"We were two guys goofing off having fun," he recalls 28 years later
Steve Jobs with Mac. Photo by Norman Seeff. Click to enlarge.
Ray Basile, who hung out in Norman Seeff's Laurel Canyon studio as a teenager and now writes a blog called iPhone Savior, has posted a long interview with the South African photographer whose portrait of Steve Jobs ended up on the cover of Time Magazine and the book jacket of Walter Isaacson's' biography.
Seeff, who had long career as a photographer of celebrities from Andy Warhol to Whitney Houston, tells how he flew to Apple's (AAPL) Cupertino, Calif., headquarters in 1984, tasked with shooting the Macintosh design team.
"I decided to start with the team rather than Steve right out. They were like a commune, very different than what you'd expect in a corporation. There was a tremendous sense of family, a tremendous sense of shared innovative thinking that seemed to be future oriented.
"I got all of these people together in the room and I could see Steve in the background. You could see him thinking 'this looks like fun - I wanna play'. Every now and again he'd sneak into the room and he'd kind of glom on -- if I was shooting 20 people together he'd run in and he wouldn't stand in the middle -- rather he'd put his arm around someone on the edge and in that way, I was able to get a shot of him with the group."
Photo by Norman Seeff
Later Seeff suggested that they photograph Jobs by himself in his Woodside mansion.
"We drove over to his house and we sat in that large unfurnished living room and we were just in conversation. My fundamental approach is not to try and take photographs, but to create an authentic, honest relationship so that they forget that the camera is even there.
"He was so inspired in that moment and said 'I'll be right back' and he ran out of the room and he came running back in with the new Mac and he just plopped on the floor.
"So we didn't think of an idea, we just had a moment. What was encapsulated in that box was his baby. Now if we had conceptualized it and said 'let's put you in a lotus position so that you look like a guru and let's put the Mac on your lap and let me get the right angle and now look at me' — but none of that happened.
"He walked in and he fell into that place in one second and I got the shot, it was that easy. I didn't tell him what to do, he just did it. There isn't any other process that works unless it's collaborative, that's the foundation of working with innovative people - you don't 'do it' to anybody — you participate with them."
Lithographs of the original black-and-white photo, printed on 25 x 36 inch sheets, are now available for $75. Signed and numbered copies, with a touch of color on the Apple logo, are $125.
Basile has the details, plus a gallery of more Seeff photos shot that day. Click here.
The timing may be suspicious, but the OS looks more to Google than to Microsoft
"Apple Speeds Mac 'Mountain Lion' to Take On Windows 8" Bloomberg Businessweek
"Steve Jobs is gone, Windows 8 is coming and Apple panics" betanews
As predicted, the tech press spent much of the rest of the week trying to make sense of last Tuesday's news that the latest version of the Mac operating system, Mountain Lion, is due MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 19, 2012 12:07 PM ET
How the news of the Mac's next operating system -- Mountain Lion -- got disseminated
Source: Techmeme
The top tech news story Thursday, apparently, has nothing to do with working conditions in China, or who owns the iPad brand, or even the fact that Motorola (MMI) may have to remove "slide to unlock" from its smartphones.
No, the top 135 stories on Techmeme this afternoon are all about the next version of MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 16, 2012 3:50 PM ET
Forty five minutes with the man who took over when Steve Jobs stepped down
Tim Cook
For those of you who missed Tim Cook's keynote presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco Tuesday, the audio is still available in QuickTime on Apple's (AAPL) website here.
For those who prefer to read than to listen, we've posted an edited transcript of his remarks below the fold.
Corrections most appreciated.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 15, 2012 5:38 AM ET
The 28-year-old expo has a new brand, a new focus and hundreds of fizzy new products
Macworld|iWorld graphic via IDG World Expo
When Apple (AAPL) announced in 2008 that it was pulling out of Macworld -- no longer exhibiting its products or staging Steve Jobs' closely-watched keynotes -- many wondered whether the venerable expo could survive.
It was touch and go there for a while, but it turns out there is money MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 26, 2012 10:33 AM ET
Nothing but praise -- after the ship had sailed -- from folks who totally missed the boat
Chart: MacRumors.com
A sampling of what Wall Street had to say overnight about Apple's (AAPL) first fiscal quarter earnings report:
Barclay's Ben Reitzes: No "Law of Large Numbers" Here. The upside Apple posted for the December quarter was beyond all of our most bullish scenarios, especially for iPhones and iPads. Most importantly, it seems momentum can continue MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 25, 2012 5:52 AM ET
Humiliated by a bunch of bloggers, amateur analysts and assorted day traders
Click to enlarge.
With revenues that grew 73% and earnings that more than doubled, Apple (AAPL) proved Tuesday that the fourth quarter results that so disappointed Wall Street last fall were a fluke. The company that Steve Jobs built is still that rare beast in American business: A $400 billion giant that acts -- and grows -- like a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 25, 2012 12:15 AM ET
Shares jump nearly 9% in after-hours trading on record sales of $46.33 billion, record profit of $13 billion, record 37 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs
Everybody was counting on Apple (AAPL) to report record earnings, but nobody -- not even the most bullish independent analysts -- predicted anything like the blowout the company just reported.
Trading was halted at 4:27 p.m. after Apple's shares had closed at $420.50, down MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 24, 2012 4:19 PM ET
The 18% gap between the Street's estimates and the independents' suggests that it can
Click to enlarge. Data: Company reports, Apple 2.0
Last fall, a Wall Street analyst who shall remain nameless suggested in a note to clients that the days of the big Apple (AAPL) earnings surprises may be over.
He was referring to the string of quarterly reports in which the company beat the Street's estimates by measures so wide MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 22, 2012 2:38 PM ET
33 of 46 analysts expect Apple to meet or beat that mark in its quarterly report next week
Click to enlarge.
One of the big computer news stories last quarter was the continued strength of Apple's (AAPL) Mac sales even as the rest of the PC industry was shrinking. (See Mac sales zigged as Windows PC sales sagged in Q4.)
How well did the Mac do? We put the question to our two MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 18, 2012 2:28 PM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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