How one photographer received entry to Sixties rock royalty

It was June 1964, on the peak of Beatlemania.

The English rock band was launching its first world tour — a pivotal second in music historical past — and younger photographer Bent Rej was there to seize the hysteria.

Rej began on the Copenhagen Airport in Denmark, the place the band was welcomed by a whole bunch of teenage followers. He attended each of the band’s concert events that evening on the Ok.B. Hallen enviornment. But one in every of his most memorable Beatles images got here after the exhibits, because the band was being rushed away from the sector to its resort.

As the Fab Four entered a limousine — properly, Fab Three as drummer Ringo Starr was out sick — Rej was ready close by.

He reached his digicam by means of the window of the entrance door and snapped the shutter.

It was a daring transfer by the 24-year-old Dane, and the beginning of a short however prolific stretch the place he would go on to {photograph} lots of the period’s most influential musicians.

For the following few years, Rej was capable of get entry to beloved artists — legends equivalent to The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. He would {photograph} them each on stage and behind the scenes as they visited his nation.

More than 200 of Rej’s images, a few of them not often seen by the general public, will be present in his new ebook, “Musik: The 1960s Photographs.” The coffee-table ebook, made within the dimensions of a document album, comes almost 10 years after his dying in 2016.

“Our father didn’t really talk much about that time,” stated Ny Rej, one in every of his two daughters. “It was just him being at the right spot, at the right place, at the right time.”

After the Beatles concert events in Copenhagen, Bent signed a contract with the English journal Fabulous to {photograph} British teams visiting Scandinavia.

His first main task was protecting The Rolling Stones, who arrived in Copenhagen in April 1965. He was invited to an afterparty at their resort, the place they booked a whole ground.

“I did not take pictures during the nightly parties, and I think they noticed that,” the photographer says within the ebook. “It was just an unspoken agreement; it felt natural to put away the camera at some point. As a result, I gained their confidence — something that would prove useful on many later occasions.”

He grew to become good buddies with one of many band’s founding members, Brian Jones, and would later go to the person band members at their properties for an unique portrait sequence.

Bent’s fame started to develop within the business, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than stars and their managers started to hunt him out.

“It was not always Bent who approached the musicians. Sometimes it was the other way around, as was the case with Tom Jones and also The Who,” his spouse, Inge, recollects within the ebook. “The managers knew that he was a very good photographer and contacted him with jobs.

“On the shoot for Tom Jones’ album cover, Bent went out and rented a white horse for him to pose on. Bent also had to go buy safety pins during the shoot because Tom busted the zipper of his pants. He became a friend, and we spent a lot of time with him when he was in Denmark. He was such a pleasant, unpretentious guy.”

Bent’s portfolio continued to develop as he photographed extra iconic stars from that point: Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks.

“He was just as young as they were, and a little bit crazy, too, I think,” Ny Rej stated of her father. “Maybe that functions well with rising young rock stars.”

Maybe it additionally helped that he wasn’t a giant music fan, in line with his daughter. He wasn’t intimidated by their movie star standing.

“To my dad, whether it’s someone from The Rolling Stones or a neighbor down the street, it’s the same thing to him. He was never starstruck,” Ny stated.

For a number of years, Bent had a backstage go at such a important time in rock music.

He didn’t keep for lengthy, although. By November 1966, simply a few years after he photographed the Beatles, Bent turned to trend and opened a store in Copenhagen. His profession in music images would quickly be completed.

“He says it stopped when he got a drink that was spiked with some LSD,” Ny stated. “He was very a lot affected by that. This occurred in London. He had two younger ladies, my sister and I, again residence in Denmark. And possibly he received sort of a wake-up name to know that this was not for him. …

“I think he could have made a great career in that direction, but maybe it didn’t interest him. If he had been crazy about music, maybe he would have stayed with it.”

During the ’70s, Bent additionally purchased a farm and received into breeding cattle, Ny stated. He later received into the promoting enterprise.

“He was a very good advertising photographer because he could make anything happen, almost no limits,” Ny stated. “To him, everything was possible.”

His final images of The Rolling Stones had been taken in 1970, and he by no means returned to music images outdoors of an album cowl he shot for an previous good friend, Peter Belli, in 1980.

“It was not until many, many years later that some of his friends told him, you know, I think you have an archive that could be really substantial from that period of time. Why don’t you look into that as a business idea?” Ny stated.

Bent died January 14, 2016, on the age of 75. His daughters, Ny and Mumle, have been carrying on their father’s legacy, exhibiting his work and sharing it with the world.

Ny remembers her father as a modest, hard-working man who didn’t like to speak about himself. Even late in life, he didn’t brag about his work or the time he spent with music royalty.

“Our children, almost grown at the time before he passed, also tried to talk to him about it. He never talked about it,” she stated.

Fortunately for us, his footage converse volumes.

Bent Rej’s ebook “Musik: The 1960s Photographs” was revealed by Chronicle Books and is obtainable now.