On View Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 13

MUSE

Day on the Green have contributed to our collective cultural memory.
Feeding the heightened political and cultural climate of the time, featured
artists Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Frank Zappa came to represent generational
ideals through music, words, and visual imagery. Taking an unobtrusive approach
with his subjects, Wolman’s techniques resulted in photographs and eventually
magazine covers that capture a rawness and emotion of the artists and a generation. Together, Backstage Pass encourages our understanding of how images
become iconic symbols of American history.
“Baron’s [photographs] are set apart for me because of the consistent humanity in his pictu res,” said Tony Lane, former art director of Rolling Stone. “Whether
it is in a studio portrait, a backstage document, or an on-stage performance shot,
Baron’s subjects seem to embody the
essence of themselves.”
“I always explain that I was photographing the music, not really hearing it,” wrote Wolman in Every Picture
Tells a Story: Baron Wolman, The Rolling Stone Years (Omnibus Press, 2011).
“There was a whole technique to doing
that—since you can’t capture the sound
of the music itself in a still photo, you
try to shoot the process of the musician
making the music, try to isolate a peak
moment of the music being made, try to
communicate the ecstasy of somebody
playing, singing, performing.”
Above: Mick Jagger, Rolling Stone Cover #49, December 27, 1969, paper and ink, 11-1/4 x 8-3/4”
courtesy of Rolling Stone LLC. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission.
Opposite: Mick Jagger cover shot selection (b. 1943), 1969 (exhibition print 2014), archival ink jet print, 7-1/2 x 5”,
courtesy Iconic Images / Baron Wolman Archive. Photo © Baron Wolman.

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