Michael Cooper

Michael Cooper

Every man has a story to tell, but not every man knows how to tell it. Michael Cooper could certainly tell a story. He didn’t do it with words; instead his tales were best told through images of the most notable names of the freewheeling 1960s. It wasn’t only his talent, visual skill, seductive charm, charisma, and endearing personality that summarized his magnificent work. He really was an alchemical presence. Through luck or foresight, he was always there when it mattered.

Michael’s relationship with the Stones began in the early 1960s. With his camera in hand at all times, he became the de facto court photographer for them, on stage and off. He worked closely with the band, forming a strong friendship that allowed him to capture in a very honest and sensitive way the triumphs, tragedies, joy, and tears of those early days, and he encouraged the adventure to create in collaboration the iconic cover for the album Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Michael was a unique artist with an obsessive involvement, able not just to record but to participate, telling everything just like it was. He had not only an innate ability to get inside your head, but also beyond it, and with the candor and nobility to capture the intimacy of it all.

His photographs were the foundation of album covers from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park
Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park

Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park

$50.00

Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park is available EXCLUSIVELY from our site. 

In the 1960s, Michael Cooper was a successful photographer working in the London music scene. His photographs were the foundation of album covers from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request. He was a fashion photographer for Vogue London, and collaborated on an early film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange featuring the Rolling Stones. He was as much a part of the culture of 1960s London as he was its chronicler.

Michael photographed many of the icons of the counterculture movement of that unique period. But it was his close friendship with the Rolling Stones that formed the foundation for his extraordinary career.

Brian Jones was the multi-instrumentalist band leader who arranged and designed the Rolling Stones’ musical direction, crafting a music fusion which has defined their sound and attitude ever since. He was the musical genius who created a cultural and musical phenomenon.

Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park collects over 120 images chronicling Brian Jones’ career, his life, and in many ways his relationship with Michael Cooper, who was ever at Brian’s side with his camera, ready to record Brian’s magical presence.

Adam Cooper and his wife Silvia have opened the Michael Cooper Collection  archives to bring us an insider’s view of Brian Jones and the Rolling Stones in the recording studio, live on stage, at play with their friends in Ireland and Morocco, on the cover photo shoot for Their Satanic Majesties Request, and so much more.

With an introduction by Paul Trynka, and new contributions from Donovan, Linda Lawrence Leitch, Andee Nathanson, Prince Stash Klossowski de Rola, Brian’s son Julian, and his grandson Joolz Jones, Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park offers a unique insight into one of the most enigmatic and influential musical figures of the 1960s, as some of Brian’s friends recount their own personal experiences in nearly 9,000 words.

Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park comes in softcover, full color, 8.5x11, 154 pages.

ISBN: 978-1-947521-31-5

Media one sheet. Download here. 

4.6 from 19 readers

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