From a snarling Debbie Harry to a radiant Amy Winehouse, Furmanovsky reveals the layers of her complex subjects. She explains how she conquered her shyness to tour with Pink Floyd aged 19 and why music has a ‘grounding’ quality
he first rock photograph Jill Furmanovsky ever took was of Paul McCartney, two friends and an elbow. It was 1967 – if her memory serves – and she was 13 years old, whiling away her days outside Abbey Road Studios in the hope of befriending a Beatle. Keeping track of the band’s whereabouts in a fanclub magazine she and tens of thousands others received in the post each month, Furmanovsky read that McCartney had recently moved to St John’s Wood and decided to pay him a visit.
Studying at Central Saint Martins, Furmanovsky threw herself into London’s gig circuit, and soaked up every sound reverberating through the Ralph West student residence in Battersea: “Santana, the Walker Brothers, everything on the Blue Note label; the Rolling Stones, if you were a bad girl.” She discovered an overlap of art and music via Brian Eno, Roxy Music, John Lennon. “Joe Strummer from the Clash was at my college,” she remembers. “Lene Lovich was doing sculpture.
With a few spectacular exceptions, such as Elkie Brooks and Curved Air’s Sonja Kristina , Furmanovsky’s early career memories are heavy with testosterone: “It was a boys’ club.” Furmanovsky’s first magazine cover was an image of the Who’s Roger Daltrey, which wound up on the front page of British weekly Melody Maker without a credit. After plucking up the courage to confront editor-in-chief Ray Coleman, she received a remorseless response: “You’ll get a credit when you deserve one.
“All the great portraits, they’re shot with love and respect for the artists,” adds Noel Gallagher in the film. And Furmanovsky’s own words confirm his sentiment: “I’ve always felt less nervous with musicians than one would think, because they’re just themselves, really. Even the ones that dress up and have this flamboyance are still, in the end, having to plug into their amps and go into rehearsals. There’s some sort of grounding quality to music, I think.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Suspect arrested in killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San FranciscoNima Momeni, 38, appears to work in tech industry and reportedly knew Lee who was found with stab wounds on Tuesday
Read more »
Suspect arrested in killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San FranciscoNima Momeni, 38, appears to work in tech industry and reportedly knew Lee who was found with stab wounds on Tuesday
Read more »
'Bit nicey nicey': Glamour club's season from hellChelsea's miserable season has just got worse. 😬 StanSportAU UCL RMACHE
Read more »
AFL opens investigations into racist abuse of four Indigenous playersBrisbane star Charlie Cameron has been racially abused online with the Lions the third club in a 24-hour span to detail the vilification of players
Read more »