Summer Of Love Anniversary Kicks Off With Iconic Photos From 1967

Summer Of Love Anniversary Kicks Off With Iconic Photos From 1967Jimi Hendrix plays a concert in the Panhandle, 1967. (Photo: Jim Marshall LLC)
Camden Avery
Published on January 26, 2017

To kick off a year of festivities celebrating the anniversary of the Summer of Love — now 50 years past — the San Francisco Arts Commission is debuting an exhibition of photographs taken by celebrated photographer Jim Marshall in 1967.

The show's opening reception today from 5:30-7:30pm at City Hall's ground-floor exhibition hall will feature images captured by Marshall over San Francisco's famous Summer of Love. Marshall was embedded in the counterculture scene in San Francisco in the 1960s and into the '70s, making a name for himself photographing rock 'n' roll luminaries, especially around Haight-Ashbury.

According to SFAC, Marshall's work appeared on more than 500 album covers, capturing "iconic and candid portraits of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, The Beatles, and countless others.”

Here's more on what to expect:

The exhibition at City Hall features a selection of 80 images from the thousands Marshall took in one fast-paced calendar year. Presented in chronological order, visitors can follow the artist as he shoots album covers for Jefferson Airplane, cavorts at home with Janis Joplin, shoots in the middle of a mass of Hell’s Angels and gets impossibly close onstage with Jimi Hendrix. Marshall was dearly loved and respected by musicians of all genres. He spent his life documenting jazz, folk and then rock and roll, and was living and working in San Francisco when California bands like Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, The Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were at the forefront of solidifying a cultural movement that had its heyday in 1967.

The show will be up through June 17th, and will run concurrently with a large-scale Marshall exhibition across the street from SFJAZZ that includes photographs of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Count Basie, Anita O’Day, Charles Mingus, Vi Redd, and Nina Simone.

If you can't make it to City Hall today, never fear: festivities celebrating 1967 in San Francisco will unfold all over the city over the coming months, including a comprehensive Summer of Love exhibition opening at the de Young in April.

Many of the planned festivities are still taking shape, but we'll keep you posted as details firm up.