Baron Wolman

Music Legends



Baron Wolman’s personal contact with the most explosive era of rock ‘n’ roll history began in 1967 with his work as the first chief photographer for the legendary Rolling Stone magazine. Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Phil Spector, Jim Morrison, Johnny Cash, and Ike & Tina Turner became icons of an entire generation, and Wolman and his cameras were there to capture them on film. His incisive musician portraits graced the covers of 21 early issues of Rolling Stone.

As an eyewitness to the radical era of sex, drugs, and political explosives like civil rights and the Vietnam War, as well as of music fans’ new spirituality that sent them on journeys to find new identities, his photos recorded this fresh and original emerging world lifestyle.  Living in San Francisco’s famed Haight-Ashbury district, Wolman mingled with the crowds, talked and listened to the new ideas, and observed the changing fashion of hair and dress.  This proximity to the Hippies and other new-age groups also brought him next to both the rock ‘n’ roll greats and their audiences. Wolman was on-stage with musicians, photographed the bands in recording sessions, and spent hours with them making his widely-acclaimed intimate photographic portraits.  He was trusted in one-on-one situations. He visited Janis Joplin at her home.  He sat backstage with a pensive and contemplative Johnny Cash.  He drove around New York City with Miles Davis in his Ferrari.  Frank Zappa transformed into a leprechaun before his eyes, running riot in the rocky surroundings and among rusting construction equipment.



Wolman’s personal favorites from his archive include action photos of Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and AC/DC. After Rolling Stone the tireless artist founded his own fashion magazine and later a book publishing company.  He even bought a light plane, learned how to fly and started creating photo “air-scapes,” landscapes from the air.The “Fotobaron” of Santa Fe yearns for the “good old days” when he had complete access to the musicians, when everybody was one big family, when he could photograph the music makers as talented and creative friends, not as the super stars they became.  Back then, he recalls, photographers didn’t take direction from publicists and PR managers.  The music, the musicians and the photographs themselves were the top priority, not the money.

LINKS

www.fotobaron.com