Photo Gallery: Portraits of Keith Richards 1963-71 | reviews, news & interviews
Photo Gallery: Portraits of Keith Richards 1963-71
Photo Gallery: Portraits of Keith Richards 1963-71
Was the Human Riff ever as photogenic as Mick Jagger?
Thursday, 28 October 2010
The Human Riff is ready for his poolside close-up© Michael Cooper/Raj Prem Fine Art Photography
The lens loved Mick. Those child-bearing lips, to use Joan Rivers’s ripe phrase, always came up a treat in photographs. Did it ever love Keith quite so much? Ever since he started creosoting himself in eyeliner and crumbling like an oxidising mummy before our very eyes, he has been the incarnation of the photogenic rock wreck. Once upon a time, though, when The Rolling Stones were at their creative zenith, the Human Riff presented a young and even ingenuous mug to the camera.
A new exhibition of portraits, to coincide with the publication of his autobiography Life, shows Richards before heroin and kohl began to play merry hell with that infamous physiognomy.
Images 1-3 © Philip Townsend
Image 4 © Eddie Kramer
Images 5-8 © Michael Cooper/Raj Prem Fine Art Photography
Images 9 & 10 © Dominique Tarle
Click on the images to enlarge
1. Backstage at Studio 51 on Oxford Street
2. At the Blue Boar at a motorway services on the way to Birmingham (1)
3. At the Blue Boar (2)
4. Keith in 1967
5. New York, 1967
6. Hyde Park Rehearsal, 1969
7. Joshua Tree, 1968
8. Keith, Anita and Marlon, South of France, 1971
9. Keith and Jake, staircase at Villa Nellcote
10. Villa Nellcote
Explore topics
Share this article
Add comment
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more New music
Album: Bab L'Bluz - Swaken
Fiery psychedelia to lift your soul coming straight out of the Maghreb
Album: Pokey LaFarge - Rhumba Country
A pig in a pokey, as the singer farms in Maine and reads the Bible, with technicolor results
Album: Josienne Clarke - Parenthesis, I
Redefining the self, from the most absorbing of British singer-songwriters
Music Reissues Weekly: West Coast Consortium - All The Love In The World
Top-drawer British harmony pop band whose promise was unfulfilled
CVC, Concorde 2, Brighton review - they have the songs and they have the presence
Welsh sextet bring their lively Seventies-flavoured pop frollicking to the south coast
Album: Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism
An admirable attempt to catch the magical groove that helped us through lockdown
Album: Sia - Reasonable Woman
An awesome singer-songwriter comes into her own
Mitski, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - cool and quirky, yet deeply personal
A stunningly produced show from one of pop’s truly unique artists
Album: EYE - Dark Light
New band from MWWB singer Jessica Ball prove worthy of what came before
Nadine Shah, SWG3, Glasgow review - loudly dancing the night away
The songstress offered both a commanding voice and an almost overwhelming sound.
Album: The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know
When self-assurance trumps unashamedly showcasing influences
Orbital, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - the techno titans celebrate their rave years in style
The 'Green' and 'Brown' albums get a full airing to an ecstatic crowd
Comments
In my opinion, Keith is the