Norman Seeff, the renowned photographer and filmmaker who has captured intimate portraits of some of the world's most famous faces for over 45 years, recently shared his memories of New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel and his remarkable journey from medicine to photography. Born on March 5, 1939, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Seeff has photographed everyone from Ray Charles and Carly Simon to Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol, with his authentic images reflecting his exceptional talent as a communicator and his ability to capture the creative process and passion that drives innovators.
In 1969, Seeff moved to the United States to pursue his creative passions and develop his artistic talents. Shortly after arriving in New York, famous graphic designer Bob Cato discovered his portraits of personalities he had met in Manhattan. Cato introduced Seeff to the world of album covers, and his first major photographic commission for The Band brought him immediate recognition. His film archives of over 400 shoots with artists from the music world, directors, authors, television personalities, scientists, visionaries, and entrepreneurs offer a unique glimpse into these artists and pioneers in the midst of creation.
Seeff's transition from medicine to photography began during his twenties when he was working as an emergency room doctor in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg, during the height of apartheid. "The situation was becoming quite dangerous for me because I was against apartheid, and the government didn't like my political ideas or my friends, who were all activists," Seeff explained. Since childhood, he had always been fascinated by how things worked scientifically and had an innate talent for drawing. Faced with choosing between creative expression and being a doctor and healer, he realized that medicine was about fixing rather than healing.
"I wanted to find what my path was and what my real dream was. On impulse, I woke up one morning and said I was going to leave," Seeff recalled. "I packed my bags in a few weeks and decided to go to New York." He chose New York because he wanted to go to what he considered the most exciting, most advanced place, but he discovered to his great terror that it wasn't enough to just show up saying he was going to start a new career.
The reality of New York proved harsh for the aspiring photographer. "I discovered that people didn't care who others were, because everyone was trying to make it in this incredibly competitive and overwhelming place, where thousands of young photographers wanted to find work," he said. After four months, he hadn't earned a single dollar, and it was forbidden to bring money from South Africa. Nearly starving on the streets, he resolved to do one photo session per day, going wherever he found interesting people, particularly at a club called Max's Kansas City.
Max's Kansas City was a hub of subculture where Andy Warhol and his clique came, and where Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith also hung out. "There were all sorts of musicians, artists, and crazy people," Seeff remembered. It was there that he encountered Smith and Mapplethorpe, two expressive individuals whose way of dressing and completely new personality and way of communicating intrigued him. When he met them, probably sitting at the bar, he simply said, "You have an incredible look. Could I do a photo session with you?" They eventually became friends.
Since Seeff was staying with two photographers at the time, he had access to a studio and darkroom. Robert and Patti came over, and he photographed them. She had made a necklace with skulls that Robert was wearing for the first time. "For me, at the time, it was just a way to build a portfolio: who could have known they would become such interesting and recognized artists?" Seeff reflected. When he asked Robert what he did, Mapplethorpe said he was an airbrush artist and asked if he could work on one of Seeff's photos. Two weeks later, Mapplethorpe brought back the prints with beautiful airbrush work that left Seeff amazed.
Mapplethorpe then told Seeff he was thinking about becoming a photographer and asked if he could come to his sessions to watch him work. "I thought I didn't even know how I worked myself," Seeff said. "Of course, the story later became History. And people love those photos of them." Seeff eventually lived at the Chelsea Hotel for a while after Patti, who was living with a writer, invited him there to meet her network of friends. He ended up moving there briefly because he had a relationship with one of Avedon's models.
"The Chelsea was like A Clockwork Orange. A madhouse," Seeff described. "There were really wonderful people who came from everywhere, but what was great was that it was a hotel, which you could make your home for just a month." Everything he did was a discovery: who are these people, what are their social origins, their interests, how do they express themselves, what is the cultural expression of the time? It was exciting because it was the birth of the Factory and the early days of the Rolling Stones and Beatles, when music was the greatest social and political force.
After struggling for a year and a half, Seeff's breakthrough came when he met Bob Cato, a famous art director in the music world and a sort of legend. When Cato looked at his portfolio, Seeff saw tears in his eyes. Cato opened doors for him and offered his first session with The Band in Woodstock. That album cover became a poster seen everywhere in the city. Suddenly, instead of being unable to get appointments, he was receiving calls from art directors wanting to see him.
"The thing is, I didn't know the music industry was so important and that you could make a living photographing groups and making album covers," Seeff said. "It was a revelation." With Bob's help, he integrated into the music world, and as a visual artist, he also began designing album covers and earning money as a graphic designer. Suddenly, he was fashionable.
During the 1970s, when he began photographing album covers for artists like Frank Zappa and Johnny Cash, Seeff observed how album covers became almost religious icons in popular culture. "They were what told you how to dress and what attitude to adopt," he noted. Later, he photographed Exile on Main Street, and the Rolling Stones' style on that cover greatly influenced the fashion of the time. Originally just packaging for the product, album covers became works of art in themselves.
The Rolling Stones had a series of revolutionary album covers, working only with people they thought could push boundaries and do what no one else was doing. "There was a lot of pressure when you wanted to produce something that was a 'Stones moment,'" Seeff explained. Among his most frequent subjects was Joni Mitchell, whom he photographed about ten times at different phases of her career. "She's a very interesting person to photograph because she's a visual artist as much as a musician. She had a conceptual mind."
Unlike many people who liked whatever was proposed to them, Mitchell always wanted to arrive at his studio with an idea. "Our sessions were always a kind of struggle at first, but in the end, we both gave each other what they wanted," Seeff said. He would ask artists to play, sing, dance, and do new things, making the session a happening where people performed spontaneously rather than just standing there being photographed.
Mitchell's conceptual approach led to memorable sessions, including one where she arrived at the studio with a pack of wolves, requiring the installation of an electric barrier. Another time, she arrived disguised as a Black man, wearing men's clothing and face paint. "I had told my team not to miss her arrival, and we waited and waited, and I was looking at the crowd with this Black guy who was dancing and wearing all these jewels, and then suddenly I thought: 'Holy shit, that's Joni,'" Seeff recalled, demonstrating the unpredictable and creative nature that made his sessions legendary in the music and art world.
