One of Mark Weiss’ first rock and roll photographs was of Eric Clapton in 1975 at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. A family member had bought tickets for the show to celebrate his 15th birthday. Weiss sneaked a 35mm camera into the arena, and it was while snapping off a few shots that he had an epiphany: Taking photographs of rock stars is what he was meant to do.
Now Weiss’ work can be seen in a beautifully designed, 378-page, full-color coffee table book called The Decade That Rocked. The book is all about Weiss’ skyrocketing career in the 1980s and how rock music evolved in the decade through the lens of a photographer who knew his subjects well. Gene Simmons put it best in a quote for the book: “Mark Weiss is a rock star. If he didn’t have a camera hanging around his neck … it would be a Les Paul guitar.”
Part of Weiss’ success in the 1980s was his ability to make musicians feel at ease in front of the camera. That in itself is not an easy job. Rock stars might be photogenic, but they are not necessarily the most patient subjects, and photoshoots — especially album cover photoshoots — can take a great deal of time to perfect.
Weiss gave Goldmine the stories behind his album cover photography for some of the bestselling records of the 1980s.
MARK WEISS: It almost broke up the band, believe it or not. I heard years later that the shoot was almost like the straw that broke the camel’s back, because the photo was supposed to be a band shot on the cover, and it was intended to be that.
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