Ethan Russell
Ethan Allen Russell (born November 26, 1945, in Mount Kisco, New York) is an American photographer, author and video director, mostly of musicians. He is known as "the only rock photographer to have shot album covers for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who."[1]
Ethan Russell
November 26, 1945
American
Photographer, author, video director
1968−present
Photography work with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who
Family and early life[edit]
The son of Charles Howland Russell and Alice Allen Russell, he is the great-grandson of suffragist Florence Jaffray Harriman and the great-grandson of Episcopal bishop Henry C. Potter. He has three siblings. His brother Jeremy Borden Russell (1944–2005) was founder and manager of the rock band Blue Cheer. Other siblings are Linda Russell Matson, (1947-) and Adam Henry Russell (1953–2009). His godfather is Cole Porter.
His family moved to Manhattan in 1950, then to San Francisco in 1952. Russell attended high school at Cate School outside Santa Barbara, California, then the University of California, Davis, where he majored in English and Art. He was first introduced and became interested in photography at Davis, but did not work professionally until 1968 when he traveled to England.
The Beatles and Let It Be[edit]
Critic Todd Leopold of CNN Entertainment wrote: "Ethan Russell first met the Beatles in early 1969. Photographs of Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones production Rock and Roll Circus attracted the interest of Beatles consigliere Neil Aspinall, who invited Russell to Twickenham Studios, where the group was making Let It Be. Russell's photographs ended up on the cover and gatefold of the LP, the last the Beatles released. ... Russell's photographs show four men trying to rescue their fading musical marriage."[7]
Russell was among three photographers at the final formal photo session of the Beatles on August 22, 1969. This was held at Tittenhurst Park, a home then owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and later owned by Ringo Starr. Two of these photo's were used for The Hey Jude album. Other photographers participating that day were Monty Fresco of the Daily Mail and Beatles' assistant Mal Evans.[8]
The Who[edit]
Working with The Who, Russell did the cover photography for Who's Next in 1971 and the photography for the book that accompanied Quadrophenia in 1973. However, Russell did not shoot the cover for Quadrophenia. That was shot by photographer Graham Hughes.[9] Pete Townshend's opinion of Russell's photographs was: "They look ready to put up in the National Gallery. Ethan is the civilised eye of an uncivilised art-form: rock 'n' roll."[1] Russell received a Grammy nomination for his work on Quadrophenia. One of Russell's photos was used on the cover of the 1988 compilation album, Who's Better, Who's Best.
Photography of other musicians[edit]
His roster of subjects also includes; Audioslave, Elkie Brooks, Rosanne Cash, Eric Clapton, Cream, the Eagles, Phil Everly, Jimi Hendrix, John Hiatt, Rickie Lee Jones, Janis Joplin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jim Morrison, The Moody Blues, Linda Ronstadt, Spooky Tooth, and Traffic.
In 1978 Russell shifted his focus to film and video, becoming "a pioneer in producing music videos",[1] but leaving a cache of iconoclastic still photographs largely unseen for nearly 30 years. He produced and directed films with Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Rickie Lee Jones, k.d. lang, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Yoko Ono, Leon Redbone, Paul Simon, Randy Travis, and Hank Williams, Jr..[10]
In reviewing Rosanne Cash's video What We Really Want in 1991, the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Photographer-director Russell has concocted a weird, two-dimensional world of paintings for Cash to step into, singing one of her latest songs of woe and miscommunication. It's a visual effect that's been tried in videos many times before, but never quite to this successfully surreal an effect."[11]
In the 1990s Russell garnered his second Grammy nomination for the video There's A Tear In My Beer with Hank Williams, Jr.[12][13]