Gered Mankowitz
Rolling Stones Masons Yard Lightbox, 1965
1965

About the Item

British rock band The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and Brian Jones) photographed at Mason’s Yard studio in London, 1965. At the age of 15, Gered Mankowitz left school and embarked upon what would become a highly successful photography career, meeting and shooting some of the most iconic actors, personalities, and musicians of the 20th century. The brilliant and beloved late actor and comedian Peter Sellers encouraged Mankowitz to pursue photography. After cutting his teeth as an apprentice in the studios of some of London’s top photographers and taking on early commissions for fashion companies, Mankowitz set up his own studio and soon found himself where he belonged: the music industry. His sitters have included Marianne Faithfull, Jimi Hendrix, Duran Duran, Elton John, and the Rolling Stones, who he met and toured with at the beginning of their rise to super-stardom. In addition to teaching, mounting exhibitions, and working for magazines and other clients, Mankowitz continues to document musicians. Other sizes available: 16"x20", 20"x24", 30"x40"

Creator:
Gered Mankowitz
Creation Year:
1965
Dimensions:
Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
Medium:
Archival Pigment
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
1960-1969
Framing:
Framing Options Available
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Beverly Hills, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU24328226022
View Invoice

Shop All Gered Mankowitz

Gered Mankowitz

Gered Mankowitz is responsible for some of the most iconic images ever taken of music’s greatest performers. He began with the Rolling Stones in the mid-1960s and never looked back. Over the course of a career spanning more than five decades, he has strengthened the cultural impact of the photographic genre he practices.

Mankowitz’s work has been explored in numerous books and exhibitions and is a subject explored in 2020's docuseries Icon: Music Through The Lens, airing on British television channel Sky Arts and streaming online. But a fitting introduction to this firebrand photographer would start with an electric shock, of sorts.

In 1967, he was commissioned to photograph a 24-year-old music prodigy by the name of Jimi Hendrix. Mankowitz, three years his subject’s junior, wasn’t sure what to expect of the guitar sensation from Seattle, who had just settled in the United Kingdom and was already being hailed by his peers as an artistic genius. The pictures that came out of the session, along with those produced during a second shoot with Hendrix that same year, are the most widely known and regarded as the most important portraits of the seminal guitarist. They not only celebrated Hendrix’s revolutionary spirit and ineffable charisma but also helped define an entire era of musical creativity.

The assignments kept rolling in, and soon Mankowitz had established a reputation as a spirited rock ’n’ roll portraitist. Then came the dream job: In 1965, at just 19, he became the official photographer of the Rolling Stones, a position that he held for two and a half years and ushered him into adulthood. Mankowitz maintains that he kept a cool head on the job and a professional attitude. “The Stones and I were great friends, but I always knew my limits. I didn’t feel I had to hang out with the band in order to fit in,” he says, confiding, “To be honest, I had a pretty wild lifestyle without their help!” One of Mankowitz’s most famous images of the Stones became the cover for their 1967 album Between the Buttons.

On 1stDibs, shop an impressively wide selection of Gered Mankowitz's work, which features some of the most significant musical artists of all time.