Background

Norman Seeff was born on March 5, 1939, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.

Education

Norman Seeff graduated with honors in science and art at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. At the age of 17, he was drafted as the youngest player in the South African national soccer league.

Norman Seeff qualified as a medical doctor in 1965. For three years he worked in emergency medicine at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, focusing on the management of traumatic shock.

In 1968, Norman Seeff immigrated to the United States to pursue his creative passions and artistic abilities.

Career

Soon after Norman Seeff arrived in New York City, his photographs of the people he encountered on the streets of Manhattan were discovered by the famed graphic designer Bob Cato. He became an important mentor to Norman Seeff and gave him his first major photographic assignment producing images for The Band's Stage Fright album. Seeff's iconic image of the group was re-produced as a poster inserted under the album's shrink wrap, which when unfolded, became a hugely popular collectors' item. This brought him immediate recognition and launched his career as a "rock" photographer. His early work also includes images of Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol as well as other New York City personalities.

In 1971, Norman Seeff spent a year as Professor of Photography at Bennington College in Vermont. At the end of 1971 and on the recommendation of Cato, Norman Seeff relocated to Los Angeles to become the creative director of United Artists Records. Two years later, he opened an independent studio on the 'strip' on Sunset Boulevard. His photographic sessions soon became legendary and attracted audiences of 30-40 at each session, swelling to over 200 on some occasions. He has documented over 500 sessions with artists of many disciplines including musicians, actors, writers, directors, actors, scientists, entrepreneurs, and politicians.

During the 1990s, Norman Seeff became an acclaimed, award-winning director of hundreds of national commercials for major brands including Apple, Levi's, Glaxo, Nissan, Toyota, General Motors, and Motorola.

Norman Seeff returned to photography and the documentation of his sessions in 1999 in order to produce a documentary exploration of the artist's journey for the opening of Paul Allen's Experience Music Project and sessions with the stars of Paramount Television and Caltech's many Nobel Science Laureates. It was the latter assignment that led to Norman Seeff being invited to work with the NASA space explorers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and to the production of his documentary film Triumph of the Dream. The documentary reveals the human face of the Mars Exploration mission that landed two rovers on Mars in 2004.

Initially having established himself as a designer and photographer of record album covers, Norman Seeff now concentrates on photographing people. He is particularly interested in developing "techniques for enhancing intuition and spontaneity."

Achievements

• PUBLICATIONS Monographs: Eye, 1979; Hot Shots, 1974.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Look of Sound

    (Across four decades, photographer Norman Seeff has create...)

    2015
  • Sessions!

    (Tied in with gallery exhibitions in New York and Los Ange...)

  • Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions

    (An extraordinary collection of photographs of the legenda...)

    2018
  • Hot Shots: Photographs by Norman Seeff 1974

• film

  • Norman Seeff's The Sessions

• photography

  • Joni Mitchell, Los Angeles

    1976

  • John Belushi

    1981

  • Steve Jobs, Mac on Lap Bel Air

    1984

  • Cher

    1973

  • Mick Jagger

  • Joni Mitchell

  • John Travolta

  • Dennis Brown

  • Patti Smith Mapplethorpe

  • Aerosmith

Connections

Norman Seeff lives in Los Angeles with his wife Sue Kiel and works out of his studio in Burbank. He has two children. His daughter, Tai Power Seeff, who was his daughter with Taryn Power, is a photographer.

Spouse:

Taryn Power

Spouse:

Sue Kiel

Daughter:

Tai Seeff

(b. 1980)

mentor:

Bob Cato

Soon after Norman Seeff arrived in New York City, his photographs of the people he encountered on the streets of Manhattan were discovered by the famed graphic designer Bob Cato. As the former Vice President of Creative Services at Columbia Records, Cato was renowned for his album cover design which had won two Grammy Awards. Cato became an important mentor to Norman Seeff and gave him his first major photographic assignment producing images for The Band's Stage Fright album.

References

• Official site of Norman Seeff