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WOODSTOCK ’69

Photographing the Woodstock Festival (1969)

In the summer of 1969, Mike Lang rode his motorcycle over to my house in Woodstock and asked if I would be interested in photographing a festival he was planning. It was one of the most important yeses I ever said. We didn’t talk about money except to say that we would work it out. It wasn’t even a handshake—it was preordained…

On August 15, 16, and 17, 1969, nearly 500,000 people gathered together to celebrate life. They came looking for music and new ways. They found a hard path—there were miles to walk; rain and mud; not much food to eat, nor shelter to sleep beneath; life was not as they usually knew it.

But something happened. There was peace and harmony despite conditions that might have set off riots. Most everyone lived in consideration and enjoyment with everyone else. Woodstock became a symbol to the world of a better way of life—of freedom, of love, of spiritual union between many. There was hope.