Ethan Russell was just 22 years old in 1967 when he moved from San Francisco to England to chase the sexy, cool counterculture he had seen in the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow Up.
He had studied art and took pictures, but settled on a notion of becoming a writer. He was at a friend’s “flat” when a guy came over and noticed some photos Russell had taken of rock band Blue Cheer. That guy asked young Ethan Russell if he wanted to take photos for an interview. Sure, Russell said, who? Mick Jagger for Rolling Stone Magazine.
His life changed that afternoon. Or maybe it was a couple of weeks later, after Russell had done the shoot, when that same guy, a freelance stringer for Rolling Stone, then only 4 or 5 issues old, called him up again. He had another job for Russell. This time, John Lennon. And this was at a time Russell didn’t even consider himself a photographer, not really.
“I didn’t tell any of them what to do,” he says. “It was beyond my imagination. Give me a break. I had unbelievable access. That’s what’s great about being there. You get to be there.”
“There” was in John Lennon’s house when he’s playing a new song The Beatles are about to release called “Back in the U.S.S.R.” “There” was in Brian Jones’s home in East Sussex, months before the Rolling Stones leader’s drowning death. “There” was not, however, at the Monterey International Pop Festival, where he says he would definitely have been if he were in the States; but “there” was with Janis Joplin at the Royal Albert Hall, Jim Morrison in London’s Roundhouse, with Santana on the road.
“Fade to black,” Russell says. “Forty years pass. Fade up. I’m writing my third book on photography. How did I do that?”
Instinctively, he says. Meaning, he had not received formal training or guidance. At least not in photography.
“When I was a kid, living in upper Carmel Valley, my grandmother had a big ranch and asked me to shoot bluejays. I took a .22 rifle and went to the orchard. The entire act was to stand quietly on the edge and watch. When something shows up, you move quickly, focus, shoot. And that’s how you take pictures. I have the gift of being able to frame a shot.”
He applied that gift to stars of the 1960s and ’70s music constellation. He shot The Doors, Linda Ronstadt, Jimi Hendrix. He was chosen as the photographer-in-residence for the Rolling Stones from 1968-72, which covered their infamous 1969 tour that writer Stanley Booth immortalized in The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones. He shot an album cover each for The Rolling Stones (Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out), The Who (Who’s Next) and The Beatles (Let It Be), the only photographer to achieve that triumvirate. There were gigs for the Moody Blues, Janis Joplin, Cream, Eric Clapton, Rickie Lee Jones, Rosanne Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Traffic.
He’s taken photos of the royalty of what he calls the second generation of rock and rollers – after the first generation of Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley – and he’s showing a small batch of that rock history at Winfield Gallery, opening 2-5pm Sunday, as a benefit for Youth Arts Collective, not far from his part-time residence in Carmel Valley.
Though he showed his work all over the world and he’s connected to the area by family (his sister is a YAC board member), he’s never before shown his work locally. The show comprises 46 photos, from 8x10 inches to 6 feet. And 20 percent of sales that day will go to YAC.
“Initially [the show] was small,” Russell says. “It’s kind of grown. It’s not small any longer.”
And that’s nothing. A bigger show-and-tell kind of show set to iconic ’60s music is coming in February 2014 at the Sunset Center, a multimedia show in which he tells the stories behind his famous photographic subjects – it’s going to be comprised of more than 300 pictures. This Sunday’s art show will be more intimate and free flowing, with mingling, conversation and stories. But oh, what stories they are.
ETHAN RUSSELL’S ROCK AND ROLL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW opens 2-5pm Sunday at Winfield Gallery, Dolores between Ocean Avenue and Seventh Avenue, Carmel. 624-3369, www.EthanRussell.com