Portraits of Keith Richards and Joni Mitchell by legendary photographer feature in Sotheby’s exhibition

Rare portraits of Keith Richards, Joni Mitchell and Ringo Starr are among the icons of music featured in a new Sotheby’s exhibition.

The auction house is giving music fans a rare insight into the golden age of rock’n’roll with an extraordinary collection of shots captured by one of music’s last great photographers, Henry Diltz, over the course of his decades-long career.

The rare shots will be displayed alongside their accompanying stories in London until 17 July, and are available to buy with a portion of the sales to go to charity.

“Explore Henry's archive, revealing unseen perspectives on his most iconic photographs, accompanied by untold stories and unseen Super 8 footage,” Sotheby’s said about the event, which is in collaboration with vinyl brand 12on12.

“This exclusive collection features ten colourized co-signed prints of Stephen Stills, Keith Richards, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Ringo Starr, Debbie Harry, Graham Nash, Slash, Jackson Browne and America, each a limited edition of 12, hand signed by Henry Diltz and the respective artist.”

Described as one of the last living “great rock and roll photographers”, Diltz, 85, previously told The New York Times that he intends to continue photography until he dies.

“If I’d have been a ‘proper’ photographer,” Diltz, who was the official photographer for Woodstock 1969, told the Guardian, “I might have walked up and said, ‘Let’s get a shot here.’ But then you wouldn’t have captured the magic of the moment.

“I was never in their faces, so they’d forget I was there.”

Opening up about one of the images featured in the exhibition itself, a candid snap of Joni Mitchell looking out a window, Diltz said: “There is a picture of Joni Mitchell looking out the window of the house in Laurel Canyon that she shared with Graham Nash. It was where he wrote ‘Our House’.

“I had received a call, saying, ‘Joni needs some new publicity pictures. Will you go up to her house?’ So I went over there late morning with Gary.

“Joni was leaning out the window waiting. She said, ‘Hey, good morning!’ and started talking to Gary for five or 10 minutes, which left me to walk around and take photos.

“Later, we took pictures while she played the dulcimer and sang. Those were nice, but the great picture was the first one when she was waiting for us in the window.”