NEW ARRIVAL : Previously unreleased, The Who by Art Kane
Taken in his Carnegie Hall studio, before Art Kane took the band up to the Carl Schurz Memorial in Morningside Park, NYC, to shoot the now iconic shots of the band sleeping under the union jack flag.
"The Who. They were great, I loved these guys. For me they were like cute little ruffians. They made me think of Dickens, of Oliver Twist, Fagins gang." – Art Kane
Knowing that John Entwistle and Pete Townshend wore jackets made from flags, Kane decided to wrap them in a Union Jack: actually two, sewn together for the session. Initially they worked in his Carnegie Hall studio shooting on a seamless white background.
Art Kane was quite simply a brilliant visionary whose legacy and legend live on today, and whose work remains unmatched. Kane made the legendary Harlem 1958 Jazz portrait, and his music archives include Louis Armstrong, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, Frank Zappa, Cream, Eric Clapton, Sonny and Cher, Janis Joplin, and Aretha Franklin. He was the photographers’ photographer, an inspirational practitioner whose approach to portraiture is best summed up when he said “Performance shots are a waste of time, they look like everyone else’s. If you want to shoot a performer, then grab them, own them, you have to own people, then twist them into what you want to say about them.” Kane died in 1995, but his legacy lives on through his amazing work. His son Jonathan curates his archive and releases small limited editions of these beautiful photographs. Each one is fully authenticated by Jonathan Kane on behalf of the Art Kane estate.