(London) British photographer Mick Rock, known for immortalizing many legends and nicknamed the photographer of the 1970s, has died, according to an announcement posted on his Twitter account.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce that our beloved psychedelic renegade Mick Rock has made the Jungian journey to the other side,” said this statement, referring to psychoanalyst Carl Jung.
“Those who had the pleasure of living in his orbit know that Mick was much more than ‘the man who photographed the 70s’,” his nickname, according to the same source.
“He was a poet of photography, a true force of nature who spent his days doing exactly what he loved, always in his delightfully outrageous way.”
The circumstances of the death of the photographer, who was born in London in 1948, have not been specified.
Emblematic photographer of the rock scene, Mick Rock, author of famous portraits of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols or Blondie, became known in the early 1970s with the very first portraits of David Bowie.
For almost two years, he had been the official photographer of the British singer and songwriter, for whom he had made the record covers, posters and videos of Live on Mars and Space Oddity.
Mick Rock had also chronicled the existence of the flamboyant and decadent Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie’s “glam” alter ego between 1972 and 1973, who had crossed paths with Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music or Marianne Faithfull .
We owe him many album covers, including the famous one for the album Queen ii from the legendary group Queen.
But the variety of artists he had immortalized was much wider, including Snoop Dogg, Daft Punk or Ozzie Osbourne.
“It’s just goodbye my friend and comrade Mick Rock. The visionary poet, ”tweeted Johnny Marr, guitarist of the English band The Smiths, with a photo of him having his picture taken by the photographer.
A graduate in medieval and modern languages from the prestigious Cambridge University, Mick Rock had developed an interest in photography during his studies, taking pictures of the local rock scene.