NORMAN SEEFF HAD RECENTLY MOVED TO NEW YORK from South Africa—with dreams of becoming a photographer—when he shot this session for the Band’s 1970 album, Stage Fright. “I bought six rolls of film, borrowed a car and a strobe, and set out for Big Pink—their house in Woodstock,” he recalls. “But I got lost and arrived more than two hours late. The guys were furious.” Seeff tried to make the best of the situation. “I rearranged the furniture in this big wooden space and had the guys pose. Thirty minutes later I was out of film. Everyone was pissed.” But the session yielded an iconic image (above). “Bob Cato, the renowned graphic designer, came up with the idea to wrap the image around the album cover as a poster,” he says. “Suddenly it was everywhere—bars, restaurants, clothing stores. I went from not being able to get arrested to getting calls from art directors requesting to see my work,” he muses. “That image launched my career.”

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