The photographer reflects on making images of iconic figures, experiments with infrared color film, and how publishing images of a new generation of musicians was a way to ‘get people to come out of the old way of being’
Elliott Landy, among the first music photographers whose work crossed into the art world, was one of the most prolific photographers of the 1960s’ music and youth scenes. Having started out documenting anti-Vietnam War protests, Landy photographed the seminal Woodstock ‘69 festival (he was an official photographer of it) which he described as ‘a moment of perfect human interaction.’ The photographer made some of the best-known images of musical icons like Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Janis Joplin amongst others – often employing radical approaches like the use of infrared film stock. Here Landy discusses photographing the famous, experimenting with technical innovations, and not seeing making images as ‘a job’.
Who was the first musician you photographed?
I think the first was Bob Dylan, at the Woody Guthrie memorial concert, where Dylan and The Band performed in 1968. I was thrown out of that concert by Albert Grossman, who was running it and was the manager of both Dylan and The Band. It’s a long funny story, and it’s in my book, Woodstock Vision, The Spirit of a Generation. It was the first time Dylan had performed for a year after he had a serious motorcycle accident—there were rumors that he had died or was permanently incapacitated.
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