Siouxie Sioux- 1981

Les Wiseman - 1989

In my almost 82 years of existence I have had many mentors who set me straight on my path as a photographer. I am not attempting to show how humble I am. I just want to express that perhaps my only talent has been that I tended to accept suggestions even if some of them, like the ones from very good art directors, were pushy.

My career in taking photographs of rock bands might not have had the success I eventually had. It was sometime in 1972 at an American high school in Mexico City where my students asked me, “Mr. Hayward, what do you think of Alice Cooper?” I answered, “Who is she?”

And so it was, that in 1979, I met Les Wiseman in Vancouver at Vancouver Magazine. We were to work together in a monthly column called In One Ear. He told me, “If you are going to like heavy metal it will have to be Motorhead. And you must like Lou Reed.”

It did not take me long to figure out that he was a serious snob. He made me one.

Such was his credibility and reputation that we had access to all the rock stars that came to Vancouver, either backstage, or in their hotel rooms.

One memorable afternoon he interviewed Siouxie Sioux in her hotel room. I was there, too. In those years I would bring a roll of gray seamless paper and a light. I took 20 photographs and one more of her with Wiseman. I had yet to use my medium format camera. I used a 35mm camera loaded with very fine grain and contrasty Kodak Technical Pan Film.

The photograph that art director Rick Staehling chose was the one you see here. He picked two but decided on the sad one.Of late I have gone back to my files to look at it and I am overcome by a feeling of hopelessness and sadness. Did she pose with that intention? I will never know.

On the other hand, I has a session with Les Wiseman in 1989 and there were many smiling photographs. But to go along with Siouxie’s portrait I picked the scariest.

To this day my knowledge of rock is very good thanks to my mentor Les Wiseman who said all the right things just like Reed’s Caroline.