Govinda Gallery

Lou Reed, London, 1972. © Mick Rock.

I was delighted to see Mick Rock’s brilliant photo of Lou Reed on the cover of the November issue of Mojo magazine. That photo of Lou was used for the cover of his groundbreaking album, Transformer. It was also one of the featured large-format photographs in the traveling museum exhibition, Sound and Vision: Monumental Rock & Roll Photography.

Lou Reed with gallery director Chris Murray enjoying Mick Rock’s contact sheet images of Reed. © Govinda Gallery Archive.

It was a great buzz for us at Govinda when Lou Reed dropped by one day in April of 1999 to see Mick’s exhibition, Mick Rock: A Photographic Record, at Govinda Gallery. Lou enjoyed all of Mick’s photographs that day, and very graciously signed Mick’s contact sheet print of Lou before he left the gallery. That is now a very rare print.

Mojo Magazine, November 2016.

Mick Rock is busier than ever with his latest book from Taschen, exhibitions of his photographs, and now the release of two documentary films about Mick and his work. Shot! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock is a feature documentary film about Mick’s five-decade career helping define the visual image of contemporary music. Long Live Rock is a documentary short featuring Mick with fashion designer John Varvatos visiting some of the locations where Mick shot a number of his most famous photographs of Syd Barrett, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Lou Reed, among others.

One of the wonderful aspects of being the Director of Govinda Gallery is that I became close friends with many of the artists we represent at Govinda. Mick Rock is one of those great friends. It was very exciting to host Mick’s first two exhibitions at Govinda and to feature his work in several museum exhibitions, with more coming up. Govinda Gallery was also the U.S. distributor for Mick’s first three books, published by Genesis Publications in England.

Mick Rock’s photographs and books are available through Govinda Gallery.