Karl Stoecker

Karl Stoecker is an American glamour photographer, known for his album cover photographs of the 1970s for rock music acts.

Early life

Stoecker was born in Brooklyn, New York.

At Syracuse University in the early 1960s, Stoecker was a close friend of Shelley Albin, Lou Reed's girlfriend. At the time Stoecker was married, and lived off-campus with his wife. Stoecker was there as an art student. He was an editor of Reed's poetry magazine The Lonely Woman Quarterly. The coterie around the magazine included Lincoln Swados, brother of Elizabeth Swados, and Jim Tucker, brother of Moe Tucker. Stoecker and Albin did the artwork.

In London

In the mid-1960s Stoecker moved to the United Kingdom. He is quoted as saying "When I first went to London in 1966, it felt like the 1950s hadn't really gone away." He had a London photographic studio above a garage in St Michael's Street, off Edgware Road. He used Ronald Falloon as agent for his photographic work.

Stoecker emulated the "Vargas Girl" pin-up style of Alberto Vargas; Vargas took over the role at Esquire magazine, using airbrush and watercolor, that has been played by George Petty who had provided stylized drawings of women. Stoecker's friendship with Nigel Waymouth led to a photographic session with the model Nicky Samuel, Waymouth's first wife. A shoot by Stoecker of Amanda Lear appeared in Oui magazine in September 1974 under the title "Art punches Amanda out of shape"); it was based on works of Allen Jones.

Later life

Stoecker, "a lanky, blond magazine photographer in his late 50s", was in Miami when he spoke to The Christian Science Monitor in 2000. In 2014, when his work was exhibited at Balans restaurant, Stoecker was living in South Beach, Florida. He is now photographer to the family business Posh Vintage.Com. His son Luke Flynn (actor) [fr], son of Arnella Flynn (died 1998) and grandson of Errol Flynn, an actor and model, was reported in 2003 by the New York Times also to be involved with the business run by his stepmother Patti Stoecker. In connection with family matters, the spelling Carl Stoecker is sometimes used.

Works

Stoecker worked for Roxy Music, Sparks and Lou Reed. In the case of Roxy Music, he joined the team round Bryan Ferry that included also Antony Price, Nick de Ville and the publicist Simon Puxley. His iconic album cover images were created for Island Records, in collaboration also with Island's marketing director Tim Clark. David Enthoven of EG Management, also involved in the process, considered that the album art played a significant role in Island signing up Roxy Music. Alwyn Turner wrote:

Bryan Ferry, having studied under Richard Hamilton at art school, had an affection for the airbrushed gloss of advertising, and used fantasy images of women, shot by fashion photographer Karl Stoecker.

The first album cover was for Roxy Music (1971), a shot from a session by Stoecker, with styling by Price. The model was Kari-Ann Muller. The Vargas-influenced style has been called "retro-cheesecake". It was followed by Stoecker's work for For Your Pleasure (1972), with Amanda Lear as a "pathologically elegant" woman with a black panther on a leash; and Stranded (1973), with an Amazonian Marilyn Cole in red. According to Ferry, after Stranded Stoecker moved to Milan.

Stoecker also took the back cover photo used on Lou Reed's album Transformer (1972), for which the front cover was done by Mick Rock. It featured the fashion model Gala Mitchell, and Ernie Thormahlen, who was Reed's road manager at the time.

The cover for Sparks' breakthrough album Kimono My House (1974) was photographed by Stoecker for a design by de Ville. It featured two Japanese geishas, the models belonging to the Red Buddha Theatre of Stomu Yamashta. They were Michi Hirota, who sang on It's No Game, and Kuniko Okamura.

Notes

  1. ↑ "About". Karl Stoecker Photography.
  2. ↑ Bockis, Victor (1994). Transformer: The Lou Reed Story ( Music Art). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 44. ISBN 0684803666.
  3. 1 2 Sounes, Howard (2015). Notes from the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed. Transworld Publishers. pp. 31–2. ISBN 978-0-85752-266-5.
  4. ↑ Kane, Daniel (25 July 2017). "Do You Have a Band?": Poetry and Punk Rock in New York City. Columbia University Press. p. 258 note 24. ISBN 978-0-231-54460-3.
  5. ↑ Bootzin, Richard R. (1993). Abnormal Psychology: Current Perspectives. McGraw-Hill. p. 549. ISBN 978-0-07-911168-5.
  6. ↑ Levy, Aidan (1 October 2015). Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed. Chicago Review Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-61373-108-6.
  7. ↑ "Postmodernism and Provocation: A Brief History of Roxy Music's Album Art". AnOther. 8 September 2022.
  8. ↑ "Zen and the Art of Betsy Exhibitions 2020/21". The Betsy Hotel.
  9. ↑ "Ron Falloon".
  10. ↑ Hermes, Will (2 November 2023). Lou Reed: The King of New York. Penguin Books Limited. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-241-97164-2.
  11. ↑ Press, Ivy (October 2004). Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers Illustration Art Signature Auction #604. Heritage Capital Corporation. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-932899-32-0.
  12. ↑ Graves, Richard Perceval (28 January 2024). Nicky Samuel: My Life and Loves. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-80514-611-7.
  13. ↑ Art, Design, Photo. A. Davis Publications. 1975. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-903904-02-5.
  14. ↑ Feldmann, Linda (October 3, 2000). "Why the poll booths of America are empty". Christian Science Monitor.
  15. ↑ Morgenstern, Hans (11 April 2014). "Photographer for Roxy Music and Lou Reed Found Living in Semi-Obscurity in South Beach". Miami New Times.
  16. ↑ "Posh Vintage: elegant vintage clothes, shoes, handbags and more!". www.poshvintage.com.
  17. ↑ Garbarino, Steve (9 March 2003). "The Grandson Also Rises". The New York Times.
  18. ↑ Bret, David (6 February 2014). Errol Flynn: Gentleman Hellraiser. Aurum. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-78101-170-6.
  19. ↑ Stanfield, Peter (11 April 2022). Pin-Ups 1972: Third Generation Rock 'n' Roll. Reaktion Books. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-78914-566-3.
  20. ↑ Sheppard, David (1 July 2013). On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno. Chicago Review Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-55652-096-9.
  21. ↑ Turner, Alwyn W. (May 2010). My Generation: The Glory Years of Rock. Harry N. Abrams. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-85177-597-2.
  22. ↑ Thompson, Dave (21 May 2026). Roxy Music: In The 1970s. Sonicbond Publishing Ltd. p. 1962. ISBN 978-1-78952-639-4.
  23. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (4 October 2016). Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century. Faber & Faber. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-571-30173-7.
  24. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (4 October 2016). Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century. Faber & Faber. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-571-30173-7.
  25. ↑ Buckley, David (2005). The Thrill of it All: The Story of Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music. A Cappella Books. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-55652-574-2.
  26. ↑ "Bryan Ferry Speaks to Tim Blanks on the Art of Roxy Music". AnotherMan. 22 April 2020.
  27. ↑ Sounes, Howard (22 October 2015). Notes from the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed. Random House. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-4735-0895-8.
  28. ↑ Swart, Ruud (30 January 2026). Sparks: Song by Song: Volume 1 1971–1988. Fonthill Media. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-0361-5233-8.
  29. ↑ Sutton, Chris (18 November 2024). Sparks: 1969 to 1979. Every Album, Every Song. Sonicbond Publishing Ltd. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-78952-123-8.
  30. ↑ Easlea, Daryl (7 April 2010). Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks. Omnibus Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-85712-237-7.