Background
Marshall was born in Chicago, Illinois.
Marshall was born in Chicago, Illinois.
He had extended access to numerous musicians through the 1960s and 1970s, including being backstage at The Beatles" final paid live concert in San Francisco"s Candlestick Park, and chief photographer at Woodstock. While still at high school, he purchased his first camera and began documenting musicians and artists in San Francisco. After serving several years in the Air Force, he returned and moved to New New York
He was hired by Atlantic Records and Columbia Records to photograph their musical artists.
His photos appeared on the covers of over 500 albums and even more were published in Rolling Stone. Marshall was said to have at least one Leica camera with him at all times.
One famous story of a Chief Executive Officer that offered to buy the camera that he used to shoot Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock for $25,000 (in 1973) which he refused. Marshall was well known in the industry for his portraits of musicians.
His photos of musicians, taken on stage and off without any direction or posing, of 1960s and 1970s musicians were possible because of the exceptional access musicians allowed him.
His pictures of Neil Young, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, the Allman Brothers, The Who, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, Guns North" Roses, Santana and The Beatles "helped define their subjects as well as rock ’n’ roll photography itself."
When I’m photographing people, I don’t like to give any direction. There are no hair people fussing around, no makeup artists. I’m like a reporter, only with a camera.
I react to my subject in their environment, and if it’s going well, I get so immersed in it that I become one with the camera.
Annie Leibovitz said he was "the rock ’n’ roll photographer."
Marshall also photographed other musical greats such as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Ray Charles. Other photographic assignments included shooting the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 for Autoweek and the 2007 introduction of the Nissan GT-R.