Colin Jones : The Who Collection

The Who 1966    (c) Colin Jones

Colin Jones was one of the most important photographers and photo-journalists of post-war Britain. In 1966, Colin followed The Who as they started their career playing in clubs and music halls, taking pictures of the band in their early performances as well as candid shots of the band as they went about their daily routines. It was just before the band achieved their first no.1 single in the UK chart and subsequently made a great success in the US. Colin’s photographs of The Who include the most iconic images of the band and have been published on numerous occasions throughout their career.

Among many other published photographs of the band from the 60s, Colin’s photographs have an outstanding documentary style and also stand alone as portraits. Despite the fact that the band is notorious for their destructive stage performance and off-the-stage behaviours, Colin’s photographs captured young Roger Daltry, John Entwistle, Pete Townshend and Keith Moon in rather calm and relaxed atmosphere, especially in their private environment. These photographs show that the photographer was focusing more on bringing out sensitive aspects of the boys at their tender age even when they are on stage, rather than on capturing the most boisterous moments of their performances. This feature would be also seen in the subsequent works of Colin’s, such as Grafters and his work of the Royal Ballet.

The exhibition showed 20 photographs from the series, all of which are hand-printed by Colin Jones.