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
more New music
Album: Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
Exquisite songs of love and pain
PJ Harvey, Roundhouse, London review - incandescent perfection
Breathtaking set from Britain's Top Girl
Music Reissues Weekly: Bowes Road Band - Back in the HCA
Delightful but previously unknown early Seventies British art-school album
James Blake, Alexandra Palace review - victory lap for North London native
New album is his best in years and live show does it justice
Album: Ed Sheeran - Autumn Variations
Interesting moments are too far and few between in the popular singer-songwriter's latest
Album: Jorja Smith - Falling or Flying
Anticipated second album from Walsall's biggest star is a sumptuous affair
Album: Oneohtrix Point Never - Again
Magnificently deranged electronic futurism from US producer
Album: Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex
A shimmering blend of electronica and prog inspired by a dystopian parable
The National, OVO Hydro, Glasgow, review - commanding arenas with ease
A lengthy show served as a thrilling reminder of the Ohio band's rich catalogue
Album: Doja Cat - Scarlet
The Gen Z superstar offers up an uneven, sprawling rap album
Music Reissues Weekly: Shake That Thing - The Blues in Britain 1963-1973
Box-set compendium of US-inspired Brits lacks inquisitiveness
Album: Animal Collective - Isn't It Now?
Trippy and summery tunes from the Baltimore four-piece
Comments
In my opinion, Keith is the