One Photographer Spent Decades Finding The Original Shooting Locations Of Music’s Most Famous Pics

Most people know where The Beatles shot their iconic picture that graced the cover of their Abbey Road album. But so many famous pics of musicians happened in so many different unknown locations, that one photographer is on a mission to find as many as he can.

Steve Birnbaum is an artist, director, photographer, and music explorer. And its the music explorer part that’s really worth checking out. I’m not saying his other qualities AREN’T worth checking out, but the music explorer is what I found super interesting. He’s spent decades tracking down the original locations of some of music’s most famous pictures. Iconic pictures that most music fans will recognize, but many of us have no idea where they happened. Well, Steve has tracked down a ton of them. These are all shared from his Instagram page, @thebandwashere, with way more cool pics than I can post here, so feel free to go there and see everything for yourself. Obviously a lot of these were taken somewhere in New York or L. A., but still, finding the actual location in those enormous cities isn’t easy.

The descriptions for each photo are embedded beneath each image.

Mick Jagger:

Debbie Harry:

Quiet Riot:

Prince for the cover of Purple Rain:

Bob Dylan:

The Doors:

The Ramones:

Nirvana:

Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album cover:

Robert Plant:

The Who: