Existing comment:
Rock Groups of San Francisco, 1967
At the height of the counterculture revolution of the mid-sixties, San Francisco was the epicenter of music, psychedelic drugs, and free love. Photographer Irving Penn was interested in documenting this phenomenon and was assigned by Look magazine to photograph two of the leading rock bands of the era -- Janis Joplin (far left) with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Jerry Garcia (top right) with the Grateful Dead. Joplin was described as "the most staggering leading woman in rock," while Garcia -- the lead guitarist and principal songwriter for the Grateful Dead -- was best known for his extended guitar improvisations. Joplin died of a drug over- dose in 1970, while Garcia and the Grateful Dead conducted an "endless tour" until his death in 1995.
Irving Penn (1917–2009), 1967 (printed 1974) |