He was born in London, and studied at Emanuel School before going on to study modern languages at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge – it was here, at Cambridge in 1966, that he met and photographed Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, one of his first subjects.
By 1972, Rock was becoming well-known as a photographer, particularly for his photographs of Bowie and Ronson during the Ziggy Stardust tour, on which Mick Rock was the official photographer. He began chronicling the emerging glam and punk movements of the 1970s. One of his most (in)famous photos from this era is his shot of a naked Iggy Pop, highlighting the singer’s impressive penis.
His photography spans three decades, and continues today – some of his recent subjects include R.E.M., the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Johnny Marr, the Foo Fighters, and Kate Moss. He now lives in Staten Island, New York City with his wife, Pati, and their daughter Nathalie. Nathalie is also a frequent model during NY Fashion Weeks. Rock is among the 43 fine-art photographers invited to donate a print to “FOCUS: an auction of the finest photography to benefit City Harvest….” The fund-raiser on September 18, 2008 supports City Harvest, a food collection bank in New York City. [1]
Rock is responsible for album covers including Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, Queen’s Queen II & Sheer Heart Attack , David Bowie’s Space Oddity, Lou Reed’s Transformer and Iggy and The Stooges’ Raw Power.
He also directed several of David Bowie’s early music videos, including those for “Life on Mars?”, “The Jean Genie” and “Space Oddity”.
His book Moonage Daydream: The Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust features a 15 000-word text by David Bowie, and hundreds of photos of Bowie in his Ziggy period.
Rock was the only photographer to access all areas at the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 2005, he released a photo book documenting this spectacle.
He photographed Richard Barone nude for the cover and interior of Barone’s book FRONTMAN: Surviving the Rock Star Myth (Backbeat/Hal Leonard Books, 2007).
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In conjunction with the premiere of the HBO documentary film SMASH HIS CAMERA, Clic Gallery is proud to present the photography exhibit SMASH HIS CAMERA: THE NOTORIOUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF RON GALELLA. The show will run June 1st to June 30th. There will be an opening reception with the artist at Clic Gallery on Thursday, June 10th from 6 to 8 pm. At the opening, Mr. Galella will also be signing copies of his books VIVA L’ITALIA, NO PICTURES!, MICHAEL JACKSON: THE MAN IN THE MIRROR, WARHOL BY GALELLA and many others.
Ron Gallela is, simply put, the most famous celebrity photographer of all time. Calling himself “the bandit of images,” Galella has snapped every celebrity of importance since the 1960s, in photographs that are unrehearsed, unposed, and often hilariously candid. In the past few years, Galella has become recognized as one of the foremost chroniclers of twentieth century America, and his photographs are now in the permanent collection of the The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Helmut Newton Foundation Gallery in Berlin.
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