THE CONVERSATIONS |
|
HENRY DILTZ
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Edition ONE Gallery
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Pilar Law, Edition ONE Gallery Owner and Curator, welcomes LEICAS & SCOTCH to the gallery for Mark Berndt's conversation with legendary music photographer Henry Diltz.
All images © Henry Diltz | All Rights Reserved Images may not be reproduced without written permission from the photographer.
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Edition ONE Gallery
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Pilar Law, Edition ONE Gallery Owner and Curator, welcomes LEICAS & SCOTCH to the gallery for Mark Berndt's conversation with legendary music photographer Henry Diltz.
All images © Henry Diltz | All Rights Reserved Images may not be reproduced without written permission from the photographer.
PILAR LAW:
Good afternoon, everyone. This is a very exciting day for me.
My name is Pilar Law. This is my gallery - Edition ONE - and I am very excited to welcome you here. I've been trying to get Henry Diltz here for about eight years, and so today's a very special day.
First and foremost, I want to do a little housekeeping and make some thanks. I'd like to thank Chris Ressler, who often comes here to help set everything up today, Jan Butchofsky, who is also here helping Karen Severson. And so my staff was here today, and my mother, who without her, none of this would have happened. Lisa Law. She's there in the back. Oh, and Troy, who's always out in front greeting everyone.
Of course, I'd like to thank Mark Berndt, who has created this series and who is very diligent in doing his research and creating these incredible interviews. And so it's really an honor to have him here doing this in the gallery.
And then I'd like to say a little bit about me and Henry.
Henry and I go back to me being age two at Woodstock. He photographed me and my father, and that image became quite famous and was in Life magazine and was up in Macy's in New York during the 20th anniversary. It was supposed to be the cover of Life magazine for the 20th, but it never happened. So that kind of, you know, sealed our relationship. But we got to work together through the next two Woodstock's - Woodstock ’94 and then Woodstock ’99. And he may tell you a little bit about that, but he has been just such a great friend to me, and it is such an honor to have him here. I just can't even express it enough.
And I think I'm going to let Mark take it from here. I don't think I've forgotten anything this time. At least I hope I didn't. So thank you all for being here.
MARK BERNDT:
Hello, Henry.
HENRY DILTZ:
Thanks, Pilar, for those lovely words. Glad you all came today, folks. Thanks.
MB:
First of all, I want to, as I always do, Pilar for offering this space here. We couldn't do this without her. And it's such a great space anyway, a great gathering space for these events.
So Henry's come in from L.A…
As I usually do, I'm going to start with a little quick bio.
HD:
Okay. But first, how many people are photographers here? Oh, gosh. Okay. Lots.
MB:
So the conversation always ends up being about being photographers. What is it that we all go through?
All right. Henry Diltz is a music photographer who has shot more than 250 album covers and thousands of publicity shots in the sixties and seventies, including the iconic Morrison Hotel cover for The Doors, Other artists whose fly-on-the-wall style portraits he's known for include music legends like the Eagles. Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jackson Browne, America, Steppenwolf, James Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, The Monkees, and David Cassidy. He was the official photographer at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. His work has appeared in The New York Times, L.A. Times, Life, People, Rolling Stone, High Times and Billboard. He has a collection in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives and was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award in 2023. And - that’s enough to get us rolling.
Good afternoon, everyone. This is a very exciting day for me.
My name is Pilar Law. This is my gallery - Edition ONE - and I am very excited to welcome you here. I've been trying to get Henry Diltz here for about eight years, and so today's a very special day.
First and foremost, I want to do a little housekeeping and make some thanks. I'd like to thank Chris Ressler, who often comes here to help set everything up today, Jan Butchofsky, who is also here helping Karen Severson. And so my staff was here today, and my mother, who without her, none of this would have happened. Lisa Law. She's there in the back. Oh, and Troy, who's always out in front greeting everyone.
Of course, I'd like to thank Mark Berndt, who has created this series and who is very diligent in doing his research and creating these incredible interviews. And so it's really an honor to have him here doing this in the gallery.
And then I'd like to say a little bit about me and Henry.
Henry and I go back to me being age two at Woodstock. He photographed me and my father, and that image became quite famous and was in Life magazine and was up in Macy's in New York during the 20th anniversary. It was supposed to be the cover of Life magazine for the 20th, but it never happened. So that kind of, you know, sealed our relationship. But we got to work together through the next two Woodstock's - Woodstock ’94 and then Woodstock ’99. And he may tell you a little bit about that, but he has been just such a great friend to me, and it is such an honor to have him here. I just can't even express it enough.
And I think I'm going to let Mark take it from here. I don't think I've forgotten anything this time. At least I hope I didn't. So thank you all for being here.
MARK BERNDT:
Hello, Henry.
HENRY DILTZ:
Thanks, Pilar, for those lovely words. Glad you all came today, folks. Thanks.
MB:
First of all, I want to, as I always do, Pilar for offering this space here. We couldn't do this without her. And it's such a great space anyway, a great gathering space for these events.
So Henry's come in from L.A…
As I usually do, I'm going to start with a little quick bio.
HD:
Okay. But first, how many people are photographers here? Oh, gosh. Okay. Lots.
MB:
So the conversation always ends up being about being photographers. What is it that we all go through?
All right. Henry Diltz is a music photographer who has shot more than 250 album covers and thousands of publicity shots in the sixties and seventies, including the iconic Morrison Hotel cover for The Doors, Other artists whose fly-on-the-wall style portraits he's known for include music legends like the Eagles. Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jackson Browne, America, Steppenwolf, James Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, The Monkees, and David Cassidy. He was the official photographer at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. His work has appeared in The New York Times, L.A. Times, Life, People, Rolling Stone, High Times and Billboard. He has a collection in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives and was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award in 2023. And - that’s enough to get us rolling.
THE EARLY YEARS
MB:
So… what have you got to say for yourself?
HD:
You know, to start off with, I'm an accidental photographer. I mean, you know, we all picked up a camera one day, and I did by accident. I was in a singing group, The Modern Folk Quartet. We did folk songs in four part harmony in the sixties and in ’66 we're leaving University of Michigan in the morning and...
Oh, that's me. That’s me with the banjo. This is ’63. We wore suits and then, like all the folk groups towards the end of the sixties, we went electric, you know, because of the Beatles, really. We saw them play Ed Sullivan and said, “Wow, look, they have an electric bass.” We had a stand up bass. And then you had Folk Rock and the Byrds and the Buffalo Springfield. And so all of those people were friends of mine. If you're a musician, you belong to the ‘club’, you know, and you're just friends with all your fellow musicians.
MB:
So… what have you got to say for yourself?
HD:
You know, to start off with, I'm an accidental photographer. I mean, you know, we all picked up a camera one day, and I did by accident. I was in a singing group, The Modern Folk Quartet. We did folk songs in four part harmony in the sixties and in ’66 we're leaving University of Michigan in the morning and...
Oh, that's me. That’s me with the banjo. This is ’63. We wore suits and then, like all the folk groups towards the end of the sixties, we went electric, you know, because of the Beatles, really. We saw them play Ed Sullivan and said, “Wow, look, they have an electric bass.” We had a stand up bass. And then you had Folk Rock and the Byrds and the Buffalo Springfield. And so all of those people were friends of mine. If you're a musician, you belong to the ‘club’, you know, and you're just friends with all your fellow musicians.
And I picked up a camera that morning leaving the University of Michigan. We were driving out of town and someone said, Look, a secondhand store. We pulled in. You know, at this point, I have to say, in case you don't know, all of us hippie musicians back in the sixties and seventies smoked a bit of God's herb. You know, pretty much every day. So if we were a little stoned in the morning and we pulled into this secondhand store and we walked in, right inside the door was a table full of used cameras, 20 bucks, mostly little Japanese cameras. And the guy in front of me, Cyrus Faryar, he said, “Oh, a camera, I'll have one.” And he grabbed one and without even thinking I said, “Yeah, why not?” And I grabbed one.
And so I just followed him without even… I never had the thought, like, ‘Jeez, I ought to get a camera.’ Or ‘I want to take pictures.’ I never thought that - just picked it up. And he said, Pull into the next drugstore, buy film for everybody. And he gave me the Kodak box and I put it in the camera. I said, “How do you set these numbers on here? You know? He said, Well, look on the box. It says sunlight, 250 at 8. I said, Oh, okay, oh, there's 250, there's 8. And that was my photo school, really. You know? That box!
Because we spent the rest of the tour another couple of weeks stopping by fields of cows. I think there's a picture coming up here at some point of me in a field approaching one. And I just took pictures of my friends, you know, like Cyrus.
MB:
This is your learning period, right?
HD:
This is how I learned to be a photographer. And so when kids say “I want to do what you do, how do I start doing that?” I say, get a camera and photograph all your friends, all your best friends. Just take, you know, candid pictures of them, portraits of them.
And so I just followed him without even… I never had the thought, like, ‘Jeez, I ought to get a camera.’ Or ‘I want to take pictures.’ I never thought that - just picked it up. And he said, Pull into the next drugstore, buy film for everybody. And he gave me the Kodak box and I put it in the camera. I said, “How do you set these numbers on here? You know? He said, Well, look on the box. It says sunlight, 250 at 8. I said, Oh, okay, oh, there's 250, there's 8. And that was my photo school, really. You know? That box!
Because we spent the rest of the tour another couple of weeks stopping by fields of cows. I think there's a picture coming up here at some point of me in a field approaching one. And I just took pictures of my friends, you know, like Cyrus.
MB:
This is your learning period, right?
HD:
This is how I learned to be a photographer. And so when kids say “I want to do what you do, how do I start doing that?” I say, get a camera and photograph all your friends, all your best friends. Just take, you know, candid pictures of them, portraits of them.
HD:
This is a Sunday Love In in L.A., where everybody met at the park on Sunday and danced around, had a good time. So I shot pictures there. These were not well-known people.
MB:
But you started shooting people, right? I mean, a lot of new photographers stay away from people. They're shooting still life, landscape, pets, anything but people.
HD:
Well, I was shooting my friends, you know. I mean, I did photograph cows and things. But all of my friends lived in Laurel Canyon. I started taking their picture, and one by one, they became famous, which helped me a great deal.
This is a Sunday Love In in L.A., where everybody met at the park on Sunday and danced around, had a good time. So I shot pictures there. These were not well-known people.
MB:
But you started shooting people, right? I mean, a lot of new photographers stay away from people. They're shooting still life, landscape, pets, anything but people.
HD:
Well, I was shooting my friends, you know. I mean, I did photograph cows and things. But all of my friends lived in Laurel Canyon. I started taking their picture, and one by one, they became famous, which helped me a great deal.
HD:
Now that is Cyrus's wife, Renee, the beauty, out in Joshua Tree. There's a guy - with the taco chip- that’s Ron Jacobs. He's a radio program director, and we’d have the slideshows at his house. That's Eric Jacobson, who was the producer of The Lovin Spoonful, and Chris Isaac, and Spirit in the Sky. And that's my wife, Elizabeth, before we were married.
MB:
And so you would shoot during the week and then do a slide show for everybody on the weekend?
HD:
Yeah, just my friends. I mean, I shot a few landscapes and a few things, but mostly I was, you know, photographing my friends and having slideshows on the weekend.
Now that is Cyrus's wife, Renee, the beauty, out in Joshua Tree. There's a guy - with the taco chip- that’s Ron Jacobs. He's a radio program director, and we’d have the slideshows at his house. That's Eric Jacobson, who was the producer of The Lovin Spoonful, and Chris Isaac, and Spirit in the Sky. And that's my wife, Elizabeth, before we were married.
MB:
And so you would shoot during the week and then do a slide show for everybody on the weekend?
HD:
Yeah, just my friends. I mean, I shot a few landscapes and a few things, but mostly I was, you know, photographing my friends and having slideshows on the weekend.
HD:
There's me walking over and taking a cow picture. And there's David Crosby at the Renaissance Fair.
MB:
Were there any other photographers in your family?
HD:
No, no.
My mom and Dad were a pilot and a stewardess. My Mom played the piano. My dad played the cello. So I was a musician, really, like I say, you know, just kind of being high, you know? Oh, wow. You know? You look through the little window and you frame it up and - click. You know, framing is important to me. How you frame, you know? You get in close, get it right? A friend of mine said, I have a “Framing Jones”. And that's exactly right. It makes me feel good, you know, to frame something and push the button. You know, that feels good.
MB:
So you started taking pictures of your own band while you were still working as a musician, right? Did that give you the idea that you wanted to continue photographing music and musicians as a career?
HD:
No, no, no, not at all.
I was happy, you know, playing music, singing music.
But I had pictures of these friends of mine in Laurel Canyon, many of whom were musicians, and the wives of musicians and other friends. And we started having - you know that guy with the taco chip in his nose - we started having a slideshow up at his house up in Laurel Canyon. And, you know, all my stoned hippie friends were there. And so when I saw the first slide hit the wall and I didn't come from a family where we had vacations and my dad showed some slides. So I never I did see a slide show. But when I saw that first slide hit the wall, eight feet wide in the dark, glowing, I thought, this is magic. It's it's like you're right there again.
MB:
This is like your moment, like a lot of people have with the first print coming up in the developer tray?
HD:
I guess so. That was it. The first slide. Because we got back to L.A. and developed the film, I didn't know slides, black and white. If it had been black & white I probably wouldn't have pursued it. But seeing this glowing picture I said, I'm going to take more of these so we can do more of this slideshow thing, you know?
MB:
So you say you took pictures of your friends. The band started in Hawaii, you moved to L.A. and you ended up in Laurel Canyon. Right? So you take pictures of your friends. Name a couple of your friends.
HD:
Steven Stills, David Crosby, Mama Cass Elliot from the Mamas and Papas, that whole group, these were, you know, I met them all on the road as fellow musicians, you know, playing in clubs and stuff. So I wasn't a photographer, I was a musician with a camera, you know, and a friend. And there weren’t a lot of cameras then, nobody really noticed me much, you know.
There's me walking over and taking a cow picture. And there's David Crosby at the Renaissance Fair.
MB:
Were there any other photographers in your family?
HD:
No, no.
My mom and Dad were a pilot and a stewardess. My Mom played the piano. My dad played the cello. So I was a musician, really, like I say, you know, just kind of being high, you know? Oh, wow. You know? You look through the little window and you frame it up and - click. You know, framing is important to me. How you frame, you know? You get in close, get it right? A friend of mine said, I have a “Framing Jones”. And that's exactly right. It makes me feel good, you know, to frame something and push the button. You know, that feels good.
MB:
So you started taking pictures of your own band while you were still working as a musician, right? Did that give you the idea that you wanted to continue photographing music and musicians as a career?
HD:
No, no, no, not at all.
I was happy, you know, playing music, singing music.
But I had pictures of these friends of mine in Laurel Canyon, many of whom were musicians, and the wives of musicians and other friends. And we started having - you know that guy with the taco chip in his nose - we started having a slideshow up at his house up in Laurel Canyon. And, you know, all my stoned hippie friends were there. And so when I saw the first slide hit the wall and I didn't come from a family where we had vacations and my dad showed some slides. So I never I did see a slide show. But when I saw that first slide hit the wall, eight feet wide in the dark, glowing, I thought, this is magic. It's it's like you're right there again.
MB:
This is like your moment, like a lot of people have with the first print coming up in the developer tray?
HD:
I guess so. That was it. The first slide. Because we got back to L.A. and developed the film, I didn't know slides, black and white. If it had been black & white I probably wouldn't have pursued it. But seeing this glowing picture I said, I'm going to take more of these so we can do more of this slideshow thing, you know?
MB:
So you say you took pictures of your friends. The band started in Hawaii, you moved to L.A. and you ended up in Laurel Canyon. Right? So you take pictures of your friends. Name a couple of your friends.
HD:
Steven Stills, David Crosby, Mama Cass Elliot from the Mamas and Papas, that whole group, these were, you know, I met them all on the road as fellow musicians, you know, playing in clubs and stuff. So I wasn't a photographer, I was a musician with a camera, you know, and a friend. And there weren’t a lot of cameras then, nobody really noticed me much, you know.
MB:
This is, kind of, your personal work.
HD:
This is the stuff I would do in my slideshows. I hadn't really done album covers yet. This was in, you know, just in the middle, 60’s - 66, 67, 68… I was starting to photograph musicians, but you know… I would do these slideshows.
One day I did a slideshow at Mama Cass's house and Pete Townsend was there. And Keith Moon. So Keith Moon was there and at my slideshows, all my friends would shout out, you know, comments or titles or things. And when this slide came up, Keith Moon said, Did you see the size of those rabbits? And that became the title.
It's lawn bowling in New Zealand, you know.
And this one - back in in those days in the late sixties, we didn't have cell phones, but we had beepers. I had a little beeper on my belt and - beep - beep - my wife is calling me. Then you'd have to drive to the next gas station park and put a quarter in the phone and I did that right here on Sunset Boulevard. Put the money in, dialed the number, I turned around and that's what I saw. So I just took the picture.
AUDIENCE:
It was not a setup?
HD:
No, not at all. She was just standing there pumping the gas.
MB:
I thought this was a picture about gas prices.
HD:
This one. You know, I happened to be riding shotgun, not driving. I probably would have crashed trying to take that picture. But that guy came roaring by us and the dog’s ears and gums were flapping in the breeze.
Someone called this one “Elmo at the Beach”.
I like to shoot at the beach and I like to shoot trucks. I put just a couple of trucks in here.
There's a truck there. I love trucks. They fill the frame. They're just they're the right the right shape. There's a truck in India.
Boy, I shot so many pictures of trucks and cows.
AUDIENCE
Did you change from your thrift store camera?
HD:
Yeah. I got a Pentax. That little Japanese camera - the whole back came off. It didn't just open up to put the film in. It came in two pieces. It put the film in and it chewed up the sprockets on the bottom of the slide. You know, when I got to L.A. and developed the film, I had no idea it would be slides. I never thought about what they would look like. It was just fun to look in that little hole and frame something and push the button. But I hadn't seen any of them yet. When I got the yellow boxes back from Kodak, I said, Wow, these are slides, little transparencies, Let's have a slide show. That's how that happened. And in the slideshow… So I would take all these pictures of my friends and they would say, Oh, I didn't even know you took that. And I would go, Yes, you know, that's great. I'm a fly on the wall kind of thing. And then I noticed that I had three or four pictures of different friends of mine eating something, or taking a nap, or reading a book. And so they became series, the eating series, the napping series, the reading series.
This is, kind of, your personal work.
HD:
This is the stuff I would do in my slideshows. I hadn't really done album covers yet. This was in, you know, just in the middle, 60’s - 66, 67, 68… I was starting to photograph musicians, but you know… I would do these slideshows.
One day I did a slideshow at Mama Cass's house and Pete Townsend was there. And Keith Moon. So Keith Moon was there and at my slideshows, all my friends would shout out, you know, comments or titles or things. And when this slide came up, Keith Moon said, Did you see the size of those rabbits? And that became the title.
It's lawn bowling in New Zealand, you know.
And this one - back in in those days in the late sixties, we didn't have cell phones, but we had beepers. I had a little beeper on my belt and - beep - beep - my wife is calling me. Then you'd have to drive to the next gas station park and put a quarter in the phone and I did that right here on Sunset Boulevard. Put the money in, dialed the number, I turned around and that's what I saw. So I just took the picture.
AUDIENCE:
It was not a setup?
HD:
No, not at all. She was just standing there pumping the gas.
MB:
I thought this was a picture about gas prices.
HD:
This one. You know, I happened to be riding shotgun, not driving. I probably would have crashed trying to take that picture. But that guy came roaring by us and the dog’s ears and gums were flapping in the breeze.
Someone called this one “Elmo at the Beach”.
I like to shoot at the beach and I like to shoot trucks. I put just a couple of trucks in here.
There's a truck there. I love trucks. They fill the frame. They're just they're the right the right shape. There's a truck in India.
Boy, I shot so many pictures of trucks and cows.
AUDIENCE
Did you change from your thrift store camera?
HD:
Yeah. I got a Pentax. That little Japanese camera - the whole back came off. It didn't just open up to put the film in. It came in two pieces. It put the film in and it chewed up the sprockets on the bottom of the slide. You know, when I got to L.A. and developed the film, I had no idea it would be slides. I never thought about what they would look like. It was just fun to look in that little hole and frame something and push the button. But I hadn't seen any of them yet. When I got the yellow boxes back from Kodak, I said, Wow, these are slides, little transparencies, Let's have a slide show. That's how that happened. And in the slideshow… So I would take all these pictures of my friends and they would say, Oh, I didn't even know you took that. And I would go, Yes, you know, that's great. I'm a fly on the wall kind of thing. And then I noticed that I had three or four pictures of different friends of mine eating something, or taking a nap, or reading a book. And so they became series, the eating series, the napping series, the reading series.
Now that's the driveway to Neil Young's house right there. And the next one is Neil Young's cow, which I love - see, I love cows. They kind of fill the frame from the side, you know, they’re rectangular. Yeah. Looks like a Rorschach test - one lady said, “Is that an owl?”
And this is my folk group’s manager's wife in France. Suzanne Cohen and her friend Terry in the back had made these outfits. So we drove up the coast just to take some pictures, you know, of her.
And this is my folk group’s manager's wife in France. Suzanne Cohen and her friend Terry in the back had made these outfits. So we drove up the coast just to take some pictures, you know, of her.
So they're all really, like I said, friends. I just learned that way. And I've never developed a roll of film. I don't I don't know how. I never took a photo class. I don't use lights. I mean, every one of these is just natural light - I call it God’s light.
God’s herb. And God’s light.
God’s herb. And God’s light.
MB:
You mentioned your Pentax. This is a Spotmatic?
HD:
That's a Pentax - early on. Yeah.
MB:
But you're not a gear guy.
HD:
No, no. So I had Pentaxes, and they didn't hold up very well. The little number advance thing would shake - it would get loose and then the number counter would break. And then one day someone stole them out of the back of my Volkswagen. I went into the Hollywood laundry to get my laundry. I was in there 5 minutes. I came out and my camera bag was gone from the back seat of my little Volkswagen. Which was a lucky break, because a friend of mine had an extra Nikon that he gave me. And so, wow, I bought a lens. I bought another body. Pretty soon I was a Nikon guy and they were like tanks. They would never break.
And in 2005, I said, “I will never go digital. I'm a film guy, you know, for life.” And then I picked up my friend’s Canon and I looked through and I said, “Oh, my gosh, it's focusing itself! It’s setting its own light reading!” You know, I had a spot meter. I had to take a reading, you know, read somebody's cheek and set the numbers and then focus. But you just pick that Canon up, click and it's perfect, you know? Quick, like I just did minutes ago with my little Canon.
You mentioned your Pentax. This is a Spotmatic?
HD:
That's a Pentax - early on. Yeah.
MB:
But you're not a gear guy.
HD:
No, no. So I had Pentaxes, and they didn't hold up very well. The little number advance thing would shake - it would get loose and then the number counter would break. And then one day someone stole them out of the back of my Volkswagen. I went into the Hollywood laundry to get my laundry. I was in there 5 minutes. I came out and my camera bag was gone from the back seat of my little Volkswagen. Which was a lucky break, because a friend of mine had an extra Nikon that he gave me. And so, wow, I bought a lens. I bought another body. Pretty soon I was a Nikon guy and they were like tanks. They would never break.
And in 2005, I said, “I will never go digital. I'm a film guy, you know, for life.” And then I picked up my friend’s Canon and I looked through and I said, “Oh, my gosh, it's focusing itself! It’s setting its own light reading!” You know, I had a spot meter. I had to take a reading, you know, read somebody's cheek and set the numbers and then focus. But you just pick that Canon up, click and it's perfect, you know? Quick, like I just did minutes ago with my little Canon.
This is my little pocket camera. When I started in the sixties and seventies, I had a camera bag with two bodies, two heavy Nikon F bodies, one for black and white and one for color, about five lenses from wide angle to telephoto, film, batteries, a flash, Minolta spot meter, all that stuff. I mean, 30 - 40 pounds I would carry around. I also had another bag with a Super eight movie camera. I would take Super eight movies - 3 minutes, no sound. With this in my pocket, I can take a half an hour video with sound and everything. I can take 3000 pictures. It's just crazy. Amazing.
MB:
What’s the lens
HD:
This is equivalent to a 900 millimeter lens. And some people said, Oh, yeah, well, part of that is digital. I don't know what that means. You get the picture, you blow it up, you know, I mean, somebody's way over against that wall, I could get a head shot from here. It's so much fun. It's an amazing magical thing - it’s a Canon PowerShot SX740. They cost a little less than $400. And I've gone through a few of them.
MB:
Now you're still shooting some assignments occasionally, right?
HD:
Yeah, I use bigger camera. Most canon people have a 5D. I use a 6D because the bodies are half price of a 5D and they don't have all the bells and whistles on them that I don't even know how to use. I don't know how to do anything, but, you know, look through the little thing and push the button. Really. I don't do Photoshop. I have a millennial girl who can lighten the picture if it's too dark, you know?
I crop in the camera. I never do darkroom stuff.
MB:
Which comes from transparencies, shooting slides.
HD:
Yeah, right. You can't crop a slide, so you have to compose it in the camera.
THE MUSICIANS
MB:
What’s the lens
HD:
This is equivalent to a 900 millimeter lens. And some people said, Oh, yeah, well, part of that is digital. I don't know what that means. You get the picture, you blow it up, you know, I mean, somebody's way over against that wall, I could get a head shot from here. It's so much fun. It's an amazing magical thing - it’s a Canon PowerShot SX740. They cost a little less than $400. And I've gone through a few of them.
MB:
Now you're still shooting some assignments occasionally, right?
HD:
Yeah, I use bigger camera. Most canon people have a 5D. I use a 6D because the bodies are half price of a 5D and they don't have all the bells and whistles on them that I don't even know how to use. I don't know how to do anything, but, you know, look through the little thing and push the button. Really. I don't do Photoshop. I have a millennial girl who can lighten the picture if it's too dark, you know?
I crop in the camera. I never do darkroom stuff.
MB:
Which comes from transparencies, shooting slides.
HD:
Yeah, right. You can't crop a slide, so you have to compose it in the camera.
THE MUSICIANS
This was from the Woody Guthrie Museum in Tulsa.
I did a show there and they had these pictures of different album covers that I did. I see Paul McCartney in the upper left. That was the back of London town. There's Dan Fogelberg on the top right, David Crosby at the flag over there on the right. Some obscure ones too, some very obscure ones. Cass.
That baby doll head up in the upper left. I had an assignment for the L.A. Times to go to the Four Corners area when they shot movies. They were shooting a movie there - a Western. And I was supposed to take pictures of one of the actors wearing shirts - six shirts. And I hung around for a few days. And there - the Navajo - when somebody would die, apparently they would leave their whole structure right there and just move out. And then the coyotes would go in and pull out pots and pans and clothing that was in there. And that doll's head - you’d see dolls and stuff laying around on the floor of the desert. And I got down on my stomach and I didn't touch it. I just took that picture of it. And America used it for an album cover.
MB:
Who’s this?
I did a show there and they had these pictures of different album covers that I did. I see Paul McCartney in the upper left. That was the back of London town. There's Dan Fogelberg on the top right, David Crosby at the flag over there on the right. Some obscure ones too, some very obscure ones. Cass.
That baby doll head up in the upper left. I had an assignment for the L.A. Times to go to the Four Corners area when they shot movies. They were shooting a movie there - a Western. And I was supposed to take pictures of one of the actors wearing shirts - six shirts. And I hung around for a few days. And there - the Navajo - when somebody would die, apparently they would leave their whole structure right there and just move out. And then the coyotes would go in and pull out pots and pans and clothing that was in there. And that doll's head - you’d see dolls and stuff laying around on the floor of the desert. And I got down on my stomach and I didn't touch it. I just took that picture of it. And America used it for an album cover.
MB:
Who’s this?
HD:
This is going to be the first kind of group shot - The Lovin’ Spoonful.
My friend Eric Jacobson - he was in that picture a minute ago of me and him in a boat - he called me up as soon as I got a camera and he heard about it. I was in L.A., he was in New York. He said, “Hey, I hear you got a camera. You want to learn to be a photographer? Come to New York this summer. The boys in The Lovin’ Spoonful just had a big hit with “Do You Believe in Magic?” and we need lots of photos, so come and hang out for the summer. Go on the road with them. Tour with them. We'll pay for all your film and processing. An apprenticeship, you know?
MB:
And that was your first album cover?
HD:
Yeah. And the funny thing is, they had this idea they were they were rock and rollers, so they had to be bad boys. So when I would go to get a group shot, they'd give me the finger or stick their tongue out, and they wouldn't let me get a good shot.
But these guys, The Hollies, they posed like models. That was wonderful.
MB:
So you were a musician. You were in a band. You worked together, you work out parts, you sang harmonies, you traveled together. Rehearsed. Recorded. But photographers are like lone wolves, you know? Was it a mental change for you from being part of a group like that to being the guy - one guy with a camera?
HD:
Well, you know, musicians learn to hang out. We hang out all this time, right? I mean, it's not a job, really. People ask me now, “Do you ever think of retiring?” And I say, “From what? I never had a job!”
This is going to be the first kind of group shot - The Lovin’ Spoonful.
My friend Eric Jacobson - he was in that picture a minute ago of me and him in a boat - he called me up as soon as I got a camera and he heard about it. I was in L.A., he was in New York. He said, “Hey, I hear you got a camera. You want to learn to be a photographer? Come to New York this summer. The boys in The Lovin’ Spoonful just had a big hit with “Do You Believe in Magic?” and we need lots of photos, so come and hang out for the summer. Go on the road with them. Tour with them. We'll pay for all your film and processing. An apprenticeship, you know?
MB:
And that was your first album cover?
HD:
Yeah. And the funny thing is, they had this idea they were they were rock and rollers, so they had to be bad boys. So when I would go to get a group shot, they'd give me the finger or stick their tongue out, and they wouldn't let me get a good shot.
But these guys, The Hollies, they posed like models. That was wonderful.
MB:
So you were a musician. You were in a band. You worked together, you work out parts, you sang harmonies, you traveled together. Rehearsed. Recorded. But photographers are like lone wolves, you know? Was it a mental change for you from being part of a group like that to being the guy - one guy with a camera?
HD:
Well, you know, musicians learn to hang out. We hang out all this time, right? I mean, it's not a job, really. People ask me now, “Do you ever think of retiring?” And I say, “From what? I never had a job!”
HD:
I was walking in Laurel Canyon one day and I heard guitar music coming out of a little house and I knew who lived there. So I walked up and Stephen Stills was in there playing his guitar, visiting a friend of ours. And he said, “Hey, we're going down to Redondo Beach this afternoon for a soundcheck. You want to come along?”
The Buffalo Springfield. These guys. And I said, Yeah, I do want to come along, thinking I want to go to the beach and photograph stuff for my slide shows. And when I walked back to the club, I was photographing that big pink mural. And I just wanted to show how big it was. So when they walked out, I said, “Will you just stand there a minute?” And course I took a roll of film. They started doing things, and then a magazine called me a week later and said, "We hear you have a picture of the Buffalo Springfield. We'd like to run it in Teen Set Magazine. We'd like to run it in our magazine and we'll pay you $100! "
The first nickel I made.
You know, I had to spend my musician money on film and processing. Kind of expensive, right? And so that was my first accidental group shot.
MB:
And you said this one - the man with the monkey - was just down the beach?
HD:
I just been down on the beach photographing people. This guy on the beach, I love that picture.
That was on the beach while they were doing the soundcheck in the club. I didn't have lights and stuff. It probably was dark in the club. I didn't even look in there. I didn't think, ‘Oh, I should shoot the soundcheck’, because I hadn't gotten there yet, you know?
Oh, that is an album cover that Mark did.
MB:
You photographed Anne. I hand-colored your B&W photograph, and designed the CD.
I was walking in Laurel Canyon one day and I heard guitar music coming out of a little house and I knew who lived there. So I walked up and Stephen Stills was in there playing his guitar, visiting a friend of ours. And he said, “Hey, we're going down to Redondo Beach this afternoon for a soundcheck. You want to come along?”
The Buffalo Springfield. These guys. And I said, Yeah, I do want to come along, thinking I want to go to the beach and photograph stuff for my slide shows. And when I walked back to the club, I was photographing that big pink mural. And I just wanted to show how big it was. So when they walked out, I said, “Will you just stand there a minute?” And course I took a roll of film. They started doing things, and then a magazine called me a week later and said, "We hear you have a picture of the Buffalo Springfield. We'd like to run it in Teen Set Magazine. We'd like to run it in our magazine and we'll pay you $100! "
The first nickel I made.
You know, I had to spend my musician money on film and processing. Kind of expensive, right? And so that was my first accidental group shot.
MB:
And you said this one - the man with the monkey - was just down the beach?
HD:
I just been down on the beach photographing people. This guy on the beach, I love that picture.
That was on the beach while they were doing the soundcheck in the club. I didn't have lights and stuff. It probably was dark in the club. I didn't even look in there. I didn't think, ‘Oh, I should shoot the soundcheck’, because I hadn't gotten there yet, you know?
Oh, that is an album cover that Mark did.
MB:
You photographed Anne. I hand-colored your B&W photograph, and designed the CD.
HD:
So then I went to New York, shot The Lovin’ Spoonful for the summer, came back, and Tiger Beat magazine called me and said, “We'd like to hire you for the day to go down to The Monkee’s set, where they're filming, and you shoot everything you can shoot and we'll pay you 300 bucks for the day.” I thought, Wow. You sure that's not for the week? No. I mean, I wasn't married, I didn't have kids. I was just living up in Laurel Canyon. I was paying 130 bucks a month for a little one room place, you know.
But I have to tell you something. Every day and we get to the set the first thing. They get there at five or six for makeup. I get there at nine, you know, when they're about ready to shoot. And Mickey Dolenz and I, every morning, would climb the ladder up - we were on a big soundstage. We’d climbed the ladder up like three stories up to the catwalks where the lights were and smoke a little doobie, you know, And we’d would look down at the little people, like little ants down there. And then I would get down the ladder. And then Davy Jones would come up and say, “Hey, man, come to my dressing room. You know, I have a joint. We can have a little bit, you know. So, I guess I represented hippie freedom to them. And then Peter Tork would walk up. He’d say “Henry, I have a little piece of hash and we can go to wardrobe and get a safety pin, you know, to put the hash on the safety pin. So I’d get stoned three times.
MB:
Before you started work!
HD:
Yeah, but, you know, it wasn't that strong. Nowadays, grass, you want one, two tokes maybe. Three is definitely one too many. But you know, smoking gods herb, it quiets all the things in your head and it makes you just do what you want to do. Wow. Look at, you know, that bottle, or something. You focus on something and it heightens your senses. So for musicians, they want to grab the guitar and play, maybe write a song. It's really, really good for that. And for photographers, I think it makes you start looking around, noticing things, whereas before your mind was working, you're thinking, Oh shit, I’ve got to go to the laundry. I gotta go to the bank. But that goes away. And you just say, Oh, wow, look at those leaves. You know?
MB:
So the one day on The Monkees set turned into a year?
HD:
A year on The Monkees set for the teenybopper magazines. And we got to be really, really good friends. And then I went on the summer tour with them.
And then a couple of years later, the same photo editor at Tiger Beat magazine calls and says, “Henry, we'd like you to go down to the Partridge Family set now and take photos.
And I met this guy the first day.
And I had just come back from spending four months in England with Stephen Stills. So he walked up to said, Hey, I know I'm David. And I told him I’d just come back from England. “What were you doing there?” “I was hanging out with Stephen Stills.” “Really? When we're done with this scene, let's go to my dressing room. I got a guitar there. He was so anxious to get into the music business, you know? He didn't want to be Keith Partridge, you know? It was the second season and we became best friends. I toured all over the world with him for for a year or two.
But this one is funny. I'll tell you the story.
When I’d go to the Eagles house - Glenn Frey and Don Henley - they would be watching like sports, UCLA sports games. And they had a funny, macho thing. They’s say, “Call Irving and send a limo for the cheerleaders.” You know, just their macho posturing. And I told that story to David, you know, “…they’re so funny. They said that…. ‘Send a limo for the cheerleaders.’”
A few weeks later, a German magazine, Bravo magazine, said, “We'd like to do a home story with David, and ask him if he has any ideas.” And I asked him. He said, “Yeah, tell him to send a limo for the UCLA cheerleaders.” And they did!
You know, they called UCLA. They came up with those outfits. We didn't expect a football outfit for David, and he became very good friends with the girl on the far right there, the blond girl. Her name was Delite de Bruin. And they became really good, good buddies for a little while.
And some years later - David was really a chick magnet, you know, my goodness sakes - but a few years later, we had this picture in our Morrison Hotel Photo Gallery in New York. And that picture was hanging there, and I wasn't there, but they told me a guy came in and he said, “Hey, that's my wife there, that blond girl.” I wasn't there to tell him the story, but that was fun.
And then, to start his world tour, we went to New Zealand to spend a week in the Intercontinental Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, doing nothing, so he could get over jet lag so that he could then go to Australia and play. So that was wonderful. It was just he and I, the band was staying in another hotel, and little girls were outside chanting, you know. We would be trying to sleep in the morning, and we’d hear “We love you, David. We always do.”
And then, when it started getting dark, the little 13 year old girls would all disappear and then we could go out to the clubs and stuff.
And Elton John was staying in the same hotel. So that was just a little dinner we had.
MB:
I just think that's so great. You don't think of those two being in a room talking over dinner. Right?
HD:
For sure.
So then I went to New York, shot The Lovin’ Spoonful for the summer, came back, and Tiger Beat magazine called me and said, “We'd like to hire you for the day to go down to The Monkee’s set, where they're filming, and you shoot everything you can shoot and we'll pay you 300 bucks for the day.” I thought, Wow. You sure that's not for the week? No. I mean, I wasn't married, I didn't have kids. I was just living up in Laurel Canyon. I was paying 130 bucks a month for a little one room place, you know.
But I have to tell you something. Every day and we get to the set the first thing. They get there at five or six for makeup. I get there at nine, you know, when they're about ready to shoot. And Mickey Dolenz and I, every morning, would climb the ladder up - we were on a big soundstage. We’d climbed the ladder up like three stories up to the catwalks where the lights were and smoke a little doobie, you know, And we’d would look down at the little people, like little ants down there. And then I would get down the ladder. And then Davy Jones would come up and say, “Hey, man, come to my dressing room. You know, I have a joint. We can have a little bit, you know. So, I guess I represented hippie freedom to them. And then Peter Tork would walk up. He’d say “Henry, I have a little piece of hash and we can go to wardrobe and get a safety pin, you know, to put the hash on the safety pin. So I’d get stoned three times.
MB:
Before you started work!
HD:
Yeah, but, you know, it wasn't that strong. Nowadays, grass, you want one, two tokes maybe. Three is definitely one too many. But you know, smoking gods herb, it quiets all the things in your head and it makes you just do what you want to do. Wow. Look at, you know, that bottle, or something. You focus on something and it heightens your senses. So for musicians, they want to grab the guitar and play, maybe write a song. It's really, really good for that. And for photographers, I think it makes you start looking around, noticing things, whereas before your mind was working, you're thinking, Oh shit, I’ve got to go to the laundry. I gotta go to the bank. But that goes away. And you just say, Oh, wow, look at those leaves. You know?
MB:
So the one day on The Monkees set turned into a year?
HD:
A year on The Monkees set for the teenybopper magazines. And we got to be really, really good friends. And then I went on the summer tour with them.
And then a couple of years later, the same photo editor at Tiger Beat magazine calls and says, “Henry, we'd like you to go down to the Partridge Family set now and take photos.
And I met this guy the first day.
And I had just come back from spending four months in England with Stephen Stills. So he walked up to said, Hey, I know I'm David. And I told him I’d just come back from England. “What were you doing there?” “I was hanging out with Stephen Stills.” “Really? When we're done with this scene, let's go to my dressing room. I got a guitar there. He was so anxious to get into the music business, you know? He didn't want to be Keith Partridge, you know? It was the second season and we became best friends. I toured all over the world with him for for a year or two.
But this one is funny. I'll tell you the story.
When I’d go to the Eagles house - Glenn Frey and Don Henley - they would be watching like sports, UCLA sports games. And they had a funny, macho thing. They’s say, “Call Irving and send a limo for the cheerleaders.” You know, just their macho posturing. And I told that story to David, you know, “…they’re so funny. They said that…. ‘Send a limo for the cheerleaders.’”
A few weeks later, a German magazine, Bravo magazine, said, “We'd like to do a home story with David, and ask him if he has any ideas.” And I asked him. He said, “Yeah, tell him to send a limo for the UCLA cheerleaders.” And they did!
You know, they called UCLA. They came up with those outfits. We didn't expect a football outfit for David, and he became very good friends with the girl on the far right there, the blond girl. Her name was Delite de Bruin. And they became really good, good buddies for a little while.
And some years later - David was really a chick magnet, you know, my goodness sakes - but a few years later, we had this picture in our Morrison Hotel Photo Gallery in New York. And that picture was hanging there, and I wasn't there, but they told me a guy came in and he said, “Hey, that's my wife there, that blond girl.” I wasn't there to tell him the story, but that was fun.
And then, to start his world tour, we went to New Zealand to spend a week in the Intercontinental Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, doing nothing, so he could get over jet lag so that he could then go to Australia and play. So that was wonderful. It was just he and I, the band was staying in another hotel, and little girls were outside chanting, you know. We would be trying to sleep in the morning, and we’d hear “We love you, David. We always do.”
And then, when it started getting dark, the little 13 year old girls would all disappear and then we could go out to the clubs and stuff.
And Elton John was staying in the same hotel. So that was just a little dinner we had.
MB:
I just think that's so great. You don't think of those two being in a room talking over dinner. Right?
HD:
For sure.
HD:
Mama Cass.
The Gertrude Stein of Laurel Canyon, we called her, because she really was like that. I mean, she was an Earth mother. She really cared about people. And she was three things. She was very intelligent, she was very funny, and she was very hip. You had to be all three of those things to be Mama Cass.
And she would be on TV shows with the Mamas and Papas, and there'd be some new group over from England. It was The Hollies, that day I shot The Hollies. She was in New York City, and they did a show with The Hollies. She called The Lovin’ Spoonful in the afternoon said, “Will you guys be there for a few minutes I want to bring some friends by." And she brought The Hollies by. None of us had met them, but, I mean, it was great. And like, you know, musicians in the club, we spent the afternoon our Sal Yanovsky’s apartment, making margaritas and a blender, smoking a little God’s herb. That’s her.
MB:
She put a lot of people together, right?
HD:
She did. Like Gertrude Stein would have those salons, and artists would meet other artists and other musicians. And she was really that way. Yeah.
There she is. “Expect a miracle". And we didn't set that up. That was in my friend Gary's garage for some other picture he took and like a week later she just sat in the chair and there it was, She looked up. I mean, I didn't say now you sit in this chair and look up at those angels. Right? I'm just there watching and ooh, you know, click.
MB:
So do you have a style? What do you consider - what's your style?
HD:
Curiosity.
I think curiosity. I learned a few years ago that my Chinese animal is a tiger. You know, we all have a Chinese animal. It depends on the year you were born and you have to look it up. And the Chinese New Year starts in February, so you can you can look it up online. A tiger likes to hide in the bushes and watch the other animals. Right? That's what I do. I think I'm an observer. You know, I'm curious.
In college, I majored in psychology just because I was interested in people. What makes us tick, you know, what is this? What how does this work? And it was the same thing taking pictures.
Now look - this day - this is Mama Cass's backyard. And she had just done a show with Cream. And there's Eric Clapton sitting on the right side and, so, on the show she said, “Oh, you guys are just here for the first time? You don't know anybody. Why don't you come to my house? She said to Eric, who was very shy. He didn't hardly talk the whole day. But she said, “Come to my house, I'll invite some friends”. She invited David Crosby sitting there with a hat on, and he invited his new young protege, Joni Mitchell. They were just recording her first album. It wasn't out yet, and she sat there and played her whole album and Eric just sat there, you know, for like 45 minutes, just staring at her fingers. How is she making that sound? I mean, a beautiful, beautiful thing.
MB:
But, it's your ability to be there, be accepted by everybody, be able to do these pictures.
HD:
But not really be a photographer. Not like okay I'm here you guys, you know, stand over there… doing a shoot. Just not that way. I mean, I would just hang out for hours, really, because it wasn't a job. It wasn't a half an hour. An hour. It was just life.
Mama Cass.
The Gertrude Stein of Laurel Canyon, we called her, because she really was like that. I mean, she was an Earth mother. She really cared about people. And she was three things. She was very intelligent, she was very funny, and she was very hip. You had to be all three of those things to be Mama Cass.
And she would be on TV shows with the Mamas and Papas, and there'd be some new group over from England. It was The Hollies, that day I shot The Hollies. She was in New York City, and they did a show with The Hollies. She called The Lovin’ Spoonful in the afternoon said, “Will you guys be there for a few minutes I want to bring some friends by." And she brought The Hollies by. None of us had met them, but, I mean, it was great. And like, you know, musicians in the club, we spent the afternoon our Sal Yanovsky’s apartment, making margaritas and a blender, smoking a little God’s herb. That’s her.
MB:
She put a lot of people together, right?
HD:
She did. Like Gertrude Stein would have those salons, and artists would meet other artists and other musicians. And she was really that way. Yeah.
There she is. “Expect a miracle". And we didn't set that up. That was in my friend Gary's garage for some other picture he took and like a week later she just sat in the chair and there it was, She looked up. I mean, I didn't say now you sit in this chair and look up at those angels. Right? I'm just there watching and ooh, you know, click.
MB:
So do you have a style? What do you consider - what's your style?
HD:
Curiosity.
I think curiosity. I learned a few years ago that my Chinese animal is a tiger. You know, we all have a Chinese animal. It depends on the year you were born and you have to look it up. And the Chinese New Year starts in February, so you can you can look it up online. A tiger likes to hide in the bushes and watch the other animals. Right? That's what I do. I think I'm an observer. You know, I'm curious.
In college, I majored in psychology just because I was interested in people. What makes us tick, you know, what is this? What how does this work? And it was the same thing taking pictures.
Now look - this day - this is Mama Cass's backyard. And she had just done a show with Cream. And there's Eric Clapton sitting on the right side and, so, on the show she said, “Oh, you guys are just here for the first time? You don't know anybody. Why don't you come to my house? She said to Eric, who was very shy. He didn't hardly talk the whole day. But she said, “Come to my house, I'll invite some friends”. She invited David Crosby sitting there with a hat on, and he invited his new young protege, Joni Mitchell. They were just recording her first album. It wasn't out yet, and she sat there and played her whole album and Eric just sat there, you know, for like 45 minutes, just staring at her fingers. How is she making that sound? I mean, a beautiful, beautiful thing.
MB:
But, it's your ability to be there, be accepted by everybody, be able to do these pictures.
HD:
But not really be a photographer. Not like okay I'm here you guys, you know, stand over there… doing a shoot. Just not that way. I mean, I would just hang out for hours, really, because it wasn't a job. It wasn't a half an hour. An hour. It was just life.
HD:
That was my partner’s little girl with Joni Mitchell.
We went up to her house to take a publicity photos, and she was waiting in the window, and we just walked up the steps and she was waiting there. And then we went up in the back and took pictures of her with her dulcimer. But these were the best.
I had a graphic artist partner, Gary Burden, and we were all good friends.
Gary started talking to her and they had a five minute conversation and I got to take a whole roll of film of her like that, just in the window, which is perfect. I mean, you know, I couldn't have posed her that way. She really would just talk to Gary about stuff.
MB:
That also means when you're there with a camera ready to go. I mean, you carry a camera all the time.
HD:
Well, we'd gone there - that was a job to shoot publicity photos.
That's Graham Nash. What a guy. Yeah, he's amazing.
These are amazing people. And incidentally, they're all heroes of mine, too, you know? I mean, I'm a musician. I love really good music.
That was my partner’s little girl with Joni Mitchell.
We went up to her house to take a publicity photos, and she was waiting in the window, and we just walked up the steps and she was waiting there. And then we went up in the back and took pictures of her with her dulcimer. But these were the best.
I had a graphic artist partner, Gary Burden, and we were all good friends.
Gary started talking to her and they had a five minute conversation and I got to take a whole roll of film of her like that, just in the window, which is perfect. I mean, you know, I couldn't have posed her that way. She really would just talk to Gary about stuff.
MB:
That also means when you're there with a camera ready to go. I mean, you carry a camera all the time.
HD:
Well, we'd gone there - that was a job to shoot publicity photos.
That's Graham Nash. What a guy. Yeah, he's amazing.
These are amazing people. And incidentally, they're all heroes of mine, too, you know? I mean, I'm a musician. I love really good music.
HD:
Oh, this was driving up to Big Bear to take photos of CSN in these fur jackets for the inside of their album. And Joni was friends with Graham. They were going together. So she’s at the back of the limo and I'm sitting in the little jump seat that faces the back. So I'm right in their face kind of. And it's a two-and-a-half hour drive in a limo. And so I was more looking out the window because if I turned straight, I'd be looking right at them. And I turned once and saw that - and raised the camera - snap - then put it down, you know. And look out the window again. I love that. I love it.
MB:
What a moment.
HD:
This is a little bit about Woodstock.
Oh, this was driving up to Big Bear to take photos of CSN in these fur jackets for the inside of their album. And Joni was friends with Graham. They were going together. So she’s at the back of the limo and I'm sitting in the little jump seat that faces the back. So I'm right in their face kind of. And it's a two-and-a-half hour drive in a limo. And so I was more looking out the window because if I turned straight, I'd be looking right at them. And I turned once and saw that - and raised the camera - snap - then put it down, you know. And look out the window again. I love that. I love it.
MB:
What a moment.
HD:
This is a little bit about Woodstock.
HD:
When I was in a folk group and we did concerts, there was a guy named Chip Monck. His name was Edward Beresford Monck, but his friends called him “Chip” and he was a lighting guy. He was often the lighting guy on all these festivals and things - the big time. And so I got to know him really well for a few years. And then he called me one day in ’69, just before the beginning of August, and he said, “Henry, we're going to have a big concert out here in New York and you ought to be out here.” And I said, “Well, Chip, I've read about it, but I don't know those people. You know, how am I going to get a photo pass?” And he said, “Well, I'll talk to the producer. And the next day Michael Lang called me - a man of few words - and he said, “Chip says, we need you. I'm sending you $500 and an airline ticket.” And click - he hung up.
That was it. And I went out there a good two weeks before the the crowd arrived, and they had just had a change locations. They were in another township and all the people voted they didn't want all those damn hippies all over their lawn, so they voted them out and they had to very quickly find Yasgur’s Farm and this hillside of alfalfa blowing in the breeze.
They were building the stage - like the deck of an aircraft carrier, you know? It was like summer camp for me. My job was just to walk around and shoot the hippie guys hammering and nailing and stuff.
Look at that. See, that whole hillside there was full of people. You couldn't see the ground there, 400,000 people.
This was the aftermath. Same chair. Well, not the same chair, but the before and after.
And here's John Sebastian, who was in the Lovin’ Spoonful, the first first group I photographed and the first album cover that I did. He moved to a musical commune in L.A. and there was a lady there named Tie-Dye Annie, and Tie-Dye Annie taught him how to tie dye, and he tie dyed every single piece of clothing he had. And the sheets, the pillowcase, he lived in a tent that was tie dyed. Yeah. Just loved it.
And then here he is at Woodstock wearing this tie-dyes, a few months after that first picture was taken. Then here he was at Woodstock.
MB:
So Woodstock. You were there a couple of weeks before. You were there all through. And some time, I imagine, afterwards.
HD:
Yeah. Well I had to take the film and get it developed real quickly in New York City and bring it to Life magazine and all that, you know.
MB:
There were four photographers?
HD:
There were four of us.
MB:
You were the official guy.
HD:
I was the guy because Michael called me a ticket and paid me, you know, But Lisa Law was there, Pilar’s mother. We're dear friends and the same generation. I met her there. She came out with the Hog Farm to set up all the campgrounds and feed all the masses and stuff.
There's a picture here in the gallery of her standing there with Michael Lang and Chip Monck when they're still building the stage. And she was a young girl kind of running the Hog Farm.
And then the other two photographers were Baron Wolman, who I didn't really know until then. I didn't hang out with him much. But Jim Marshall, I met on the stage. He was quite a guy. You know, some years later, he called me and I answered the phone up in Laurel Canyon. I guess that's where everything starts - the phone rings in Laurel Canyon - and he said, “Henry, it's Jim.” And I said, “Jim, who?” I know a lot of Jim's, you know? I said, “Jim, who?” And he said “Whadda you mean? It’s your fuckin’ guru!”
He was my ‘fucking guru’ from that time on. He was amazing.
And that Leicas & Scotch? That’s Jim Marshall. I'm more Nikons & Margaritas, I think!
MB:
That's great. So there were a handful, you guys that were shooting musicians and celebrities. There was an L.A. group and there was a New York group.
HD:
Kind of. I mean, I was just there on stage, there wasn't a backstage really, you know, there was a production trailer and a couple of tents and stuff. And the eating area. But I stayed most of the time on stage.
You see in front of the stage is the photo pit. And you see all those photographers down there, the Life magazine photographers and Look magazine and all those guys. But I had an All Access Pass. And in fact, there was a little walkway built just under the stage where the film crew could crouch, you know, and get up and shoot over the stage. And I would go out there and shoot from that. And the film assistants would say, “This is only for the film crew. You can't be here.” And I said, “No, I have an All Access Pass, you know, I'm working for Michael Lang. Leave me alone.”
MB:
But I'm talking about that group of photographers. You say musicians hang out and they meet each other…
HD:
Photographers don’t. They don’t so much. Because they're all off shooting - not shooting together. At a place like Woodstock we were, but... That's why, you know, I met Lisa, who - you weren't really a photographer yet, were you Lisa?
LISA LAW in AUDIENCE:
No, I was feeding people.
HD:
Feeding people. In the kitchens.
So, yeah, if there's a big festival you bump into other photographers. But otherwise you're off here shooting. They're off there - somewhere else, you know?
But then there was a little photo lab in L.A. in the ’80’s and ’90's called Richard’s Photo Lab. And all the photographers went there because you'd shoot your show at night, and then you put the film in an envelope and stick it thru the mail slot of the lab, and in the morning they'd have all the proof sheets made. In fact, then the record companies would send a runner over to pick them up, and you didn't even have to go and deliver the proof sheets. It was a great system. And there we all had little cubbies, you know, we could go behind the counter and stamp our name on the back of the proof sheets and the photos. And so we had a little clubhouse. And then, in 2000, some friends of mine said we should have a little gallery for your photos. And we did little pop ups across the country on a weekend and lots of people would come. We ended up in Greenwich Village and got a little tiny place there and started a little photo gallery.
MB:
So just kind of wrapping up Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix.
HD:
Boy, that was a surprise.
MB:
This was Jimi Hendrix doing The Star Spangled Banner?
HD:
Yeah. So he was supposed to close the show Sunday night, but it was so backed up that he…
I went to sleep in my station wagon parked behind the stage. I couldn't drive back to my house where I rented a room. We all lived in a little boarding house, but the roads were full of people in cars you couldn't get back. So I ended up sleeping in my station wagon.
And in the morning I heard “Ladies and gentlemen, Jimi Hendrix!” And I jumped up and ran up the back stairs.
I was right by the stage, you know, and I got up there and took this picture. It was early morning and they came out with these colorful bandanas and clothes. And it was like, woah, we'd all been up, you know, and smoking and not having much sleep.
The music was great. But then he started playing The Star Spangled Banner, you know, just that one note ringing out. A lot of the crowd had left. There had been 400,000 people out there, but now there were probably 50,000 by Monday morning. Many people had left. So 50,000 was still a lot. It's a big stadium, but the top of the hillside was all empty and the sound echoed off and bounced back, you know? And I remember, I was standing just this far from Jimi, and I thought, why is he playing that song? You know, we're peace and love - hippies against the war, against Nixon, against all that. That's their song, you know? But wait a minute, maybe he's reclaiming it for us, right? Which apparently he did.
I talked to his conga player a couple of years ago at a Woodstock thing, on stage. And he said, “You know, we lived in a little house near Woodstock for two weeks and he practiced playing that every day.” So it had a real meaning. And then no one had a chance to ask him, except he was on a TV talk show the host said, “Jimi, weren't you a little afraid to play that? Because people have such feelings about that? You know, you don't know how people are going to feel about it.” He said, “I don't know. I thought it was beautiful.” And that's it. And that was him. He's kind of like a little boy. Very elemental, you know, just says what he thinks. So that was amazing.
I wanted to say one more thing about that, because years later I thought, when Francis Scott Key wrote that song, he was standing up in the hills watching the British fleet bombard Fort McHenry. And it had all that - boom - crash - rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
I just wanted to add to what you just said. I’ll be as brief as I possibly can. If you’ve ever studied serious level astrology, you’ll understand the significance of that moment. And it was a cycle to what you just said about Francis Scott Key. That was the cycle coming full cycle.
HD:
Is that right?
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
Yes. And it's very profound. But you have to get to that really serious level.
HD:
That’s so great.
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
It involves Uranus and Jupiter and it’s truly profound.
HD:
I love that!
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
And some people have done some serious research on this. And it turns out they think that Jimi was playing in exactly that moment.
HD:
That he was standing there watching the...
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
Well, it so happens that the universe…
HD:
Because then he started putting in those it sound effect, you know, like war sounds. That's amazing. I love that. Yeah. I think there's a lot of coincidences that we're not even aware of, but that's a good one.
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
And there’s also the same timing as the landing on the moon.
HD:
Mm hmm.
HD:
And then here is Tom Law with his little daughter Pilar.
Oh, there's a Pilar in the back of the room. She's a little older now. She's a beautiful young lady, and we've been pals since - ell, we didn't really see each other that much in ’69, but in ’94 and ’99, she, of course, worked at Woodstock. I'll never forget what I got there kind of late in ’99, and someone was on stage that I wanted a photograph, but I didn't have a pass yet. I was going to have to go to the office and go through all that. And Pilar gave me her ALL ACCESS PASS, which is like, WOW, that's the biggest sacrifice! Oh, that was so great.
MB:
I know you've got a story about every single one of these images.
HD:
I do. Every one is a story.
When I was in a folk group and we did concerts, there was a guy named Chip Monck. His name was Edward Beresford Monck, but his friends called him “Chip” and he was a lighting guy. He was often the lighting guy on all these festivals and things - the big time. And so I got to know him really well for a few years. And then he called me one day in ’69, just before the beginning of August, and he said, “Henry, we're going to have a big concert out here in New York and you ought to be out here.” And I said, “Well, Chip, I've read about it, but I don't know those people. You know, how am I going to get a photo pass?” And he said, “Well, I'll talk to the producer. And the next day Michael Lang called me - a man of few words - and he said, “Chip says, we need you. I'm sending you $500 and an airline ticket.” And click - he hung up.
That was it. And I went out there a good two weeks before the the crowd arrived, and they had just had a change locations. They were in another township and all the people voted they didn't want all those damn hippies all over their lawn, so they voted them out and they had to very quickly find Yasgur’s Farm and this hillside of alfalfa blowing in the breeze.
They were building the stage - like the deck of an aircraft carrier, you know? It was like summer camp for me. My job was just to walk around and shoot the hippie guys hammering and nailing and stuff.
Look at that. See, that whole hillside there was full of people. You couldn't see the ground there, 400,000 people.
This was the aftermath. Same chair. Well, not the same chair, but the before and after.
And here's John Sebastian, who was in the Lovin’ Spoonful, the first first group I photographed and the first album cover that I did. He moved to a musical commune in L.A. and there was a lady there named Tie-Dye Annie, and Tie-Dye Annie taught him how to tie dye, and he tie dyed every single piece of clothing he had. And the sheets, the pillowcase, he lived in a tent that was tie dyed. Yeah. Just loved it.
And then here he is at Woodstock wearing this tie-dyes, a few months after that first picture was taken. Then here he was at Woodstock.
MB:
So Woodstock. You were there a couple of weeks before. You were there all through. And some time, I imagine, afterwards.
HD:
Yeah. Well I had to take the film and get it developed real quickly in New York City and bring it to Life magazine and all that, you know.
MB:
There were four photographers?
HD:
There were four of us.
MB:
You were the official guy.
HD:
I was the guy because Michael called me a ticket and paid me, you know, But Lisa Law was there, Pilar’s mother. We're dear friends and the same generation. I met her there. She came out with the Hog Farm to set up all the campgrounds and feed all the masses and stuff.
There's a picture here in the gallery of her standing there with Michael Lang and Chip Monck when they're still building the stage. And she was a young girl kind of running the Hog Farm.
And then the other two photographers were Baron Wolman, who I didn't really know until then. I didn't hang out with him much. But Jim Marshall, I met on the stage. He was quite a guy. You know, some years later, he called me and I answered the phone up in Laurel Canyon. I guess that's where everything starts - the phone rings in Laurel Canyon - and he said, “Henry, it's Jim.” And I said, “Jim, who?” I know a lot of Jim's, you know? I said, “Jim, who?” And he said “Whadda you mean? It’s your fuckin’ guru!”
He was my ‘fucking guru’ from that time on. He was amazing.
And that Leicas & Scotch? That’s Jim Marshall. I'm more Nikons & Margaritas, I think!
MB:
That's great. So there were a handful, you guys that were shooting musicians and celebrities. There was an L.A. group and there was a New York group.
HD:
Kind of. I mean, I was just there on stage, there wasn't a backstage really, you know, there was a production trailer and a couple of tents and stuff. And the eating area. But I stayed most of the time on stage.
You see in front of the stage is the photo pit. And you see all those photographers down there, the Life magazine photographers and Look magazine and all those guys. But I had an All Access Pass. And in fact, there was a little walkway built just under the stage where the film crew could crouch, you know, and get up and shoot over the stage. And I would go out there and shoot from that. And the film assistants would say, “This is only for the film crew. You can't be here.” And I said, “No, I have an All Access Pass, you know, I'm working for Michael Lang. Leave me alone.”
MB:
But I'm talking about that group of photographers. You say musicians hang out and they meet each other…
HD:
Photographers don’t. They don’t so much. Because they're all off shooting - not shooting together. At a place like Woodstock we were, but... That's why, you know, I met Lisa, who - you weren't really a photographer yet, were you Lisa?
LISA LAW in AUDIENCE:
No, I was feeding people.
HD:
Feeding people. In the kitchens.
So, yeah, if there's a big festival you bump into other photographers. But otherwise you're off here shooting. They're off there - somewhere else, you know?
But then there was a little photo lab in L.A. in the ’80’s and ’90's called Richard’s Photo Lab. And all the photographers went there because you'd shoot your show at night, and then you put the film in an envelope and stick it thru the mail slot of the lab, and in the morning they'd have all the proof sheets made. In fact, then the record companies would send a runner over to pick them up, and you didn't even have to go and deliver the proof sheets. It was a great system. And there we all had little cubbies, you know, we could go behind the counter and stamp our name on the back of the proof sheets and the photos. And so we had a little clubhouse. And then, in 2000, some friends of mine said we should have a little gallery for your photos. And we did little pop ups across the country on a weekend and lots of people would come. We ended up in Greenwich Village and got a little tiny place there and started a little photo gallery.
MB:
So just kind of wrapping up Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix.
HD:
Boy, that was a surprise.
MB:
This was Jimi Hendrix doing The Star Spangled Banner?
HD:
Yeah. So he was supposed to close the show Sunday night, but it was so backed up that he…
I went to sleep in my station wagon parked behind the stage. I couldn't drive back to my house where I rented a room. We all lived in a little boarding house, but the roads were full of people in cars you couldn't get back. So I ended up sleeping in my station wagon.
And in the morning I heard “Ladies and gentlemen, Jimi Hendrix!” And I jumped up and ran up the back stairs.
I was right by the stage, you know, and I got up there and took this picture. It was early morning and they came out with these colorful bandanas and clothes. And it was like, woah, we'd all been up, you know, and smoking and not having much sleep.
The music was great. But then he started playing The Star Spangled Banner, you know, just that one note ringing out. A lot of the crowd had left. There had been 400,000 people out there, but now there were probably 50,000 by Monday morning. Many people had left. So 50,000 was still a lot. It's a big stadium, but the top of the hillside was all empty and the sound echoed off and bounced back, you know? And I remember, I was standing just this far from Jimi, and I thought, why is he playing that song? You know, we're peace and love - hippies against the war, against Nixon, against all that. That's their song, you know? But wait a minute, maybe he's reclaiming it for us, right? Which apparently he did.
I talked to his conga player a couple of years ago at a Woodstock thing, on stage. And he said, “You know, we lived in a little house near Woodstock for two weeks and he practiced playing that every day.” So it had a real meaning. And then no one had a chance to ask him, except he was on a TV talk show the host said, “Jimi, weren't you a little afraid to play that? Because people have such feelings about that? You know, you don't know how people are going to feel about it.” He said, “I don't know. I thought it was beautiful.” And that's it. And that was him. He's kind of like a little boy. Very elemental, you know, just says what he thinks. So that was amazing.
I wanted to say one more thing about that, because years later I thought, when Francis Scott Key wrote that song, he was standing up in the hills watching the British fleet bombard Fort McHenry. And it had all that - boom - crash - rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
I just wanted to add to what you just said. I’ll be as brief as I possibly can. If you’ve ever studied serious level astrology, you’ll understand the significance of that moment. And it was a cycle to what you just said about Francis Scott Key. That was the cycle coming full cycle.
HD:
Is that right?
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
Yes. And it's very profound. But you have to get to that really serious level.
HD:
That’s so great.
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
It involves Uranus and Jupiter and it’s truly profound.
HD:
I love that!
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
And some people have done some serious research on this. And it turns out they think that Jimi was playing in exactly that moment.
HD:
That he was standing there watching the...
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
Well, it so happens that the universe…
HD:
Because then he started putting in those it sound effect, you know, like war sounds. That's amazing. I love that. Yeah. I think there's a lot of coincidences that we're not even aware of, but that's a good one.
AUDIENCE COMMENT:
And there’s also the same timing as the landing on the moon.
HD:
Mm hmm.
HD:
And then here is Tom Law with his little daughter Pilar.
Oh, there's a Pilar in the back of the room. She's a little older now. She's a beautiful young lady, and we've been pals since - ell, we didn't really see each other that much in ’69, but in ’94 and ’99, she, of course, worked at Woodstock. I'll never forget what I got there kind of late in ’99, and someone was on stage that I wanted a photograph, but I didn't have a pass yet. I was going to have to go to the office and go through all that. And Pilar gave me her ALL ACCESS PASS, which is like, WOW, that's the biggest sacrifice! Oh, that was so great.
MB:
I know you've got a story about every single one of these images.
HD:
I do. Every one is a story.
HD:
So, trucks. I love them. See how they fill the frame?
MB:
But Henry, THAT’S JAMES TAYLOR!
HD:
Yeah. But there's a truck!
MB:
Ha! So - so you don't use lights. You’re a natural light guy?
HD:
No. I mean I used to do parties for Capitol Records and have a flash, but I hated that, you know, So no, I don't use lights.
MB:
You didn't do studio stuff?
HD:
All location stuff. Just window light, you know? Inside a living room…
Dan Fogelberg, one of my heroes. I love his music.
And Jackson Browne, one of my favorite songwriters. His songs are like anthems, you know. “Oh, people look around you…” So this portrait turned into his first album cover, right?
MB:
So all these musicians were writing songs that were based on their lives. I mean, they wrote about relationships and breakups and all the stuff that was going on with them. And you were there photographing your life. That was your neighborhood. These were your pals that you hung out with, right?
HD:
Right. And that was the big sea change in the music industry because folk music - you never write a folk song, It's 100 years old. But then, because of the Beatles, and Dylan writing a Woody Guthrie ode, you know, people start writing their own songs. When we saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan we’re going, “Wow, wow. They're so joyful. They're having so much fun. What are we singing about the ox driver for?
And right then - late sixties / early seventies - people started writing their own songs. When Joni Mitchell writes her feelings of love, you know, she looked at clouds from both sides now. You know what she meant by that - “clouds from both sides now”? She told me, “Well, when you're in an airplane, you're looking at the top of the clouds.
MB:
I bought this album - The Eagles Desperado - because of that picture.
HD:
Is that right?
So, trucks. I love them. See how they fill the frame?
MB:
But Henry, THAT’S JAMES TAYLOR!
HD:
Yeah. But there's a truck!
MB:
Ha! So - so you don't use lights. You’re a natural light guy?
HD:
No. I mean I used to do parties for Capitol Records and have a flash, but I hated that, you know, So no, I don't use lights.
MB:
You didn't do studio stuff?
HD:
All location stuff. Just window light, you know? Inside a living room…
Dan Fogelberg, one of my heroes. I love his music.
And Jackson Browne, one of my favorite songwriters. His songs are like anthems, you know. “Oh, people look around you…” So this portrait turned into his first album cover, right?
MB:
So all these musicians were writing songs that were based on their lives. I mean, they wrote about relationships and breakups and all the stuff that was going on with them. And you were there photographing your life. That was your neighborhood. These were your pals that you hung out with, right?
HD:
Right. And that was the big sea change in the music industry because folk music - you never write a folk song, It's 100 years old. But then, because of the Beatles, and Dylan writing a Woody Guthrie ode, you know, people start writing their own songs. When we saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan we’re going, “Wow, wow. They're so joyful. They're having so much fun. What are we singing about the ox driver for?
And right then - late sixties / early seventies - people started writing their own songs. When Joni Mitchell writes her feelings of love, you know, she looked at clouds from both sides now. You know what she meant by that - “clouds from both sides now”? She told me, “Well, when you're in an airplane, you're looking at the top of the clouds.
MB:
I bought this album - The Eagles Desperado - because of that picture.
HD:
Is that right?
HD:
I wanted to point out my partner, Gary Burden, in that picture.
See the guy with the rifle, in the white shirt on the left with the sheriff badge? That’s my graphic artist partner, Gary Burden.
We did 100 album covers, easily. I mean, Crosby, Stills & Nash on the couch, you know, The Doors - Morrison Hotel, The Eagles, in the desert. Whenever we had to shoot a group for an album cover, Gary's idea was - let’s get the group out of town, away from their managers and girlfriends and telephones and we'll go have an adventure! And he would say, “Henry, just shoot everything that happens. The film's the cheapest part!” But that's what I did anyway. You know, I just photographed everything that happened.
MB:
But this is like a big production. I mean, you've got to coordinate a bunch of people. There was wardrobe, there were props…
HD:
Well, we went out there and did a cowboy movie, and Gary made sure they all got these cowboy outfits from a Hollywood costume place, you know, And we went out there and played cowboys with blanks in the guns. They were shooting at each other, falling down. And the extra smoke coming up in the air? After a while, fire engines arrived. They thought the hills were on fire! Wow. And then that shot of them laying dead in the street - we looked at up. We looked at a book of actual 1800's photos, photos of outlaws. And they always would pose with the dead outlaws. Sometimes they'd prop them up and hold them. Sometimes they're laying in the street. So we posed that. That guy right in the middle, Boyd Elder, got a cigarette in his mouth and his hand on his gun there. He was a guy from Texas, an artist, and he did those cow skulls that decorated the Eagles album covers. And that's J.D. Souther on the ground on the far right. And Jackson Browne is on the ground on the far left. You can hardly see half his face. He has a mustache right there.
Don't they look dead!
And then the guys behind them are roadies. The guy in the white cowboy hat is the English producer, Glyn Johns. He produced the Stones, and the Eagles. And next to him is John Hartman, their manager. And then roadies, and my partner, Gary.
MB:
That's great.
HD:
Fun days.
MB:
And that Desperado cover. I always thought this was gutsy, that you made it so dark, with everyone buried back in the shadows.
HD:
And you know, this album, that has that posse on the back with them laying dead - it was supposed to be a fold out album. Gary designed it. On the inside it was going to open up and inside would be that shootout with all of them with their guns blazing. But David Geffen said, Nah, just make it a single thing. It saved like $0.05 an album that way, you know.
MB:
Oh, and somebody did the hand lettering on the back of this album…
HD:
Yeah. My calligraphy is on the back.
I wanted to point out my partner, Gary Burden, in that picture.
See the guy with the rifle, in the white shirt on the left with the sheriff badge? That’s my graphic artist partner, Gary Burden.
We did 100 album covers, easily. I mean, Crosby, Stills & Nash on the couch, you know, The Doors - Morrison Hotel, The Eagles, in the desert. Whenever we had to shoot a group for an album cover, Gary's idea was - let’s get the group out of town, away from their managers and girlfriends and telephones and we'll go have an adventure! And he would say, “Henry, just shoot everything that happens. The film's the cheapest part!” But that's what I did anyway. You know, I just photographed everything that happened.
MB:
But this is like a big production. I mean, you've got to coordinate a bunch of people. There was wardrobe, there were props…
HD:
Well, we went out there and did a cowboy movie, and Gary made sure they all got these cowboy outfits from a Hollywood costume place, you know, And we went out there and played cowboys with blanks in the guns. They were shooting at each other, falling down. And the extra smoke coming up in the air? After a while, fire engines arrived. They thought the hills were on fire! Wow. And then that shot of them laying dead in the street - we looked at up. We looked at a book of actual 1800's photos, photos of outlaws. And they always would pose with the dead outlaws. Sometimes they'd prop them up and hold them. Sometimes they're laying in the street. So we posed that. That guy right in the middle, Boyd Elder, got a cigarette in his mouth and his hand on his gun there. He was a guy from Texas, an artist, and he did those cow skulls that decorated the Eagles album covers. And that's J.D. Souther on the ground on the far right. And Jackson Browne is on the ground on the far left. You can hardly see half his face. He has a mustache right there.
Don't they look dead!
And then the guys behind them are roadies. The guy in the white cowboy hat is the English producer, Glyn Johns. He produced the Stones, and the Eagles. And next to him is John Hartman, their manager. And then roadies, and my partner, Gary.
MB:
That's great.
HD:
Fun days.
MB:
And that Desperado cover. I always thought this was gutsy, that you made it so dark, with everyone buried back in the shadows.
HD:
And you know, this album, that has that posse on the back with them laying dead - it was supposed to be a fold out album. Gary designed it. On the inside it was going to open up and inside would be that shootout with all of them with their guns blazing. But David Geffen said, Nah, just make it a single thing. It saved like $0.05 an album that way, you know.
MB:
Oh, and somebody did the hand lettering on the back of this album…
HD:
Yeah. My calligraphy is on the back.
HD:
Then this famous album, which was an accidental album cover.
They they were recording their first album, and I knew all three of these guys before they even met each other, you know, So Gary and I said, Well, let's take some publicity photos. They had nothing even to announce in Billboard that they were recording together or that they were starting a group.
So we got in Gary's old ‘50s Ford Station wagon, drove around West Hollywood, and found that old house. And it was perfect. And, so, there's the cover, and see how it frames them so perfectly?
And Gary - the other thing he always said to me was “Back up, back up, Get the whole house!” And then he could tell that he was going to do THAT with it, you know - wrap it around the jacket. He was thinking ahead because - I wasn't thinking about an album cover. They hadn't even finished their recording yet.
MB:
Well, he wanted options, right
HD:
Yeah. Right. And so there it is. I love that one.
You know, someone asked me if I still shoot. I shoot photos all day long of things - stars and hearts and trucks, whenever I see - friends, you know. But once or twice a month, I get a job, an actual job. I went to New Orleans two months ago to photograph Spinal Tap. They're doing they're doing Spinal Tap 2, a new film. So they wanted their cover to be this - the CS&N cover. They found a couch exactly like that on the streets in the French Quarter. And we photographed them sitting right there and they filmed it all for the film of me doing the shoot. If it doesn’t hit the cutting room floor, I'll be in the movie, you know, That was fun.
And there they are. They're probably, you know, 19 or 20.
MB:
I’ve got to share - or rather you’re going to share - the story about Stephen Stills watching you perform in the Modern Folk Quartet in New York. What was it he said about you guys?
HD:
He always looked for guys to sing harmony like us, he told me years later?
MB:
You kind of exposed him to 4-part harmony. I think that's pretty cool.
HD:
When we came from Hawaii, came to L.A., immediately got with a record company, and we were touring around, but we wore suits. We were sophisticated folk music, four part harmony, you know, and we could open for jazz musicians or comedians. I think we opened for Bill Cosby. We opened for Woody Allen. And folk music was very popular. All the colleges had folk concerts. It was the music of the land, for sure. So we played a little jazz club in Greenwich Village. And Stephen was down the street in a little coffee house called a ‘basket house’ - he plays and they pass a basket and he gets a little money. But he came up and sat on the edge of our stage and he really liked our four part harmony, because most folk groups were three part harmony - Peter, Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio. But four part is very jazz, it's sophisticated, it's a quite interesting sound. And he loved the sound.
And years later, when he got a little drunk, he said “Yeah, I spent half my life trying to find guys to sing with, like you guys, he said. I finally found a couple!”
Neil Up at his ranch, That's on the Coast Highway, Malibu. This is a big football stadium.
MB:
You know, it feels like they were big stars at the time, but your photographs don't feel like they're acting like big stars.
HD:This is one of the first concerts as CSN&Y. It was a football stadium. There were no dressing rooms. They spent 2 hours on the stage while the crowd arrived. And Neil was changing the strings on his guitar, sitting at the piano. He'd just changed them.
I wanted to take a picture of him and his guitar, but I didn't want to stand up. See, I try not to be obtrusive. I didn't want to walk up to him because he was looking around. I would have blocked his view. So I got down on my knees shot up like that. With the wide angle, it was perfect.
Then this famous album, which was an accidental album cover.
They they were recording their first album, and I knew all three of these guys before they even met each other, you know, So Gary and I said, Well, let's take some publicity photos. They had nothing even to announce in Billboard that they were recording together or that they were starting a group.
So we got in Gary's old ‘50s Ford Station wagon, drove around West Hollywood, and found that old house. And it was perfect. And, so, there's the cover, and see how it frames them so perfectly?
And Gary - the other thing he always said to me was “Back up, back up, Get the whole house!” And then he could tell that he was going to do THAT with it, you know - wrap it around the jacket. He was thinking ahead because - I wasn't thinking about an album cover. They hadn't even finished their recording yet.
MB:
Well, he wanted options, right
HD:
Yeah. Right. And so there it is. I love that one.
You know, someone asked me if I still shoot. I shoot photos all day long of things - stars and hearts and trucks, whenever I see - friends, you know. But once or twice a month, I get a job, an actual job. I went to New Orleans two months ago to photograph Spinal Tap. They're doing they're doing Spinal Tap 2, a new film. So they wanted their cover to be this - the CS&N cover. They found a couch exactly like that on the streets in the French Quarter. And we photographed them sitting right there and they filmed it all for the film of me doing the shoot. If it doesn’t hit the cutting room floor, I'll be in the movie, you know, That was fun.
And there they are. They're probably, you know, 19 or 20.
MB:
I’ve got to share - or rather you’re going to share - the story about Stephen Stills watching you perform in the Modern Folk Quartet in New York. What was it he said about you guys?
HD:
He always looked for guys to sing harmony like us, he told me years later?
MB:
You kind of exposed him to 4-part harmony. I think that's pretty cool.
HD:
When we came from Hawaii, came to L.A., immediately got with a record company, and we were touring around, but we wore suits. We were sophisticated folk music, four part harmony, you know, and we could open for jazz musicians or comedians. I think we opened for Bill Cosby. We opened for Woody Allen. And folk music was very popular. All the colleges had folk concerts. It was the music of the land, for sure. So we played a little jazz club in Greenwich Village. And Stephen was down the street in a little coffee house called a ‘basket house’ - he plays and they pass a basket and he gets a little money. But he came up and sat on the edge of our stage and he really liked our four part harmony, because most folk groups were three part harmony - Peter, Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio. But four part is very jazz, it's sophisticated, it's a quite interesting sound. And he loved the sound.
And years later, when he got a little drunk, he said “Yeah, I spent half my life trying to find guys to sing with, like you guys, he said. I finally found a couple!”
Neil Up at his ranch, That's on the Coast Highway, Malibu. This is a big football stadium.
MB:
You know, it feels like they were big stars at the time, but your photographs don't feel like they're acting like big stars.
HD:This is one of the first concerts as CSN&Y. It was a football stadium. There were no dressing rooms. They spent 2 hours on the stage while the crowd arrived. And Neil was changing the strings on his guitar, sitting at the piano. He'd just changed them.
I wanted to take a picture of him and his guitar, but I didn't want to stand up. See, I try not to be obtrusive. I didn't want to walk up to him because he was looking around. I would have blocked his view. So I got down on my knees shot up like that. With the wide angle, it was perfect.
HD:
Okay. Richard Pryor.
We did an album cover of Richard Pryor, because his manager also managed the Mamas and Papas. He said, “Hey, Richard's doing his first comedy album. Go to his house and take a picture for the album cover.” So Gary and I knocked on the door in the morning and his wife answered. She said, “You go back and try to get him out of bed. He won't get up.” We walk in the bedroom, he's there. He opens one eye and said, “Just shoot the picture right here. Me in bed. That'll be the cover.” And we said, “Now come on, we have to. Do something.
And he sat up and we talked and he said, “Well, if I do anything, I want it to be something 'Roots-y'.”
I think it was before the movie. He might have read the book. And so we took these pictures. Gary said, I know an antique store where they have Aborigine weapons and jewelry. And he went and got that, and right next door to Richard’s house was a vacant lot with this little cave. And he went and became that cave man. And I said to Gary “that looks like National Geographic, my favorite magazine as a kid.” And he said, you know, I'm going to get Rick Griffin, the San Francisco artist, to draw that border.
And so, my friend Gary, in one of our videos, tells the story - we got two letters, one from the lawyers at National Geographic, threatening to sue us for defaming their famous logo. And the other letter was from the Grammys nominating us for album cover of the year. We didn't win, but we were nominated! I love that.
Now this is on the road with Keith Richards, in the sunlight, and Woody and that's their wives and girlfriends - Keith’s girlfriend, Woody's wife.
I had a friend who worked at Columbia Records, publicity and said, “We have this new band. It's like the Rolling Stones without Mick, and they're going out. Do you want to go with them for a week and take photos? So I did. And I met them, and it was a big plane like the Rolling Stones, you know, with couches and bars and all. We'd fly into a big city and then we'd land at the far side of the airport and eight limousines would pull up. And so here's his Keith, you know, he’d walk down the steps. And he found his limousine and he's just standing there waiting for Keith, because he and Keith always rode in the in the limo together. He got his bottle of Jack Daniels.
And I mean, Jack Daniels now uses this picture.
This one, Chip Monck was doing the lighting for this Bangladesh concert, and he said, “Henry, you should come to Madison Square Garden.” Again, I said, “I don't have those people. I don't have a pass.” you know? He said, “Come in the afternoon, I'll give you a crew pass and you just put your cameras under the soundboard, you know, in the wings of the stage.” And I did.
And they were kicking out anyone with a camera, so I didn't touch mine. I had a crew pass, hanging out with Chip. And then when, when this happened I just took them out, took a few shots, and put them away. Dylan and Harrison.
This is my one Led Zeppelin concert that I went to there. The ladies, love that. We printed that one life size. I have some friends who are pretty nuts for that picture.
Truman Capote. You know, my phone rang in Laurel Canyon, it’s Rolling Stone in New York, and they asked, “What are you doing today?” I said, “Oh, you know, nothing.” They said, “Would you go right to the Burbank Airport and get a flight to Palm Springs and photograph Truman Capote? We need a color portrait because we have a whole story, but no cover.”
And so I went there and as I'm knocking on the door and thinking, what am I doing knocking on Truman Capote’s door? I mean, I read his short stories in college, you know, And of course, I knew who he was. But wow! And that's when I thought, you know, being a photographer is like having a passport into people's lives. I mean, I spent 2 hours with Truman Capote at his house, you know, in the garden, leaning against statues. He was talking to me about his friend Dick Avedon and all this stuff. And then when I left, I walked out the front door to say goodbye, and he said, “Wait a minute, I have an idea.” And he ran back in and came out with that heavy coat and the scarf and a hat, and it was 105 degrees, you know, in Palm Springs. And he just stood there in the doorway like that, looking at me. And said Okay - click click - bye-bye. And that was it.
You know, very often it's the last picture you take. You know, it's funny. It works out that way.
This is my dear friend Jimmy Webb. He wrote, “By the time I get to Phoenix, she’ll be rising.” and all those great, great songs, The Highwayman, you know that song? Here is being The Highwayman. Wow.
Linda Ronstadt, when she was probably 19, I don't know, barefoot, just outside her house at Santa Monica.
We were all such good friends. Every single night at the Troubadour, just hanging out with all all of these people. David Crosby would be there and Linda would be there.
And these guys came on the scene from England, but they're American. America, as a matter of fact, is their name.
So we were in Hawaii and we’d eaten some mushrooms, you know, some psychedelic mushrooms, and we were walking on the beach taking pictures. And Dewey, as he always does, reached down - he always picks up a snake or a lizard - he picked up a toad and he was holding a toad up like this. And I said, “Hold the toad down”, so I could see his face. And we all cracked up. You know, the idea of holding the toad down - it was so funny. That's the ‘hold the toad down’ picture.
And there's a cover. Well, that's the first America cover I did.
MB:
And you did a bunch.
HD:
I did five or seven covers for America.
MB:
They’re good friends, right?
HD:
The guy on the right, Dewey, and the guy in the middle, Gerry Beckley. Gerry is one of my best friends. He sends me a picture every day from Australia. He takes a walk in the morning down by the bay. Seagulls or people. Surfers. He sends me pictures every day. When he was on the road - he’s not on the road now, they took time off - he had a thing where he had about 80 people he would send these pictures to. He would walk into his room on the road, whatever hotel room, walk right to the window and take a picture out the window. And that was the picture. Sometimes it was the roof next door. Sometimes it was the ocean, sometimes it was a parking lot. But that was it. What was it called? Click Here to Cancel, was the name of it, and he would send that out. So we do that back and forth.
Here's Debbie Harry. I mean, the way these things happen, they're not jobs so much as…
MB:
You're just there. Right?
HD:
I was driving in my Volkswagen down Sunset with a friend and he said, “Hey, pull into that next motel. Some friends of mine from New York are staying in there.” We pulled in. He knocks on the door and it's it's Debbie Harry and Blondie. And they walked out and we started talking in the parking lot and you can see her key tucked into her waist there. That's her motel room key. And she saw my camera and she just went like that. And I went CLICK and that was it, you know? I think we do group shot as well, but I love that one.
And you know? I started this new thing of co-signed prints. We got Keith Richards to sign 20 of them. Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, Graham Nash, America. We're getting a bunch of people. And she said she would it. But she said, but aren't you going to crop the picture? Maybe she doesn't like her bellybutton, but if you crop it and then you don't see the key.
How can you crop that, it's already too tight. That's the way I like to frame. That's the frame. You know? You don’t frame it later. You do it right there. That's the fun. That's the fun of it, right?
MB:
It’s the moment.
HD:
This was a cover of Rolling Stone as well. This probably was first and then Truman. Same thing. Phone rings. “What are you doing today? Could you go down to go down to Motown Records? The Jackson Five are opening fan mail and stuff? Take a picture of Michael.”
He was a very shy little boy, but he sure sang like an angel. Oh, my gosh. You know, he just had a heavenly - an angelic - voice. I remember I went to a blind children's school for a magazine to shoot pictures of the Jackson Five who were doing a concert. It was a room like this. And all the kids were sitting on the floor. And the stage was about, you know, a foot off the ground. And I was sitting cross-legged in the front row shooting, and his voice - it just makes tears come out of your eyes, you know? It was so beautiful. So we took that picture, hardly talked to him, really.
You know, his brothers were musicians. They would laugh and talk and tell stories and all. But he was very quiet, and they were over on the other side of the room, opening the mail and laughing.
MB:
It's just such a great connection.
Okay. Richard Pryor.
We did an album cover of Richard Pryor, because his manager also managed the Mamas and Papas. He said, “Hey, Richard's doing his first comedy album. Go to his house and take a picture for the album cover.” So Gary and I knocked on the door in the morning and his wife answered. She said, “You go back and try to get him out of bed. He won't get up.” We walk in the bedroom, he's there. He opens one eye and said, “Just shoot the picture right here. Me in bed. That'll be the cover.” And we said, “Now come on, we have to. Do something.
And he sat up and we talked and he said, “Well, if I do anything, I want it to be something 'Roots-y'.”
I think it was before the movie. He might have read the book. And so we took these pictures. Gary said, I know an antique store where they have Aborigine weapons and jewelry. And he went and got that, and right next door to Richard’s house was a vacant lot with this little cave. And he went and became that cave man. And I said to Gary “that looks like National Geographic, my favorite magazine as a kid.” And he said, you know, I'm going to get Rick Griffin, the San Francisco artist, to draw that border.
And so, my friend Gary, in one of our videos, tells the story - we got two letters, one from the lawyers at National Geographic, threatening to sue us for defaming their famous logo. And the other letter was from the Grammys nominating us for album cover of the year. We didn't win, but we were nominated! I love that.
Now this is on the road with Keith Richards, in the sunlight, and Woody and that's their wives and girlfriends - Keith’s girlfriend, Woody's wife.
I had a friend who worked at Columbia Records, publicity and said, “We have this new band. It's like the Rolling Stones without Mick, and they're going out. Do you want to go with them for a week and take photos? So I did. And I met them, and it was a big plane like the Rolling Stones, you know, with couches and bars and all. We'd fly into a big city and then we'd land at the far side of the airport and eight limousines would pull up. And so here's his Keith, you know, he’d walk down the steps. And he found his limousine and he's just standing there waiting for Keith, because he and Keith always rode in the in the limo together. He got his bottle of Jack Daniels.
And I mean, Jack Daniels now uses this picture.
This one, Chip Monck was doing the lighting for this Bangladesh concert, and he said, “Henry, you should come to Madison Square Garden.” Again, I said, “I don't have those people. I don't have a pass.” you know? He said, “Come in the afternoon, I'll give you a crew pass and you just put your cameras under the soundboard, you know, in the wings of the stage.” And I did.
And they were kicking out anyone with a camera, so I didn't touch mine. I had a crew pass, hanging out with Chip. And then when, when this happened I just took them out, took a few shots, and put them away. Dylan and Harrison.
This is my one Led Zeppelin concert that I went to there. The ladies, love that. We printed that one life size. I have some friends who are pretty nuts for that picture.
Truman Capote. You know, my phone rang in Laurel Canyon, it’s Rolling Stone in New York, and they asked, “What are you doing today?” I said, “Oh, you know, nothing.” They said, “Would you go right to the Burbank Airport and get a flight to Palm Springs and photograph Truman Capote? We need a color portrait because we have a whole story, but no cover.”
And so I went there and as I'm knocking on the door and thinking, what am I doing knocking on Truman Capote’s door? I mean, I read his short stories in college, you know, And of course, I knew who he was. But wow! And that's when I thought, you know, being a photographer is like having a passport into people's lives. I mean, I spent 2 hours with Truman Capote at his house, you know, in the garden, leaning against statues. He was talking to me about his friend Dick Avedon and all this stuff. And then when I left, I walked out the front door to say goodbye, and he said, “Wait a minute, I have an idea.” And he ran back in and came out with that heavy coat and the scarf and a hat, and it was 105 degrees, you know, in Palm Springs. And he just stood there in the doorway like that, looking at me. And said Okay - click click - bye-bye. And that was it.
You know, very often it's the last picture you take. You know, it's funny. It works out that way.
This is my dear friend Jimmy Webb. He wrote, “By the time I get to Phoenix, she’ll be rising.” and all those great, great songs, The Highwayman, you know that song? Here is being The Highwayman. Wow.
Linda Ronstadt, when she was probably 19, I don't know, barefoot, just outside her house at Santa Monica.
We were all such good friends. Every single night at the Troubadour, just hanging out with all all of these people. David Crosby would be there and Linda would be there.
And these guys came on the scene from England, but they're American. America, as a matter of fact, is their name.
So we were in Hawaii and we’d eaten some mushrooms, you know, some psychedelic mushrooms, and we were walking on the beach taking pictures. And Dewey, as he always does, reached down - he always picks up a snake or a lizard - he picked up a toad and he was holding a toad up like this. And I said, “Hold the toad down”, so I could see his face. And we all cracked up. You know, the idea of holding the toad down - it was so funny. That's the ‘hold the toad down’ picture.
And there's a cover. Well, that's the first America cover I did.
MB:
And you did a bunch.
HD:
I did five or seven covers for America.
MB:
They’re good friends, right?
HD:
The guy on the right, Dewey, and the guy in the middle, Gerry Beckley. Gerry is one of my best friends. He sends me a picture every day from Australia. He takes a walk in the morning down by the bay. Seagulls or people. Surfers. He sends me pictures every day. When he was on the road - he’s not on the road now, they took time off - he had a thing where he had about 80 people he would send these pictures to. He would walk into his room on the road, whatever hotel room, walk right to the window and take a picture out the window. And that was the picture. Sometimes it was the roof next door. Sometimes it was the ocean, sometimes it was a parking lot. But that was it. What was it called? Click Here to Cancel, was the name of it, and he would send that out. So we do that back and forth.
Here's Debbie Harry. I mean, the way these things happen, they're not jobs so much as…
MB:
You're just there. Right?
HD:
I was driving in my Volkswagen down Sunset with a friend and he said, “Hey, pull into that next motel. Some friends of mine from New York are staying in there.” We pulled in. He knocks on the door and it's it's Debbie Harry and Blondie. And they walked out and we started talking in the parking lot and you can see her key tucked into her waist there. That's her motel room key. And she saw my camera and she just went like that. And I went CLICK and that was it, you know? I think we do group shot as well, but I love that one.
And you know? I started this new thing of co-signed prints. We got Keith Richards to sign 20 of them. Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, Graham Nash, America. We're getting a bunch of people. And she said she would it. But she said, but aren't you going to crop the picture? Maybe she doesn't like her bellybutton, but if you crop it and then you don't see the key.
How can you crop that, it's already too tight. That's the way I like to frame. That's the frame. You know? You don’t frame it later. You do it right there. That's the fun. That's the fun of it, right?
MB:
It’s the moment.
HD:
This was a cover of Rolling Stone as well. This probably was first and then Truman. Same thing. Phone rings. “What are you doing today? Could you go down to go down to Motown Records? The Jackson Five are opening fan mail and stuff? Take a picture of Michael.”
He was a very shy little boy, but he sure sang like an angel. Oh, my gosh. You know, he just had a heavenly - an angelic - voice. I remember I went to a blind children's school for a magazine to shoot pictures of the Jackson Five who were doing a concert. It was a room like this. And all the kids were sitting on the floor. And the stage was about, you know, a foot off the ground. And I was sitting cross-legged in the front row shooting, and his voice - it just makes tears come out of your eyes, you know? It was so beautiful. So we took that picture, hardly talked to him, really.
You know, his brothers were musicians. They would laugh and talk and tell stories and all. But he was very quiet, and they were over on the other side of the room, opening the mail and laughing.
MB:
It's just such a great connection.
HD:
Paul McCartney.
I met Linda Eastman as a fellow photographer in a photo lab in New York, and we got to be friends. And a year later, I was surprised to see she married Paul McCartney. And so here we are. She wanted me to come out to their house in Malibu and shoot some pictures of the two of them. She became his photographer. She did all the shots of Paul, but they needed a shot of the two of them.
There’s an early selfie there.
And so we took this picture and then of course, this was film, I hadn't seen it yet. You know, I shot about eight rolls of film. And then Linda said of the end of the day, “Now can you bring these back early in the morning? Because we want to pick one out for the cover of Life Magazine?”
“What?”
That was the Holy Grail for photographers. And I said, "Okay!" I got it done overnight. It was before FedEx, before scanning and emailing - before any of that. And so the lady from Life magazine was sitting on the couch in the living room. They looked at these in the kitchen, looked at all the pictures on a light board, picked out that one, gave it to her. She put it in her purse, drove to LAX, flew to New York, and they put it on the cover.
And they already had a picture of the Beatles in color. And these guys said, well, you know, it's just us, not the Beatles, it's us. So fair enough. But there wasn't time to print it in color. I guess it just got there at the last minute. So they did it in black and white.
That's my accidental LIFE cover.
Paul McCartney.
I met Linda Eastman as a fellow photographer in a photo lab in New York, and we got to be friends. And a year later, I was surprised to see she married Paul McCartney. And so here we are. She wanted me to come out to their house in Malibu and shoot some pictures of the two of them. She became his photographer. She did all the shots of Paul, but they needed a shot of the two of them.
There’s an early selfie there.
And so we took this picture and then of course, this was film, I hadn't seen it yet. You know, I shot about eight rolls of film. And then Linda said of the end of the day, “Now can you bring these back early in the morning? Because we want to pick one out for the cover of Life Magazine?”
“What?”
That was the Holy Grail for photographers. And I said, "Okay!" I got it done overnight. It was before FedEx, before scanning and emailing - before any of that. And so the lady from Life magazine was sitting on the couch in the living room. They looked at these in the kitchen, looked at all the pictures on a light board, picked out that one, gave it to her. She put it in her purse, drove to LAX, flew to New York, and they put it on the cover.
And they already had a picture of the Beatles in color. And these guys said, well, you know, it's just us, not the Beatles, it's us. So fair enough. But there wasn't time to print it in color. I guess it just got there at the last minute. So they did it in black and white.
That's my accidental LIFE cover.