Neal Preston

With a career in photography that started while still in high school and continues to this day, Neal Preston has made a significant contribution to the pop-culture history of his generation. Neal Preston's photographs have appeared in every conceivable media outlet...on the covers and pages of world-class magazines and newspapers, to books, television shows, feature films, Broadway show programs and billboards, vinyl, CD and DVD packages...literally everywhere. His client list is a virtual who's-who of rock royalty. His archive, a body of work spanning almost 4 decades, is regarded as one of the music industry's most extensive and significant photo collections. It was the key source of photographs for VH-1's acclaimed ''Behind the Music'' documentary series, providing over one thousand still photos used in 50 episodes. While rock fans best know Preston as the legendary photographer who has toured the USA with Led Zeppelin, the Who, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, and countless others, his rock-and-roll travels have also included touring Europe (Springsteen, Queen), Canada (Heart), Russia (Billy Joel), Japan (Bruce Springsteen, Duran Duran), China (Wham!), South Africa (Whitney Houston), and South America (Queen). In 1985, Preston was chosen as one of the official photographers for the Bob Geldof's ''Live Aid'' concert at London's Wembley Stadium. In 1988 his association with Bruce Springsteen helped land him the job as official tour photographer for Amnesty International's landmark ''Conspiracy of Hope'' tour. In 1979 he began a long relationship with People Magazine and to this day remains the most-assigned photojournalist in the history of the magazine, with almost 700 shoot days to his credit. In addition to dozens of People covers, Preston has shot covers of Newsweek, Time, and Rolling Stone with subjects as diverse as Nancy Kerrigan, Richard Nixon, Pearl Jam, and Marvin Gaye. A member of the International Cinematographers Guild, Preston worked as the unit and special photographer for the feature films ''Almost Famous'', ''Vanilla Sky'', and ''Elizabethtown'' (all directed by his long-time friend Cameron Crowe). Preston also created key materials used in films such as ''*61'', ''Singles'', ''Laurel Canyon'' and ''Pick of Destiny''.