Mick Rock Exposed: The Faces of Rock ‘N’ Roll

By Flavorwire Staff

Dec. 17, 2010

While photographer Mick Rock has come to be known as “the man who shot the ’70s,” his body of work is much more than a collection of Nixon-era snapshots of a bygone music scene. After capturing early pop-culture gods like Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Syd Barrett, and Queen, the aptly-named Rock went on to take pictures of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Killers, and Lady Gaga. In celebration of Rock’s 40-year career as a music photojournalist, Chronicle Books has published Mick Rock Exposed: The Faces of Rock ‘N’ Roll , with a foreword by British playwright Tom Stoppard and an afterword by legendary impresario Andrew Loog Oldham, former manager of the Rolling Stones.

“I love the whole process involved in a session,” writes Rock. “Something happens inside of me — a kind of transformation. I enter the magic garden of the frame. I become the other, the image-maker, and everything is possible…”

With more than 200 of Rock’s unpublished portraits from his 40-year career, Exposed is an opportunity for fans to finally score that elusive all-access pass backstage. Check out Mick Rock’s photographs below, and if you’re in LA, don’t miss this related exhibition of his photos at Danny Masterson’s and Ilaria Urbinati’s space, Confederacy.