Rangefinder Magazine
January 2006

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Profile: Ron Pownall Peter skinner
The Golden Era of Rock Photography

Ted Nugent, The Meadowlands, NJ, 1978;

When the definitive history of rock is compiled, rest assured the dynamic images created by Boston photojournalist Ron Pownall during the golden era of rock will be featured prominently. Through a series of serendipitous meetings early in his career and by grasping every opportunity in his eager clutches, Pownall parlayed several lucky breaks into a career producing one of the most comprehensive portfolios of rock images available today.

During his music and entertainment photography heyday—from the 1970s on—Pownall rubbed shoulders with most of the leading rock groups and performers of that era, going on the road with many of them, living the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle and documenting an important segment of music history. Not only was he able to get backstage, but also many times he was an integral part of that intimate scene, enjoying unlimited access and documenting the people and rock music events that are now chapters in rock history.

Entertainment icons such as The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Boston, Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Pat Metheny, J. Geils Band, Bette Midler, Meatloaf, The Cars, Liza Minelli, Queen, KISS, Tom Petty, and numerous others are featured in Pownall’s portfolio. He has over 200 LP/CD and magazine covers to his credit and many of the powerful and evocative images he made decades ago have themselves become icons and are still published regularly. Pownall’s current work encompasses a range of corporate, portrait, documentary assignments and even the occasional wedding. And it is with great satisfaction that he reflects on his years as a leading rock shooter, even though he probably often asks himself, “Did I really photograph all those people?”

Bruce Springsteen, Boston Music Hall, 1975;	Bruce Springsteen, Boston Garden, 1978;	Bruce Springteen, Worcester Centrum, MA, 1984;

Pownall says, “It was an unbelievable experience, and at times it was almost surreal. There was the daily grind and routine of such things as being on the road, the 11 a.m. hotel wake-up calls, the sound checks, the gig itself, the inevitable party that followed, going to bed anywhere between one and four in the morning, and then the same routine all over. But covering the concerts and having such great access to these bands was really exciting, and I never lost the thrill of opening those little yellow Kodak boxes and seeing what I had shot. Fortunately, when I was in the business, it was in an era when bands wanted publicity, and the music itself was the bottom line. Today, corporate people control access and usage; copyright ownership is a tricky issue, and there are far more restrictions on photographers. It’s not the same,” he says.

Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen, Worcester Centrum, MA, 1984

From the beginning of his career in photojournalism Pownall seemed to have the knack of being in the right place at the right time, going back to 1968 when, at 21 and still in college, he presented himself for a summer job in the darkroom at the Chicago Tribune to help process film of coverage of the Democratic National Convention, a landmark political event. As it happened, Pownall was not confined to the darkroom. “When I showed up, they put me out on the streets. They gave me a brick of Tri-X, a Nikon F with three lenses and a Mamiya C3 with a couple of lenses. The first thing I shot was a big fire, and my coverage ran on page one, section two, of the paper,” he says.

Covering the tumultuous convention and riots that year was ideal training for a tyro photojournalist. Not only did his images receive great play in Chicago, but many of them also ran worldwide through AP. With police credentials on his arm, Pownall had carte blanche access to everything, and in epitomizing the “Jimmy Olsen, cub reporter” character, he took full advantage of the opportunity and consistently produced the goods to satisfy his editors.

Elton John, Madison Square Garden, 1976

While at the Tribune from 1968 to ’70, Pownall was the youngest staff photographer, and he loved music. Naturally, he grasped the chance to work with the paper’s music writer, Robb Baker. Working for the Tribune provided Pownall virtually unlimited access to groups touring the Chicago area. His first three assignments in that capacity were Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane—not a bad start. Not surprisingly, the young photographer became hooked on shooting rock and roll, and his career took a turn in that direction. Since 1970, when he based himself in Boston, the majority of Pownall’s freelance career has been devoted to the music/entertainment business. And, as with his accelerated entry into newspaper shooting, it was a series of lucky breaks—and capitalizing on them—that boosted Pownall’s rock photography career.

“In the Pit”

The first of these was getting to know Marshall Chess, manager of Rotary Connection. Marshall, who was later to become president of Rolling Stone Records, was the son of Leonard Chess, the principal of Chess Records, whose artists included Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. Marshall wanted to buy some of Pownall’s images (for the princely sum of $100 plus 20 albums from the Chess Records catalog). That connection was to prove invaluable for the budding rock and roll shooter, leading to numerous assignments and stock sales. For example, on one occasion in 1981, Chess assigned Pownall to shoot the cover of the re-release of The Rolling Stones’ hit song “Time Is on My Side.”

Another good connection was made in 1973 when Pownall covered the opening act for Aerosmith’s concert in the Boston College gym. Not one to let an opportunity slip by, Pownall also shot Aerosmith’s performance (some pictures from that shoot are still being published today). Pownall made such an impression that from then until 1987 he did virtually all of Aerosmith’s photography, covering their concerts, shooting album covers, providing images for media use and even doing personal work for band members, such as lead singer Steven Tyler’s wedding.

Jethro Tull singer/flutist Ian Anderson, Boston Garden;

In 1975 Pownall cemented an important relationship that initially had a not-so-promising start. Queen was playing a second tour of America, and Pownall got a pass to cover the first two nights at the Boston Music Hall. On the second night a man in a suit confronted him, demanded to know what Pownall was doing there. The man was going to throw Pownall out. The confrontational stranger was Dick Grant, a well-known and powerful Los Angeles publicist whose client list included Queen. Fortunately, Pownall produced some prints from his first night’s coverage. On seeing these, Grant relented and was so impressed that he offered Pownall more work. “It was that quirky thing with Queen that parlayed into a lot of really good things,” says Pownall of the incident.

For the next 15 years or so, Pownall covered many artists with whom Grant was associated— such as Elton John, Liza Minelli, Eric Sevareid, Joel Grey, Curt Gowdy and Queen—and carved a niche in an exciting and volatile field. Helping Ron was the fact that at that time rock and roll groups wanted to exploit any opportunity for publicity, so good photography was vital. A reliable, enthusiastic photographer who could cajole and get along with the assortment of music industry personalities (and tolerate their foibles to deliver great pictures from not-so-great situations) was of value to the industry’s movers and shakers.

From Dick Grant and David Krebs, Aerosmith’s manager, Pownall received good advice on how to stay alive and prosper in the industry. In a nutshell, these veterans of the business told Pownall to take advantage of being able to get along with musicians, consistently deliver good images without making excuses for not getting the shots, be reliable, and be able to work within time constraints to produce the goods. In other words, Pownall would get access to work with some of the biggest names in music, but he sometimes had to “get great shots from five-minute shooting sessions.” Ron continues, “To be of value to management, record labels and PR firms, I had to be able to get good images from lousy situations and do it consistently.”

Janis Joplin, Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, 1968

His portfolio proves he could do that. He earned the trust of the musicians he worked with, ensuring that no images that could be regarded as compromising, unflattering, or exploitive were deliberately released to the media. Without that trust, Pownall, who expresses distaste for the paparazzi mentality that pervades the industry, would never have gotten the virtually free rein he enjoyed for so many years.media. Without that trust, Pownall, who expresses distaste for the paparazzi mentality that pervades the industry, would never have gotten the virtually free rein he enjoyed for so many years.

Pownall also had another great asset working in his favor. For him, the photography came first: He loved getting the shot. “Some photographers really liked the music and made photographs. I was so into the photography that sometimes, after a concert, I really couldn’t say what the concert was like because I was so intent on shooting,” he says.

From the outset, Pownall used Nikon equipment, and his array of gear included FE2s, which he likes for the 1/250-second flash synchronization, and Fs with lenses including the 16mm f/3.5, 20mm f/2.8, 24mm f/2, 28mm f/2, 35mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, 180mm f/2.8, 300 f/4 ED and a 500mm f/8 mirror lens. He also used what he considers the first legitimate zoom lens, the Nikon 80–200 f/4.5. His most used outfit comprised the FE2 cameras, one fitted with a 35mm lens, the other with an 85mm lens. Initially he shot mainly with ambient stage lighting but in the late 1970s started using Norman 200Bs. And when the situation allowed, he would mount the strobes on the stage lighting truss and gel them with an amber gel so the flash lighting would not look unnatural. Hawk remote units were used to fire the strobes. The speed of the flash, which looked very much like natural stage lighting, produced tack sharp, technically perfect images with a high percentage of keepers. His films of choice were Kodachrome 64 and Tri-X.

Bob Dylan, Boston Garden, 1974;

As one would expect, Ron Pownall has a multitude of great on-the-road stories—far too many to relate here—but with the birth of his two sons several years ago, he quit doing road gigs. His current commercial and editorial business out of his Boston studio at the Brickbottom Artists Building keeps him busy; however, much of his work is still in the music business—including relatively recent projects for VH1, MTV and Rolling Stone Press—and the call of the road is never far beneath the surface. One day he may again make the occasional road trip with groups with whom he still has close ties, but it certainly won’t be as it was in the past. Much of the music industry has changed. The bottom line now is profit; access, and the images created, are tightly controlled by corporate people. Concert coverage is now more like “two songs and you’re out of there” than the unlimited access of before.

Pownall was fortunate to be where he was at the right time. Today, with over 1200 artists and groups on file, he owns a comprehensive collection of rock images. His stock is represented by the Star File Agency in New York City, and recently he started selling prints of his favorite and mostly unpublished images for private use via his website www.rock rollphoto.com, which has just recently been updated.

Currently Pownall is preparing for a gallery exhibit at Spencer Lofts in Chelsea, MA, in April. Also recently, while working on a book Rock & Roll Energy… 1968-2005, Pownall says, “I found several rolls of 30-year-old Rolling Stones images, developed but never printed. It has inspired indepth file searching for overlooked images. Sometimes I was so busy in the ’70s and ’80s that I would shoot, process the images, then head out on another assignment, letting previous work be filed away and overlooked. So, it’s fun to discover some of these long-lost jewels.”

The Rolling Stones, Sir Morgan’s Cove, Worcester, MA, 1981

The heyday of rock and roll photography might be over, but Pownall remembers well the unbelievable excitement of that era. “The biggest thrill was (and is) shooting live concerts. There is nothing so rewarding as capturing the split second of high energy, be it Springsteen, Mick Jagger or a top band. I was fortunate in having done it in the early days of rock photography when the music itself was the bottom line,” he says.

Even though things have changed, rock photography still has an irresistible lure for many, and Pownall has advice for young photographers who want to follow their dreams into rock photography. “Work with your local newspaper, and shoot what they ask for and more. Also, get to know and work with local bands and clubs. Hone your skills—and rely on luck and timing.” That advice certainly worked for Ron Pownall. To see more, visit www.ronpownallphoto.com.