Happy 80th Birthday, Mick Jagger

On the 26th of July, Mick Jagger, frontman of perhaps the greatest rock and roll band of all time, turns 80. Having founded the Rolling Stones when he was only 19, Jagger is still enjoying a legendary 61-year career with the band, and his distinctive hips, lips, and dance moves have made him a fascinating photographic subject through it all.

Born in Dartford, Kent in 1943, Jagger went on to attend Dartford Grammar School with Keith Richards. The two bonded over their love of the blues, and formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of all time.

A rich visual history of Jagger’s career can be found in the Iconic Images archive, beginning with Terry O’Neill’s shots of him leading his band around Soho and Covent Garden in 1964, through Gered Mankowitz’s studio photography of ‘66 and ‘67, all the way up to Douglas Kirkland’s 1980s images of Jagger in Mexico and Greg Brennan’s raucous shots of him playing Hyde Park in 2013. Al Satterwhite, who photographed the Stones’ benefit concert for the major earthquake in Nicaragua in 1972, called Jagger “the hardest-playing man in show business”, while Michael Brennan, recalling his experience following the band on their 1975 tour of America, knew him as  “a master showman, as well as a shrewd observer of the press.”

Only last year Jagger played to 20,000 people at the Toyota Centre Houston at the age of 79. Though there’s been no official statement about a 2023 tour, the Stones have reportedly been working on a new album, with Keith Richards saying to fans in a social media message earlier this year “there’s some new music on its way and hopefully we’ll get to see you.”