Talent captured on film – the legend that was Jimi Hendrix

An exhibition of Gered Mankowitz’s Jimi Hendrix photographs goes on display in Harrogate today. Chris Bond spoke to him.

THEY say if you can remember the Sixties then you weren’t really there.

Well that may be so, but Gered Mankowitz was definitely at the heart of the decade that swung and remembers it well.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mankowitz is an internationally renowned photographer whose career spans nearly 50 years, during which time he has worked with some of the greatest names in rock and pop music, including the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Kate Bush, and Jimi Hendrix.

It is his photographs of the latter, including classic and previously unseen pictures, that are the focus of the latest exhibition at RedHouse Originals, in Harrogate, which opens today.

There are more than 30 works from Mankowitz’s Hendrix archives on display taken from two shoots he had with the rock legend in his Mason’s Yard studio, in London, back in 1967.

These include traditional handmade black and white photos taken from the original negatives along with lightbox montages and silkscreen prints.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mankowitz was introduced to Hendrix by Chas Chandler who had brought him to London. “It sounds such a cliche, but the truth is he was incredibly sweet and charming,” Mankowitz recalls. “He was very quiet and humble off stage, but he was very funny, he had a really dry sense of humour.

“I’d never seen anything like him before. He had this wild unruly hair and he took to rock fashion like a duck to water, he wore these beautiful clothes, the silks and satins and he looked great.”

With the so-called “Summer of Love” just around the corner it was, he says, a great time to be around. “This moment, at the beginning of 67, was perhaps the happiest period of his professional life. The music industry loved him, the press loved him.

“His first single Hey Joe had just come out and was getting a lot of air play and it was a very pleasant experience to be with him.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At the first shoot, on the very last frame of the first roll, Mankowitz took the portrait that would become the most important of his entire career with Hendrix, hands on hips staring forward.

“I didn’t realise at the time how big it would prove to be, but over the years it’s become one of the most important studio photographs of Jimi ever taken,” he says.

“God knows what would have happened had he lived, because his music has inspired every subsequent generation of guitarists. But these images, along with some others, are all people have, visually, of his brief career and I am endlessly grateful to have been part of that.”

The Experience: Jimi Hendrix at Mason’s Yard, RedHouse Originals, to August 29.

A life behind the lens

Born in London in 1946.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In 1963, Mankowitz opened his first studio, at 9 Mason’s Yard, in London.

Among the rock and pop music stars he’s worked with are the Rolling Stones, Elton John, The Jam and Duran Duran.

His work has appeared all over the world including The National Portrait Gallery in London.