Karl Ferris

Karl Ferris is an English photographer/designer, best known as one of the principal innovators of "psychedelic" photography. A photographer to the "British Rock Elite"—Eric Clapton, Cream, Donovan, The Hollies and Jimi Hendrix—Ferris was invited, as a style consultant and their personal photographer, to help create their public images. He was given an insider's access to the "Experience" that helped define the look of the 1960s and influence youth culture and lifestyles worldwide.

Early years

As a post World War II baby who grew up in Hastings, England in the 1950s, Ferris learned two things that would later affect his life – the first being the history of Hastings, which had been conquered by the Normans in 1066. This spawned an interest in this medieval period of history and young Karl would bicycle around Norman castles fantasizing about battles, knights, chivalry and heraldry. The second thing he learned was an appreciation of art, with some of his early paintings included in a show at the Hastings Museum. He later went on to study at Hastings College of Art, focusing on the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting which would later influence his psychedelic photography of the late 1960s.