The Rolling Stones Family: Brian Jones' Lonely Hearts Club

Gered Mankowitz was born as the first of four sons on 3 August 1946 in London, England, to the English writer Wolf Mankowitz and Ann Margaret Seligman. After attending multiple schools throughout his education, Mankowitz dropped out of school at 15 years of age, without any proper qualifications. However, his natural photography gifts were discovered on a school trip to the Netherlands by the photographer Tom Blau. Blau offered Mankowitz an apprenticeship, and after a few months on the job, he had worked in all the departments, and began taking assignments. In 1962, Mankowitz began taking photos professionally in Barbados, and when he returned to London, he took a position in the Parisian fashion world, but quickly realized that that style of photography was not for him. In 1963, he broke into the music photography industry, and felt at home being able to work with artists his own age. At the end of that same year, Mankowitz opened his own studio.
Gered established his first studio in Mason’s Yard in 1963, in the very heart of 60s swinging London.
He met and photographed Marianne Faithfull in 1964, who was managed by the mercurial Andrew Loog Oldham, who also managed the Rolling Stones.
Gered started working with the Rolling Stones in 1965; he toured America with them and produced several album covers for the band. He continued working with them until 1967 by which time Gered was established as one of London’s leading rock photographers.
When asked if he thought that his work influenced the image of the Rolling Stones, Mankowitz replied: "I think I contributed a lot when I did the cover of the album Between the Buttons. My contribution in the earlier sessions was based more on an honesty, a desire to communicate something about the Stones as people and not try and mask their personalities with any sort of technical or theatrical embellishments. I think that that’s why (their manager) Andrew (Loog Oldham) liked the pictures and why the band were happy to work with me for such a long period of time, because I photographed them as they were. And then when it came to Between the Buttons, I felt confident enough as a photographer and in my relationship with them to actually make a contribution."
Early in 1967 Gered worked with Jimi Hendrix and the Experience producing, during two sessions at his Mason’s Yard studio, images of Jimi that would go on to become some of the most iconic and widely known portraits of the great musician.
Over the past 50 plus years Gered has continued to work in the music business as well as contributed to many leading magazines and also taken prize winning images for the advertising industry.
Currently Gered has been concentrating on books and exhibitions in galleries all over the world.
In 2017 he collaborated with his old friend and artist Christian Furr to create an extraordinary collection of 45 new images called 45RPM – based on his archive, Gered created new versions of old images which Christian then added to, using paint, pastels, ink and diamond dust to create a series of unique pieces.
In 2016 Gered was awarded the distinction of a Fellowship of The Royal Photographic Society.