In the mid-1980s, Gered Mankowitz had just thirty minutes in a side room of a recording studio to photograph Sade for Mojo magazine. She gave him what he needed, projecting total self-assurance and cool confidence for the camera. But she was not particularly friendly. It is an honest detail from a photographer who built a sixty-year career on trust and access.
Mankowitz recently turned 80, and to mark the milestone, ACC Art Books has released Gered Mankowitz: Photographs. The 336-page retrospective covers his entire working life from 1960 to 2025. It spans the vinyl era of darkroom alchemy straight through to digital, proving precisely why his portraits became the visual record of modern music. The release, complete with a foreword by Annie Lennox, arrives alongside a major photo essay in The Guardian detailing the real stories behind the frames.
The Kid in Mason's Yard
He started young. By the time Mankowitz was 18, he had already left school, apprenticed at the Camera Press agency under Tom Blau, and opened his own studio in London's Mason's Yard. A chance portrait session with Marianne Faithfull caught the eye of Andrew Loog Oldham, who managed a new band called the Rolling Stones.
Oldham hired Mankowitz as their official photographer. The band wanted an edgy, raw image, and they trusted someone their own age to capture it. Mankowitz ended up joining their massive 1965 American tour, carrying his cameras backstage and documenting their most private moments. He shot the covers for Between the Buttons and Out of Our Heads, cementing his place in the inner circle.
A Matter of Trust
What makes a Mankowitz portrait distinct is the profound sense of ease. Whether he was shooting Jimi Hendrix for the iconic cover of Are You Experienced, capturing Elton John, or framing Kate Bush in her early prime, his subjects never looked guarded. He favored natural light and simple setups, stripping away the heavy artifice of commercial portraiture.
He built relationships instead of treating shoots like transactions. That intimacy is what allowed him to capture rock royalty without the typical posturing. It takes a certain kind of presence to get a relaxed portrait out of a megastar, and Mankowitz had it. That level of trust elevated his work beyond mere art photography into historical record.
Seeing the Work
The new book is easily his most comprehensive publication to date, pulling from both his classic hits and previously unpublished imagery. But viewing these images in print is only half the experience.
His archive of hundreds of thousands of negatives is housed and represented by Iconic Images Gallery in London. Seeing his original prints in a gallery setting reveals the rich, deep tones of his darkroom work and the striking clarity of his medium format negatives.
Music photography is unique because these are the images people actually live with. When a classic stage portrait or a quiet backstage moment is printed large on high-quality paper, it brings the energy of the era right into the room. If you want to bring some of that history to your own walls, our pop culture wall art collection is a great place to start.
0 comments