Tag Archives: Woodstock

Celebrated Woodstock-era photographer Mike Frankel to release images from personal archive

Music culture & history, Music news, Rock music, , , , ,

During the late 1960s, Mike Frankel was one of the most sought-after photographers for musicians of the era, his photographic style capturing the cultural essence of the decade. Images from Frankel’s extensive archive are set to be released to the public for the first time.

Frankel worked closely with bands like Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Alice Cooper, Joe Cocker, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and many others. Most notably, Frankel was also the personal photographer for Jefferson Airplane. In addition, he worked with Bill Graham at the Fillmore East, photographing some of the most iconic images from the rock’s golden age as well as capturing iconic images from Woodstock.

Grace Slick and good friend, Sally Mann, at Woodstock

Photographer, Jim Marshall, who, like Frankel, enjoyed extensive access to many musicians throughout the 1960s said of Frankel: “Mike was the photographer that brought art to our profession.”

A book of Frankel’s images is set for publication towards the end of the year. An additional volume showcasing his Beatles photos is also in the planning stages.

Grace Slick and Bill Graham at Woodstock

Four Corners Framed Art in Independence, Missouri, USA is hosting an in-person meet and greet with the legendary photographer Mike Frankel on Friday, 22nd October from 5 pm to 9 pm. The event is free, open to the public, and will be held in conjunction with the Englewood Arts District’s third Friday art walk.

“This is truly a rare opportunity to meet a living legend,” said Joseph Crownover, Owner/Gallery Director of Four Corners Framed Art. “This will be only the third time Mike Frankel’s work has ever been shown or made available to the public since the photos were taken over 50 years ago.”

All images by Mike Frankel

http://www.mikefrankel.com/

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‘It’s About Time’ – Jefferson Starship back with new single and new EP

‘You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970’ Exhibition at the V&A

Review: ‘You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970’ Exhibition at the V&A

Music culture & history, Rock music, , , , ,

The Victoria & Albert Museum’s ‘You Say You Want a Revolution? Records & Rebels’ covers the period 1966-1970, a time I recall as one of starting nursery school, learning to ride a red plastic motorbike and amassing a collection of soft toys. The music I probably took in by osmosis while still in the womb but the rest of it, I’m obviously grateful for exhibitions like this to show me what else I missed.

On first entering I’m slightly underwhelmed: displays of LP covers many of which I have in my collection and posters I’d seen many times before. Moving on, there’s numerous displays of Carnaby Street-era swinging sixties (that famous pink mirrored mini-dress that Sandie Shaw wore, a life-size re-enactment of the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover – with the actual fluorescent suits that John and George wore for the photo-shoot) and the exhibition begins to widen it’s scope. As well as fashion and music we get snapshots of the US civil rights and UK gay liberation campaigns as well as students in Paris in 1968 and the moon landing in 1969.

There’s definitely some fascinating exhibits but I’m still not exactly clear what the overall story is at this stage, other than lots of different and exciting things happened in this period of history: musically, culturally, technologically and politically. When I compared it to my experience of, say, visiting the Stax Studio museum in Memphis (where the interconnectedness of the fight for civil rights and the vision for making great music emanates from every single fibre of every single exhibit) or, say, the Rolling Stones exhibition where many of these issues are addressed through the eyes of a single band, I wasn’t experiencing the same visceral feeling in my gut.

That changed, towards the end of the exhibition, however, which looked at the festival culture of the era: specifically the gallery devoted to Woodstock with its huge screens showing clips of the festival, decked out in fake grass on the floor and even beanbags so you could lie back, soak it all in and be transported back to the fields of a New York State dairy farm in August 1969. Seeing scenes of Country Joe MacDonald singing the ‘Fixing to Die Rag’ and the hope, joy and genuine optimism of the young people in the crowd and comparing it to the scenes of utter despair among America’s youthful protesters this very week as they contemplate a future with Donald Trump as President was the moment the exhibition moved from being interesting to being genuinely moving and bitingly culturally relevant. I left with a lump in my throat.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-records-and-rebels-1966-70
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Related reviews:
Rolling Stones “Exhibitionism”
Sun Studios tour