Queen lead guitarist Brian May recently shared a post on his official Instagram account to pay tribute to his dear friend and famous photographer Mick Rock, who passed away a short time ago. May reminded his fans of Rock’s successful career and contribution to Queen’s image.
As you might know, Mick Rock pursued a successful career as a photographer and came to be known as ‘the man who shot the ’70s.’ He worked with icons such as Queen, David Bowie, T. Rex, Syd Barrett, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Joan Jett, and many more. Rock photographed both their legendary album covers and the musicians themselves.
Unfortunately, Mick Rock’s family announced on his official Twitter account that he passed away on November 18, 2021, but the cause of his death remained unknown. The bands and musicians that collaborated with Rock reflected their sadness and devastation on their social media accounts. As one of them, Brian May stated that he was ‘sad and shocked’ after he had learned that the famous photographer had passed away.
In his Instagram post, the Queen guitarist highlighted that Mick Rock was the man behind their second studio album ‘Queen II’ cover, which inspired them while creating their iconic look for the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ music video. Brian May revealed that the photographer accepted to work with them before they gained great fame and commercial success. Also, he praised Rock’s works as David Bowie’s official photographer, saying that they will never be forgotten.
May’s IG post read:
“Sad and shocked to hear of the passing of our friend, photographer Mick Rock – who clicked his shutter to capture that iconic image of us for the ‘Queen II’ cover in 1974, at a time when we were not very big stars. The Marlene-Dietrich style lighting applied to the four of us (only one light source above for the whole group) gave us an enduring image, inspired part of the ‘look’ of our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video a couple of years later, and has been widely imitated by others over the years since then. Mick did much memorable work for David Bowie and produced images both in the studio and in the live situation. His oeuvre will definitely shine on. RIP Mr. Rock.”
You can check out the photos below.
Photo Credit: Brian May – Instagram
