Born in 1951, on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark, Jorgen entered the world of rock photography as a schoolboy. At the age of 14 he attended his first press meeting, Sonny & Cher. Using his Kodak Instamatic he got some very poor results. So he upgraded to his mother’s holiday camera, an AGFA Optima. With this camera he took some of his most renowned photos.
The first international act he shot with this camera was The Pretty Things (his favourite band) at the age of 15. However still using his mother’s camera, he soon progressed to bands like The Yardbirds, Ten Years After, The Move and Deep Purple (MKI). The most famous photos he took with the old camera were of the very first performance by four young lads: Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham. Being a schoolboy was a bonus - how was he supposed to know that he shouldn’t just walk into Eric Clapton’s dressing room and ask to take a picture. Similarly, no-one tried to stop him when he walked onto the stage to take some close ups - the roadies were more worried about him stepping on one of Jimmy Page’s guitars!
Later he upgraded his equipment again - to Nikon and Hasselblad. With this equipment he shot about 50,000 photos of rock stars till he called it quits in the middle of 1980’s and left the music business - leaving the negatives in his parent’s basement and later in his attic.
With the wonders of the Internet he discovered there was an interest for his classic rock photos.
Jorgen Angel’s photography has been used for magazines, books, tv-programmes and on record covers. From USA to Russia, from Brazil to Japan as well at exhibitions and galleries.
Jorgen is often told his photos are "different". He is still trying to figure out what it is that makes them different. But what he does know is, that it’s almost impossible to take those kind of photos in the corporate environment that the music world of today has become.
