Norman Seeff remembers the phone call that became a turning point in his career.
Representatives of the Rolling Stones were on the line and they wanted Seeff for a photoshoot. This was the early 1970s and the band was at the height of its popularity, while Seeff had been establishing his name in the music industry as a photographer and creative director for United Artist Records in the early 1970s.
“At that point, the biggest thing for any photographer or designer was if you wanted to get a shoot it had to be the Beatles or the Rolling Stones,” said the L.A. based photographer, who will be exhibiting some of the 50-year-old pictures he took during the photo shoot for the band’s seminal “Exile on Main St.” album. “I got the Rolling Stones and I liked their edginess.”
Titled “Fifty Years in Exile,” the exhibition opens May 15 and runs through June 12 at the Rock Photography Museum Special Exhibition Space in Glendale. It’s made up of more than 30 photographs taken by Seeff during an all-night photo shoot at an L.A. studio with the Stones shortly before the band released the album on May 12, 1972.
The exhibit will include several never-before-seen images from that shoot as well as images from other sessions Seeff shot while hanging out with the band during that time.
“Right now, we are printing a whole bunch of images that I’ve kept off the marketplace,” Seeff said a few days before the opening of the exhibition.
While the album’s iconic cover collage was made up of images by the late photographer Robert Frank, Seeff was the art director for the album along with Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger and famed graphic artist John Van Hamersveld.
Some of the images Seeff shot during the session were turned into 12 postcards which were placed in the album sleeve. Included in the exhibit is the original layout used to produce those postcards.
“That turned out to be a great idea because this was before social media. So people who bought the album would tear them off and write to people, so suddenly we had a viral advertising campaign going,” he said.
Seeff, a former professional soccer player and emergency medical doctor in his native South Africa, moved to New York in 1968 and started his photography career by taking pictures of the people he met in the streets and bars.
But these weren’t always just ordinary people since they included artists and musicians like Patti Smith and Andy Warhol. His early work eventually led to shooting album art for groups like The Band before landing at United Artists.
Setting sail
For the L.A. photo shoot, Jagger wanted the band to be photographed as if they were coming down the ramp of a ship, signifying that they were decamping from the U.K. to France. At the time, the band had left England to avoid a massive tax bill.
Seeff said he went to docks in Long Beach to scout locations but quickly realized that if they went wandering around Long Beach with the Rolling Stones things might get out of control.
So instead they built a set inside an L.A. studio. They also brought in other necessary gear.
“We were drinking gallons of very cheap red wine and by the time the Stones arrived we were kind of, well, everyone was on the same plane,” he recalled with a laugh.
“But the Rolling Stones are really professional, and they can get loaded but when it comes down to working, they work,” he said.
Fifty Years in Exile
When: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Sundays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m.- 8 p.m. Saturdays May 15-June 12 and by appointment Tuesdays. Closed Mondays.
Cost: Free with a $25 opening reception at 7 p.m. May 14.
Where: Rock Photography Museum Special Exhibition Space, 123 N. Artsakh Ave., Glendale.
Information: 424-245-0755 or rockphotographymuseum.com.
