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Joe Stevens (born Joseph Grady July 25, 1938, in New York City) is an American photographer. He is known for his photos of musicians and bands such as David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, and The Clash.[1][2] In the 1960s, he managed the Playhouse, a Greenwich Village coffee house, where he began taking pictures of musicians who performed at the coffee house.[3] While working there, he was encouraged by photographer Jim Marshall.[4] Stevens does not have formal training in photography, but worked in the music business as road manager for Miriam Makeba and The Lovin' Spoonful.
Meeting Jim Marshall again at Woodstock, Stevens decided he "had an eye" for photography and would make it his career.[5] Moving to England in 1971-1972, he took photos for the International Times that were credited to "Captain Snaps" until he received a work permit. In 1972, Paul McCartney hired Stevens on the recommendation of his wife Linda McCartney to photograph the Wings Over Europe Tour.[6] Linda McCartney knew Stevens from her career as a photographer.
Stevens worked for the New Musical Express in London for most of the 1970s. Returning to New York City, he photographed the CBGB club scene, capturing early images of Debbie Harry and the Ramones.
Images that are typical of his candid style[7][8] include Paul McCartney hiding his face in Linda McCartney's arms during their arrest for marijuana possession in Sweden.[9] John Lennon wearing plastic bags on his hands while protesting the 1971 obscenity trial of Oz magazine; Peter Gabriel covered with soap bubbles in the bathtub of Stevens's London flat;[10] and the fight between the Sex Pistols and their audience at London's Nashville Rooms in 1976. The Gabriel photo was one of many by Stevens that appeared on the cover of NME.
In January 1978, Stevens photographed the Sex Pistols on their only American tour. When the group broke up in San Francisco, Stevens gave singer Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) airfare to New York City, and Rotten stayed with Stevens in his New York apartment before returning to London.[11]
Stevens describes himself as a chronicler of history.[12] In 2015, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth said Stevens "was really the bridge between New York and London. . . . He was really significant in the whole history that was developing in new music at that time."[13] In 2018, his photographs were used in the biography of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page[14] and autobiography of British-American media executive Les Hinton.[15]
Stevens's 1965 photograph of Johnny Cash and guitarist Luther Perkins backstage at Carnegie Hall appeared in the 2019 public television series Country Music. His images were included in several retrospective exhibits of rock photography and appear from time to time in the British magazine UNCUT and The New York Times.
Stevens lives in New Hampshire.
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