Legendary Dick

Dick Polak grew up in Amsterdam where he worked in the Dutch film industry for several years before moving to the UK in 1966. During his first few days in London, someone accidentally mistook him for a photographer, not wanting to miss an opportunity he borrowed an old Leica from a friend, put some Infra-Red film into the camera, and never looked back.

Over the next decade, Dick became a much-in-demand photographer within the music & film industries working in Rome, Berlin, Paris, and London on films sets such as Jean Luc Godard’s One Plus One, Visconti’s The Damned, and Mick Jagger’s Performance and was asked by Stanley Kubrick to take promotional pictures for A Clock Work Orange. During this period Dick was also working extensively with Island records, working on album covers, shooting rehearsal sessions, and accompanying various bands on tour through Europe and the US.

Through the progression of these formative years, Dick slowly became part of the ‘happening scene’ and went on to document many of the most prominent and iconic rock stars, fashion designers, actors, and writers of the time, creating an extensive body of work offering an intimate glimpse into the lives and times of some of the most iconic movers & shakers from the 1960s & 1970s.

“It’s said that if you can remember the Sixties you can’t have been there... The photographer Dick Polak was not only there but he had his camera as proof, helping memorialise the times.”

— Mick Brown

“Dick’s old pics are great! He was always there snapping away but you never saw him. He likes a good drink and a good laugh, Dick’s OK, you can tell from his photos.”

— Ronnie Wood