Gruen was born and raised in
New York. After he dropped out of college and quit his job in a photo booth at the
New York World's Fair in
Queens, he attended the 1965
Newport Folk Festival and took photographs of
Bob Dylan performing. Gruen credits
Ike Turner with starting his career. In 1970, Gruen took photographs of them performing at the
Honka Monka nightclub in Queens. He showed Turner the photographs and was invited to photograph them in California. "Ike introduced me to the publicist for their record company who took me to parties and introduced me to more people in the music business," he said. Gruen served as
John Lennon's personal photographer during his time in New York City in 1971. Gruen is best known for his photograph of Lennon wearing a New York City T-shirt. Other notable celebrities and rock bands photographed by Bob Gruen include the
New York Dolls, Wallace Collins & The Dynomiters
the Clash,
Ramones,
Sex Pistols,
Patti Smith Group,
Sonny & Cher,
Blondie,
Led Zeppelin,
the Who,
David Bowie,
Elton John,
Aerosmith,
Kiss,
Alice Cooper,
Courtney Love, and
Green Day. Since 1980, Morrison Hotel Gallery has been the primary representative for Gruen's photography. His work is included in the collections of the
National Portrait Gallery in London and the
Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. In 2008, Gruen's
Rockers, a 280 photograph installation, exhibited at Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York. From December 2011 to January 2012, the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles held an exhibition of Gruen's photographs from his book
Rock Seen. His photographs have been exhibited at various art galleries and museums internationally, including the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, the
Brooklyn Museum,
Sotheby's S/2 Gallery London, the
Morris Museum in New Jersey,
Shelburne Museum in Vermont. In 2020, Gruen released his memoir
Right Place, Right Time: The Life of a Rock & Roll Photographer. == Personal life ==