Dead 2004 by Herb Greene
Herb Greene
The music revolution was a vital and integral component of the sixties San Francisco art scene. Herb Greene photographed the rock musicians and other members of San Francisco's cultural milieu during the height of its creative productivity. Greene, a friend of many of San Francisco's most influential musicians, worked as few photographers have: not as a documenter from the outside, but as a participant within the music scene he was photographing. Many of his photographs have become signature portraits of these musicians. His revealing portraits of The Jefferson Airplane, Jeff Beck, The Pointer Sisters, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Carlos Santana, Sly Stone, Rod Stewart and many others helped create astonishing family album for an entire generation. Herb Greene is perhaps the best-known chronicler of the Haight-Ashbury music scene in the 1960s. During this vibrant period in American music history, Greene worked by day as a staff photographer for a San Francisco department store, while photographing characters of the early rock scene on his own time. His work during these years helped define popular images of superstar performers such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin. The photographic portraits Greene made during these years are characterized by an impressive combination of classical compositional balance and spur-of-the-moment candidness. Greene’s subjects exude iconic, rock idol grandeur while still appearing casual, as though they are just hanging out and playing in front of the camera. It is for this reason that his images, such as the cover of the Jefferson Airplane Album “Surrealistic Pillow,” and the famous “Dead on Haight” shot of the Grateful Dead, have become so emblazoned on our collective cultural memory. After a fifteen-year respite from rock photography, Greene reentered the world of rock and roll. He became involved with the Grateful Dead albums “In the Dark” and “Dylan and the Dead.” Greene published two books, The Book of the Dead and Sunshine Daydreams, exciting visual histories of the Grateful Dead. In 1990 he began touring the country with two exhibits “Portraits of the Acid Age - San Francisco Rock and Roll scene, 1966-1969” and “The Grateful Dead.” He has had numerous successful exhibitions of his fine art prints around the country.
Dead 2004
Herb Greene
Silver Gelatin Print
14" x 18"
2004     Edition of 39
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