Simmons, and he was sticking out that extraordinarily long tongue – which is well-nigh similar a logo for them. He's sort of sitting there, pulling these grotesque faces and this extraordinary woman who was part of the catering staff just came – it was no talent of mine whatsoever – she came waltzing down that hallway behind. And she photobombed! It was merely one shot. She just went in and stuck her natural language out as well. The funniest, funniest thing. She must have been twice his age, I retrieve. Information technology only wasn't premeditated. He was very amused, he thought it was hysterical."
Michael Putland: It's Been a Fantastic Ride... runs at Gallery Vassie, Amsterdam, until April 21, 2018.
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