By Keith Loria Special Writer
It was back in 1967 that 30-year-old freelance photographer Baron Wolman made what may be one of the best deals ever made in the publishing industry. Jann Wenner was in the process of creating Rolling Stone magazine and he wanted Wolman to come on board as the magazine’s chief photographer.
”The deal in the beginning was that I would shoot for free, but I would own all the pictures and in return I wanted stock in the company,” Mr. Wolman says. “I don’t know why I said that, and don’t know if I looked this far in the future, but it didn’t matter to him and it wound up being the wisest thing I ever did.”
Back then, Mr. Wolman was living in a San Francisco neighborhood that was a hotspot for young musicians, with many playing the streets and free concerts in Golden Gate Park. Among his neighbors were Janis Joplin, Steve Miller and members of the Grateful Dead.
”These weren’t superstars yet, they were friends,” Mr. Wolman says. “Music became an important component for changes going on in late ‘60s. Music was a wonderful subject to photograph for me. To watch people, dancing half naked in the park to this great music was just wonderful.”
Before this lucrative gig, Mr. Wolman had shot for advertising agencies and all the big magazines, but his focus wasn’t on music, instead doing the photojournalist things that could get him in the likes of Time or Life.
”I loved being a freelance photojournalist but I hated advertising,” he says. “I was always curious about rock music and shooting it and I loved doing it.”
Mr. Wolman spent three years at the magazine, helping to establish Rolling Stone as the ultimate music magazine and capturing iconic image after iconic image. He not only witnessed the most important period of change in popular music and popular culture, but his photographs helped shape it.
Rolling Stone magazine encapsulated and distilled the most important events and changes as they were taking place. For the first three years, Mr. Wolman’s photographs were published regularly and became the magazine’s graphic centerpiece.
During his fast-paced tenure, Mr. Wolman’s lens captured the royalty of the ‘60s pop and rock explosion, including Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Phil Spector, Jim Morrison, Ike & Tina Turner, Timothy Leary, and so many more.
Last month, Mr. Wolman released a new coffee table photo book called “The Rolling Stone Years,” which contains many of his classic photographs and the inside stories behind the pictures.
”What I have been doing for the last three-to-four years has been giving illustrated and PowerPoint shows, where I put images up on the screen and speak about the photos as they go along,” Mr. Wolman says. “During the presentations, I would give the stories behind
each photo and so it seemed naturally to do the book version of the presentations. I recorded the stories and we edited them for the book.”
The book was the brainchild of his friend Dave Brolin, who came to Mr. Wolman’s personal archives and found these great images, many of which Mr. Wolman forgot he had shot.The secret for Mr. Wolman’s success came from a formula of having a rich personality, using natural light sources and keeping the musicians comfortable.
”When I was working, for the most part, they were not the celebrities that they would become,” Mr. Wolman says. “As Rolling Stone progressed and I had to photograph people who had notoriety, I would do some research and find out as much as I could so I would go to a session with enough info to ask questions about their life to show them I was interested in them, which I was. Get people talking about themselves, and you have a friend for life.”
Mr. Wolman also credits the access that was available back then with helping him get the photos that were needed.
”Things have dramatically changed in this industry because access is so limited and there are so many people who want to be a music photographer,” he says. “People are restricted as to what they can shoot and they usually get stuck in the pit in front of the stage, so most pictures, no matter how technically good the photographer is, will look the same. It wasn’t like that when I was shooting.”
Looking at the close-ups of the rock gods he shot in the book, it’s easy to see that Mr. Wolman had a personal access that is almost impossible to come by today. Whether it’s Eric Clapton making a surprise appearance at the Fillmore or Jerry Lee Lewis playing a guitar on stage, the lens of Mr. Wolman captured the very best that rock had to offer.
”I am often asked, ‘What was it like to have lived during the ‘60s?’ One of the several purposes of this book is to answer that question and to provide a small window through which future generations can look back and get a glimpse of the incredible time I was privileged to experience,” Mr. Wolman says. “And, of course, to provide those who were there a memento, pictures to show their children and beyond, pictures to help them tell their own musical stories.”
Baron Wolman’s “The Rolling Stone Years” (176 pages, Omnibus Press, London) lists for $37.95. For special, limited editions, visit www.therollingstoneyears.com<</p>
