Neal Preston

Last updated

Neal Preston (born 1952) is a photographer based in Los Angeles, California. Preston is known primarily for his photographs of rock musicians. He has worked closely with such artists as Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and many others.

Life and career

Preston was born in New York City. He attended Forest Hills High School in Queens, New York. Photography started out as a hobby for him, and even before graduating from high school in 1970, he was already shooting rock shows throughout the New York City area and had formed a small photography company, earning assignments from a variety of publications. In October 1971, Preston moved permanently to Los Angeles. Over the past four decades, his work has been featured in countless magazines and used on the covers of hundreds of music-related releases.

In 1985, Preston was chosen as one of the official photographers for Bob Geldof’s “Live Aid” concert at London’s Wembley Stadium. In 1988, he was official tour photographer for Amnesty International’s “A Conspiracy of Hope” international tour featuring Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Peter Gabriel. His archives were the primary source of still photographs for over 50 episodes of VH-1’s music documentary series, Behind the Music .

Preston has also worked extensively in non-music fields, shooting a wide variety of subjects for both editorial and commercial clients. In 1978 he joined the New York-based photo agency Camera 5. In 1979, he began a long association with People magazine, with over 700 shoots to his credit. He has also shot covers of Newsweek , Time , and Rolling Stone , and many other magazines and books. In sports, Preston has photographed six Olympic Games, and covered heavyweight boxing, NBA basketball, World Cup soccer, professional figure skating, and Major League Baseball.

Preston has served as both unit and special photographer for a string of feature films directed by his long-time friend Cameron Crowe, including Almost Famous , Vanilla Sky , Elizabethtown , and We Bought A Zoo .

Preston is the author of several books devoted to his photography of Led Zeppelin, whom he first shot in 1970 and for whom he later served as official tour photographer.

Preston remains active today — shooting music, glamour, and movie stills; managing his archives; and mounting gallery exhibitions of his work.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Weber (photographer)</span> American photographer and film director (born 1946)

Bruce Weber is an American fashion photographer and occasional filmmaker. He has made ad campaigns for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Pirelli, Abercrombie & Fitch, Revlon, and Gianni Versace, and made work for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Life, Interview, and Rolling Stone magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Clinch</span> American photographer and film director

Danny Clinch is an American photographer and film director.

Pennie Smith is an English photographer, known for her photography of the rock music industry. She specialises in black-and-white photography.

Pamela Colleen Springsteen is an American actress and photographer. She had a short acting career, and is best known for playing the role of serial killer Angela Baker in the cult slasher/comedy horror films Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989). She had two co-starring roles in the obscure comedies Dixie Lanes (1988), The Gumshoe Kid (1990), and smaller roles in mainstream films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Reckless (1984) and Modern Girls (1986). She is a still photographer in the film and music industry. She is the younger sister of Bruce Springsteen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Vadukul</span> British photographer

Max Vadukul is a British photographer who is based in New York City. He is noted for his art reportage photography, which he describes as “taking reality and making it into art.” He has a lifelong affinity with black and white photography, a foundation of much of his early work. From 1996 to 2000 Max was the staff photographer for The New Yorker, second after Richard Avedon and is the first Indian photographer to shoot covers for French and American Vogue.. Sting has described his photography as a sort of "On the move style". The National Geographic channel produced a feature documentary on Vadukul in 2000 about the improbable arc of his life after Africa; the documentary continues to air around South Asia today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Gruen</span> American author and photographer (born October 23, 1945)

Bob Gruen is an American author and photographer known for his rock 'n' roll photographs. By the mid 1970s, Gruen was already regarded as one of the foremost photographers in music working with major artist such as John Lennon, Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, and Kiss. He also covered emerging New Wave and Punk rock bands, including the New York Dolls, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Ramones, and Blondie. Gruen has also appeared in films.

Mark Alan Seliger is an American photographer noted for his portraiture. From 1992 to 2002, he was Chief Photographer for Rolling Stone, during which time he shot over 188 covers for the magazine. From 2002 to 2012 he was under contract with Condé Nast Publications for GQ and Vanity Fair and has shot for numerous other magazines. Seliger has published a number of books, including When They Came to Take My Father: Voices of the Holocaust, Physiognomy, and On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories, and his photographs are included in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has done advertising work for Adidas, Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Apple, Dom Pérignon, Fila, Gap, HBO, Hourglass Cosmetics, Hulu, KITH, Lee Jeans, Levi's, McDonald's, Netflix, Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban, Rolex, Showtime, Sony, Universal and Viacom, among others. He is also the lead singer of the country band Rusty Truck.

Frank Stefanko is an American fine art photographer with connections to New Jersey performers Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen. Stefanko's early photographs, taken in the 1960s through the 1980s, reveal the emerging careers of the two young artists. Frank retains an ongoing working relationship with both Springsteen and Smith. A limited edition book was released in November 2017, entitled Bruce Springsteen: Further Up the Road. The book chronicles the 40-year working relationship between Stefanko and Bruce Springsteen. It contains personal stories and hundreds of Frank's photos from the 1960s to 2017, many never before seen.

Autumn de Wilde is an American photographer and film director best known for her portraiture and commercial work photography of musicians, as well as her music video works. In 2020 she directed her first feature film, Emma.

Eric Meola is an American photographer. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 and is self-taught in the art of photography. In New York he apprenticed under photographer Pete Turner, who influenced Meola's use of saturated color and graphic design. In 1971, Meola opened a studio and began working for popular magazines such as Life, Esquire, and Time, shooting editorial photos. His work has since appeared in museum collections including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, and in Munich's Museum of Modern Art. Meola's official website can be found below.

Lynn Goldsmith is an American recording artist, film director, celebrity portrait photographer, and rock and roll photographer. She has also made fine art photography with conceptual images and with her painting. Books of her work have been published by Taschen, Rizzoli, and Abrams. In 1985, she received a World Press Photo award. In the 1980s, she wrote songs and performed as Will Powers. In 2023 Goldsmith was part of a U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with the limits of fair use concerning a series of Andy Warhol silkscreen portraits based on a Goldsmith photo of the musician Prince.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy White (photographer)</span>

Timothy White is an American celebrity photographer. He has photographed film actors and music artists, and shot for movie posters, magazine and music album covers. He has directed advertising campaigns and television commercials. He has published books of his photography works.

Michael Putland was a 1970s English music photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Leibovitz</span> American photographer (born 1949)

Anna-Lou Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken five hours before Lennon's murder, is considered one of Rolling Stone magazine's most famous cover photographs. The Library of Congress declared her a Living Legend, and she is the first woman to have a feature exhibition at Washington's National Portrait Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Marcus</span> American photographer

Ken Marcus is a famous American photographer, best known for his work in glamour and erotic photography with Penthouse and Playboy magazines and for his own website. For over 40 years he has produced hundreds of centerfolds, editorials, album covers, and advertisements. For many years, Marcus has lectured and conducted professional workshops in the US and internationally.

Mark Weiss is an American rock music photographer. His most widely recognized photographs capture the look and aesthetic of music and celebrity personalities of the 1980s. His work with publications such as Circus magazine and FACES helped establish Mark "Weissguy" Weiss as a name known for rock photography. He has photographed a wide range of acts including the Rolling Stones, Kiss, Madonna and Wu Tang Clan.

Norman Seeff is a photographer and filmmaker. Since moving to the United States in 1969, his work has been focused on the exploration of human creativity and the inner dynamics of the creative process.

Ed Gallucci is an American photographer currently living in South Dakota. He is the first magazine photographer to photograph Bruce Springsteen and 40 covers of Newsweek in the 1970’s thru 1990’s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Webber</span> American photographer (born 1986)

Anna Webber is an American photographer best known for her musician portrait photography, in addition to being an official ambassador for The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSSA) Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, People, and Billboard.

Bruce Wayne Talamon is an American photographer. He is best known for photographing R&B and soul musicians during the 1970s and 1980s, and for his editorial work as a contract and stills photographer.