Gered Mankowitz

Gered W. Mankowitz (born 3 August 1946) is an English photographer who focused his career in the music industry.

He has worked with a range of artists from the Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix, and in other divisions of the photography industry, including fashion, music, advertising, news, and private photography.

He works from his own gallery in North London.

Gered W. Mankowitz was born as the first of four sons on 3 August 1946 in London, England, to the English writer Wolf Mankowitz and Ann Margaret Seligman.

After attending multiple schools throughout his education, Mankowitz dropped out of school at 15 years of age, without any proper qualifications.

However, his natural photography gifts were discovered on a school trip to the Netherlands by the photographer Tom Blau.

Blau offered Mankowitz an apprenticeship, and after a few months on the job, he had worked in all the departments, and began taking assignments.

In 1962, Mankowitz began taking photos professionally in Barbados, and when he returned to London, he took a position in the Parisian fashion world, but quickly realized that that style of photography was not for him.

In 1963, he broke into the music photography industry, and felt at home being able to work with artists his own age.

At the end of that same year, Mankowitz opened his own studio.

After a few months, Mankowitz began working with Marianne Faithfull and The Rolling Stones, and was asked to go on tour with The Rolling Stones.

After his stint on tour, he had the opportunity to work with Jimi Hendrix, Free, Traffic, The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, Soft Machine, Slade, Gary Glitter, Suzi Quatro, Lynsey de Paul, Doctors of Madness, Sweet, Elton John, Kate Bush, Eurythmics, ABC, heavy metal band Budgie and Duran Duran.

In regards to a photo taken by Mankowitz, John Varvatos, a men's fashion designer, wrote: "This is from a series of photos Gered Mankowitz did with Jimi in 1967 at Mason's Yard in London. That series may be the most important pictures to me. I have a big, limited-edition print of that photo behind my desk. I look at it every day when I come in. There was nobody that looked like that when Jimi came on the scene, and there are not very many people who could pull that look off."

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In 1982, Mankowitz was featured in an exhibition at London's Photographer's Gallery, and had his work viewed by over 16,000 people.

This exhibition then toured the U.K. for 2 years.

For the next 22 years, Mankowitz was based in his North London Studio, mainly working in the advertising industry, and contributing to major publications.

He continues to work in the music industry, regularly works for newspapers and magazines, and his work is shown and sold in galleries throughout the world.

When asked if he thought that his work influenced the image of the Rolling Stones, Mankowitz stated: "I think I contributed a lot when I did the cover of the album Between the Buttons. My contribution in the earlier sessions was based more on an honesty, a desire to communicate something about the Stones as people and not try and mask their personalities with any sort of technical or theatrical embellishments. I think that that’s why (their manager) Andrew (Loog Oldham) liked the pictures and why the band were happy to work with me for such a long period of time, because I photographed them as they were. And then when it came to Between the Buttons, I felt confident enough as a photographer and in my relationship with them to actually make a contribution."Mankowitz's photographs of Jimi Hendrix did not gain popularity until several years after they were taken.

They were taken in black and white, which was Mankowitz's typical style, but Hendrix's manager insisted on colour photographs for album covers.

Therefore, the pictures were not revealed to the public until 1992, when Mankowitz had his first solo exhibition in London.

The collection of Jimi Hendrix photos have since appeared on books, record covers, and magazines.