Upcoming Docuseries Explores Music Photography

A new six-part docuseries set to premiere on July 16 explores the significance and history of music photography, featuring interviews with photographers who know the art form best.

 

Icon: Music Through The Lens is the first docuseries of its kind. It features interviews with some of the most important music photographers of all time, including Gered Mankowitz, Danny Clinch, who is behind images of Bob Dylan and Tom Morello, Jerry Schatzberg, best known for Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album cover, Mick Rock, a renowned photographer who is known for his working relationships with rock icons such as David Bowie and Lou Reed, Jill Furmanovsky and Neal Preston, two photographers behind iconic images of Led Zeppelin, and Baron Wolman, a celebrated photographer who passed away last year, best known for taking some of the finest photographs in rock of Janis Joplin, The Who and The Rolling Stones. Lots of other photographers are set to feature within the docuseries, as well as insights from several musicians.

 

Many of the photographers featured within the docuseries have also been a part of Genesis books, from Tom Morello's Whatever It Takes, to Jerry Schatzberg's Thin Wild Mercury.

 

Gered Mankowitz, who has taken some of the most important images in rock history, including photographs of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and The Yardbirds, is the photographer at the head of the project, which he has tried to get in the works for over a decade. It was only when he met Dick Carruthers, a music-based filmmaker, that lead to the docuseries getting the green light.

 

Each episode will tackle a different aspect of music photography, such as what makes an iconic photograph, how the album cover has evolved over time, what it means to buy an image, and lastly, the role music photography plays within internet culture.

 

The series is now available to stream on Sky Arts (UK) will air on Fridays on PBS (US) through to August 13.