Print Details
About this photograph
The Mothers of Invention unnerved Art Kane: other people’s photographs made them look like Hell’s Angels, and as he put it himself, "They scared the shit out of me." When he met them he discovered that rather than being hostile, they were the opposite, and that many of the Mothers were, in fact, fathers. So he decided to reveal them as one big gentle family, grouped tightly to emphasize the contrast between the big scary looking bearded men and the tiny vulnerable naked babies. The aim was to make the viewer see behind the facade – just like he had done himself. The shoot was a hoot. As he later recalled: "The babies were peeing all over the place! One baby on top peed on Frank Zappa’s head, which then ricocheted onto another guy’s cowboy hat, then dribbled onto another guy. It looked just like the fountains of Rome. I caught it all with strobe, it looked great but Life wouldn’t print it."
Print sizes and editions
16” x 20” paper size - Edition of 25
30” x 40” paper size - Edition of 4
50” x 75” paper size - Edition of 1
Print type
C-type print
Paper type
Epson Fine Art semi-matte archival paper
Signature
Estate stamped
About the photographer
Art Kane was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. Kane's work encompassed fashion, editorial, celebrity portraiture, travel, and nudes with a relentless and innovative eye. Kane pioneered photographic storytelling by investigating his image with metaphor and poetry, effectively turning photography into illustration. In 1958, Kane assembled the greatest legends in jazz and shot what became one of his most famous images, Harlem 1958.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he photographed, among others, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Doors, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan. In his lifetime Kane was honored by almost every photo-design organization in the United States and his contributions to photography continue to resonate to this day.
© Art Kane. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.