Award-winning photographer Norman Seeff’s image of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs (above) was recently featured on the cover of Time and on the back cover of the Walter Isaacson-penned biography “Steve Jobs”. It was also selected by Apple for their October 19 Memorial Service commemorating Jobs’ life. The 1984 session took place at Jobs’ home in Woodside, CA.
Norman Seeff, who photographed Jobs sitting cross-legged with a new Macintosh on his lap, spoke of Jobs’ intensity and determination, a quality Seeff says he also saw when he photographed musical greats Ray Charles and Tina Turner, and film directors Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese. “Those people have what I call ‘far vision.’ They look out to the future.” commented Seeff. He continued, “The dreamer always has a vision of the possibilities in the future. That was my sense of Steve.”
Several archival 16″ x 20″ gelatin silver prints from the Steve Jobs session are being offered for sale. The collector is also selling other vintage prints of Seeff’s including Joni Mitchell, Andy Warhol, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Steve Martin and Martin Scorsese and more. See the gallery of images at: www.nssilverprints.com.
We were just sitting, talking about creativity and everyday stuff in his living room. I was beginning to build a level of intimacy with him, and then he rushed off, and came back in and plopped down in that pose. He spontaneously sat down with a Macintosh in his lap. I got the shot the first time. We did do a few more shots later on, and he even did a few yoga poses—he lifted his leg and put it over his shoulder—and I just thought we were two guys hanging out, chatting away, and enjoying the relationship. It wasn’t like there was a conceptualization here—this was completely off the cuff, spontaneity that we never thought would become a magazine image. – Norman Seeff via Time
All Photos Credit: © Norman Seeff
The Macintosh Team by Norman Seeff, 1984 (Left to Right) George Crow, Joanna Hoffman, Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, Jerry Manock.