I was born in the late 1950's and thus, not too surprisingly, my musical taste leans towards 60's-80's rock. I also tend to go through phases where I really enjoy listening to a particular artist or group.
Lately, I have been going through an Emerson, Lake, and Palmer phase. For those who might be reading this that are too young to have heard of them, they are generally considered one of the earliest 'progressive rock' supergroups. If you haven't heard of them you really owe it to yourself to have a listen. Try "Lucky Man" for a more conventional 'over the radio' song, but if you really want to try something different give "Tarkus" a try.
But what has any of this to do with photography? Well, I recently was rounding out my ELP collection and ordered the album entitled "Works Volume 1". Ok, it isn't their most renowned music but I was completing my collection by purchasing albums I was missing. At any rate, I bought the CD (for essentially the same price as an i-Tunes download why not have an uncompressed hard copy as well?) and looked at the album insert. I was very surprised to find in the pamphlet this photograph of Keith Emerson taken by David Montgomery in the 1970's (the reproduction is somewhat poor as I had to scan an image that was already reproduced for the insert).
Copyright David Montgomery
The first thing that ran through my mind was 'Whoa, I've seen that before!'. To me it looked like essentially the same image as the iconic photograph of Igor Stravinsky taken by Harold Newman in the mid 1940's. For those not familiar with that photo, I have copied it below.
I thought the similarity was clear. I would be curious as to whether Montgomery thought that the Newman image was so well known that people would realize that it was a copy of the idea and that it was almost a 'spoof' on the image or if it was a situation where Newman's image was not well known at the time. Not that it makes much difference at this point, I suppose. It is just that I was taken aback by the similarity between the two photos. Coincidence? I doubt it. Spoof....I don't know!
6 comments:
We are the similar ages, me being 1959: slightly different tastes in music though. I seem to remember another version of the same image, though my recollection isn't nearly as good as yours. Coincidence it couldn't have been, more like joining in and riding a wave whilst it lasted.
Nice to have such a sharp memory! Mine is in shreds. Cool observation. I don't know the other photograph. Can you post a link? Anyway, that's a great image. I'd love to see the first.
Hi Gloria...thanks for stopping by! Not sure what you mean though....both photos are posted in the blog, the one of Keith Emerson and the original Stravinsky portrait. Are they not showing up for you or am I misunderstanding?
Not to get all pedantic, but I think it's Arnold Newman.
Not Harold.
Just sayin', as the phrase goes over at TOP.
Whoops...I think you are right about that!
I think the Newman photo would have been well known to any professional photographer in the 70s. It was often reproduced.
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