Michael Ochs Archive

The Michael Ochs Collection celebrates music, arts and culture, from the 1930s to 1980s. Step back in time & be inspired by pioneering cultural moments from the 20th century.

The release of our Michael Ochs Archive celebrates his unique collection of photographs dating back to the 1960’s and up to the 1990’s. Born in 1943, Michael Ochs was best known for his pictures relating to rock and roll music.

Ochs began his career by collecting photos as a hobby and would allow his friends, including rock critics Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh, to use the photos for free to include visuals in their articles. Ochs’s career took a turn when the Los Angeles Free Press attributed one of his photos to the ‘Michael Ochs Archives’. This resulted in Michael receiving a cheque from Dick Clark after using some of his photographs on a television special. This was an unexpected outcome for Michael Ochs, and changed his life dramatically. “America’s preeminent rock ‘n’ roll photo archivist”