Leon Russell, 45 Years Apart: The Story Behind the Lenticular Print
Near the Archive at The Church Studio, there’s a portrait of Leon Russell that won’t hold still. Walk past it slowly and watch what happens. The long dark hair and beard of a young man turn white, and an older face looks back at you. The eyes never move.
That’s by design. Two photographs taken by Linda Wolf, 45 years apart, were aligned at Leon’s eyes. Made in Kansas City, the lenticular print interlaces strips of both photographs beneath tiny lenses. As you change your viewing angle, the lenses reveal one portrait, then the other
The first photograph captures a young Leon in his late twenties during Joe Cocker’s 1970 Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. When Denny Cordell and Joe Cocker asked Leon to help assemble a band, he had just eight days to prepare. He brought together the musicians and background singers, shaped the arrangements, and served as musical director, playing piano and guitar. The tour ran from March 20 through May 16, 1970, and lives on through photographs, the live album, and the documentary Mad Dogs & Englishmen, filmed during the tour and released in 1971. .
Linda Wolf was one of the first women rock & roll photographers. Her early photography work included Fanny, one of the first all-female rock bands signed to a major record label. Just 20 when she hit the road with Mad Dogs & Englishmen, she served alongside Andee Cohen Nathanson as one of the tour’s two official photographers.
Forty-five years later, that music brought Leon and many of the original tour members together again. On September 11, 2015, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi welcomed them to the stage with Tedeschi Trucks Band at the LOCKN’ Festival in Arrington, Virginia, for a tribute to Cocker, who had died the previous December.
Leon was 73, now sharing those songs with another generation of musicians. Linda’s second portrait captures him at the reunion, his face framed by white hair and beard. The photograph also appeared in Learning to Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen (2021), a documentary about the reunion and its connection to the original tour.
Linda’s 2020 coffee table book, Tribute: Cocker Power, brings together photographs and stories from the original tour and the reunion.
Two portraits, 45 years apart. The eyes never move.
