“I remember together going very deeply with Steve into dreaming and visioning, drinking beer. We weren’t over indulging but having fun and there was this moment when he suddenly jumped up, left the room and returned with the unreleased Mac. He then plopped down on the floor with it on his lap. It was a totally spontaneous moment, nothing preconceived to make Steve look like a guru. A minute or so later, he put the Mac on the floor and threw his head back laughing. We got a series of sequences of really wonderful imagery – all with an authenticity that came in the moment. In the business world, these shots might seem to be conceptually perfect but the truth is that they were spontaneous and real, and not stiff or forced, just beautiful and natural. What I saw when Steve returned with the Mac was a beautiful sense of accomplishment – a tender experience I will always remember.” Norman Seeff
Norman Seeff was able to photograph Steve both in the work environment with the Apple team, but also in Steve’s home. Seeff recalls how Steve surveyed his work before he was comfortable enough to allow him to come to his home. This photoshoot would in turn produce one of the most iconic portraits of Steve Jobs of all time.
Ex-medical doctor Norman Seeff emigrated from South Africa to New York in 1968 to pursue a career as a photographer, filmmaker and designer. Three years later, he relocated to Los Angeles as Art Director at United Artists Records, where his album cover designs and photography received many Grammy nominations. Seeff’s photographs of Steve Jobs were published on Time Magazine and Rolling Stone Magazine after Steve Jobs died. These are iconic images of the young Steve Jobs in the early days of Apple’s success and one was chosen by Walter Isaacson for the cover of his biography that was released in October 2011.
He went independent in 1975 and has worked with hundreds of artists including Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Ike and Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell and many others. Seeff is now engaged in documentary filmmaking focusing on the exploration of the inner dynamics of the creative process.
