Michael Putland

Donna Summer - 20th century black and white music photography

1979

Michael Putland photographed everyone from Abba to Zappa. Born on May 27, 1947, Putland grew up in Harrow, England. He took his first pictures at the age of nine before leaving school at 16 to work as an assistant to various photographers including "Time-Life" photographer Walter Curtin and the legendary motor racing photographer, Louis Klemantaski. In 1969, Putland set up his own studio, and, by 1971, he was the official photographer for the British music magazine "Disc & Music Echo." His first assignment that year was to photograph Mick Jagger in London. From the editorial work for "Disc & Music Echo," "Sounds," "Smash Hits" and "Q" magazine among others, to the 1973 tour with The Rolling Stones, which led to a long-standing working relationship with the band, Putland shot prodigiously including for several major record labels: CBS, Warner, Elektra, Polydor, Columbia Records and EMI. Upon relocating to New York in 1977, Putland founded the photo agency Retna with his long-term business partner and friend, Julie Grahame, which became one of the most comprehensive and respected music and celebrity image libraries in the world, with offices in New York and London. Music photography took Putland around the globe touring with acts as diverse as George Michael in Australia and Japan, The Cure in Brazil, Eric Clapton in the United States, and The Rolling Stones in the United States and Europe, as well as to the homes of artists including David Bowie, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Roger Daltry, Jeff Beck, Billy Joel, Keith Richards and Robert Plant. The last 10 years of Putland’s life were busy with a series of exhibitions that included Getty Gallery’s 50-year retrospective in 2014. Ono Arte in Bologna, Italy, hosted "Bowie before Ziggy" in 2016 and "Glad to be Glam" in 2018. Elliott Halls in Amsterdam curated "It’s been a fantastic ride" in 2018, and The Lucy Bell Gallery in Hastings, England, exhibited "Off The Record" in 2017 and "The Music I Saw" in 2019. In his later years, Putland continued to shoot the artists he admired and the music he loved, including jazz, classical and world musicians who provided an alternative to his rock music portfolio. The year 2017 saw Putland shooting the largest gig of his life, from a helicopter circling the crowd of 225,000 fans of the Italian rock giant, Vasco Rossi, at Modena Park in Italy— a world record for a ticketed concert. The year 2019 brought the launch of his 350-page book "The Music I Saw," with exhibitions and signings at Paul Smith shops in London and New York. In June of that year Putland was still doing what he loved, working with a team he respected, shooting at the vast San Siro stadium in Milan. He died at home after a short illness on November 18, 2019.