Photo essay Photojournalism

The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker

Oct 2015 back issue

by Eddie Kramer

In early 1967, Jimi Hendrix walked into London’s Olympic Studios, just after the release of his debut hit single and met the senior sound engineer, Eddie Kramer. Kramer and Hendrix went on to form a closely collaborative relationship, whereby Kramer learnt to interpret Hendrix’s synesthetic descriptions of sounds and colours, creating an entirely new musical palette from which to produce the ‘sound paintings’ that eventually constituted Hendrix’s three studio albums. Kramer was an illustrious record producer and also a photographer who described his creative collaborations with Hendrix in the studio as ‘a roller coaster of intensity that never stopped’. Kramer’s position behind the glass of the recording studio offered an unparalleled vantage point from which to view Hendrix; the most prolific, innovative and visionary musician of all time, where the camera came as close as possible to recording the reverberations of those truly ground-breaking sessions. Capturing the magical moments where Hendrix was composing, experimenting and recording a track, Kramer’s images come as close as possible to opening a window into the creative genius of Jimi Hendrix and the world that he saw, in all its vivid colour. Eddie Kramer’s photographs of Hendrix are currently on show at the Proud Gallery, Chelsea, London. 18th September – 25th October 2015