An American Beauty: Grateful Dead 1965–1995 Published by David Kordansky Gallery.
Text by Stuart Krimko, Blair Jackson. Commemorating three key decades of the Dead cultural phenomenon through 275 photographs taken by prominent rock photographers This photo album contains 275 photographs of the iconic psychedelic rock band, taken by notable Grateful Dead photographers—Jay Blakesberg, Adrian Boot, Snooky Flowers, Greg Gaar, Andy Leonard, Rosie McGee, Ron Rakow, Jonathan David Sabin, Elizabeth Sunflower and Kirk West—who documented the Dead phenomenon from its early days at the peak of the Haight-Ashbury hippie renaissance through its rise as a stadium-filling, Top 10 cultural force. While portraits and performance images of the band became iconic symbols of the group’s visual identity, equally important are images of the Deadhead community itself.
An American Beauty provides many windows into the core of the Grateful Dead experience. Blakesberg’s photos of ecstatic Deadhead audiences resonate with contemporary trends in music, fashion and art, underscoring the Grateful Dead’s lasting impact on generations of artists and cultural thinkers. Together, the images in this volume offer a sweeping view of an influential segment of American cultural production during pivotal decades of political, social and creative transformation. They tap into many of the band’s major milestones, including the Wall of Sound, Egypt and celebratory moments such as their annual New Year’s Eve runs in the Bay Area.
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