Behind the Cover: Steve Jobs

2 minute read

I was commissioned to do a story about the young Apple team, and at the same time, a visual session with Steve Jobs. What was really remarkable was getting into the corporate offices. It was completely what I would call anti-corporate. The creative team was this large extended family—incredibly energized and enthusiastic. People seemed to relate to each other with a level of informality that was sort of extraordinary. Steve would walk in, and I would see him in the background like this benevolent father—the first thing I got from him was that he was not getting involved at all in the shoot. He was watching very intently to see what was going on but didn’t have a controlling hand in the thing.

We were just sitting, talking about creativity and everyday stuff in his living room. I was beginning to build a level of intimacy with him, and then he rushed off, and came back in and plopped down in that pose. He spontaneously sat down with a Macintosh in his lap. I got the shot the first time. We did do a few more shots later on, and he even did a few yoga poses—he lifted his leg and put it over his shoulder—and I just thought we were two guys hanging out, chatting away, and enjoying the relationship. It wasn’t like there was a conceptualization here—this was completely off the cuff, spontaneity that we never thought would become a magazine image.

Steve had a sense of humor and was very curious and appreciative of creativity in other people. I found him completely open and himself. I didn’t pick up any arrogance or superiority—he was just being himself, having a great time. It felt like, when we were hanging out, chatting in that lounge, that we were old time buddies, without any hierarchical relationship. As a photographer, I do give direction, but Steve was up for doing anything. We ended up lying on the ground, drinking beer and the images created themselves.

An image of Steve Jobs in his living room in Woodside, Ca., February 1984.Photograph by Norman Seeff (Background digitally removed.)

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