Growing up, Brad Elterman’s father
wanted him to follow in the footsteps and become a dentist
. But like many kids growing up in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and ’70s, Elterman was far more interested in the booming music industry. It was a time when there weren’t as many agents and publicists surrounding rock stars and Elterman—who was clearly precocious—managed to locate, and meet some of the people he admired.
. But like many kids growing up in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and ’70s, Elterman was far more interested in the booming music industry. It was a time when there weren’t as many agents and publicists surrounding rock stars and Elterman—who was clearly precocious—managed to locate, and meet some of the people he admired.
He also wasn’t afraid of taking their pictures. Elterman would then sell some of the images to American music magazines such as Cream or Rock Scene, but
was only able to get around $5–$20 per shot. Not terrible for a
teenager, but not exactly a dentist salary. He heard a rumor that many
of the European and Japanese magazines were willing to buy photos for
much larger sums of cash so, when he was 19, he hopped on a plane and
flew to Europe.
“My first stop was London. I had just photographed David Essex and
the Bay City Rollers and I told the first editor I spoke to while
calling from my s--t hole of a hotel room that I had pictures of Kiss
and Queen and they said come right over. I had an enormous bag of photos
with me and they said great, we’ll take this one and this one and this
one and the first editor paid for my flight.”
From there, Elterman traveled to Holland, Germany, and Switzerland,
speaking with the editors of magazines and selling even more images.
“They had never been to Hollywood and wanted to know what it was
like. I had no idea what they were saying and they were smoking
cigarettes and speaking Dutch and they said all right we want these
photos would you take $3,000 for these, we’ll give you cash. I almost
fell out of my chair and I said, yeah, I think I can manage that. When I
called to tell my dad, he said, OK, maybe there’s something to this.”
In response to the global hunger for images of celebrities, Elterman
ended up founding two photo agencies. In 1980, he opened California
Features Agency, the first celebrity photo agency in Los Angeles, and
then, in 1992 he started Online USA, Inc., one of the early digital
agencies that he eventually sold to Getty Images in 2000.
Although he worked with other photographers, it was Elterman’s images
that people wanted. His library of candid imagery of celebrities is
often considered to be the epitome of cool not only for the people in
the images but also the Elterman aesthetic.
“Part of the reason it’s so cool is because there wasn’t an enormous
proliferation of images from back then,” Elterman said. “Having a camera
was rare. When I was hanging out with the Ramones, they were like
‘Cool, Brad has a camera.’ Everyone is so guarded today. The pictures I
took and like to take are kind of a chill idea of life imitating art,
the stuff that normal people do.”