Joel Lee Brodsky, a photographer whose memorable album cover pictures of Jim Morrison, Isaac Hayes, Aretha Franklin and dozens of other performers helped define the visual image of popular music in the 1960s and '70s. He photographed about 400 album covers for a diverse cast of musicians that included B.B. King, Carly Simon, Barry Manilow, Kiss, Iggy Pop and Gladys Knight and the Pips.
His best-known picture, made at his New York studio in 1967, shows a bare-chested Jim Morrison of the Doors, with his arms outstretched. Featured on the cover of the 1985 "The Best of the Doors" album (remastered versions released in 1991 and 2006), the black-and-white image depicts the messianic, sensitive and dangerous qualities that made Morrison such an important musical figure of his time. Five of Brodsky's photographs of the Doors appeared as album covers, and he received a Grammy nomination for the group's 1967 debut, "The Doors."
Brodsky described the session in a 1981 interview. The 23-year-old Morrison, he said, was "totally plastered . . . so drunk he was stumbling into the lights." Still, he projected an edgy charisma that Brodsky was able to capture on film. "You know, Morrison never really looked that way again, and those pictures have become a big part of the Doors' legend. I think I got him at his peak."
The total edition of this image, called “the American Poet” or “Young Lion”, was set to 28 by Brodsky. He did, however, just print and sign nine of them before he passed away at the age of 67. The print for sale at this auction (6/28) is among the very last photographs in this edition that he signed.
Joel Lee Brodsky was born in Brooklyn and became interested in photography through a college class. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1960, found a job at a camera store in Brooklyn soon after, and had opened his own studio by 1964. He had no particular photographic specialty until a friend who managed a folk group asked him to take pictures for an album.
For several years, Brodsky was house photographer for Stax Records, a Memphis label specializing in soul music and rhythm and blues. Although Brodsky had an enormous record collection, he wasn't always inspired by the musicians he worked with. His daughter have stated that her father loved music, but that although the Doors were the subjects of the images that made him well known, he did not particularly enjoy theirs.
By 1980 Mr. Brodsky had moved from photographing musicians to doing advertising work for several companies. Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a worldwide revival of interest in Brodsky's and other photographer’s rock-and-roll pictures. His work has been shown at exhibitions across USA and in Europe.