They don’t make ‘em like Jim Marshall (1936-2010) anymore.
Not unlike Allen Ginsberg, Marshall – known mostly for his iconic photos of rock stars – was not just present but at the center of numerous peaks of American culture, from the early ‘60s San Francisco immortalized via Kerouac books and live Miles Davis albums to Bob Dylan’s babyfaced Greenwich Village days, the summer of love, Woodstock, Monterey Pop, the Beatles’ 1966 adieu at Candlestick Park and much more.
Marshall, with a tinderbox of a personality and a love for guns and drugs, was given access to capture, and also experience, intimate moments that are now cemented in music-geek lore. He was just feet from Johnny Cash and Dylan when they performed “Girl From the North Country” together; he was close to such massive moments not just because he was a great photographer, but also because Marshall’s subjects (from John Coltrane to Janis Joplin) felt kinship and a sense of faith.
“”People trusted Jim Marshall,” Graham Nash once said, “and it showed in his work.”
`A new coffee-table book, called Show Me the Picture, juxtaposes some of Marshall’s best-known photographs – like Cash at his hallowed Folsom Prison and San Quentin performances and Marshall’s shot of the Allman Brothers that ended up on the cover of the At Fillmore East album – with a biography of Marshall and quotes from dozens of people who knew him well.
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Adam Perry 