Elaine Mayes: The Haight-Ashbury Portraits 1967–1968
Edited with text by Kevin Moore.
Everyday life on the Haight: previously unseen portraits from the hippie epicenter by the acclaimed documentarian
Elaine Mayes (born 1936) was a young photographer living in San Francisco’s lively Haight-Ashbury District during the 1960s. She had photographed the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and, later that year, during the waning days of the Summer of Love, embarked on a set of portraits of youth culture in her neighborhood. By that time, the hippie movement had turned from euphoria to harder drugs, and the Haight had become less of a blissed-out haven for young people seeking a better way of life than a halfway house for runaway teens. Realizing the gravity of the cultural moment, Mayes shifted from the photojournalistic approach she had applied to musicians and concert-goers in Monterey to making formal portraits of people she met on the street. Choosing casual, familiar settings such as stoops, doorways, parks and interiors, Mayes instructed her subjects to look into her square-format camera, to concentrate and be still: she made her exposures as they exhaled. Mayes’ familiarity with her subjects helped her to evade mediatized stereotypes of hippies, presenting instead an understated and unsentimental group portrait of the individual inventors of a fleeting cultural moment. Elaine Mayes: The Haight-Ashbury Portraits 1967–1968 is the first monograph on one of the decade’s most important bodies of work, presenting more than 40 images from Mayes’ series. An essay by art historian Kevin Moore elaborates an important chapter in the history of West Coast photography.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Photograph
Vince Aletti
It’s not a slight to call these great fashion photographs: Mayes enjoys every detail of her sitters’ hippie/boho looks, and that pleasure – along with genuine concern about where these kids are heading – suffuses the work.
Esquire
Bill Shapiro
More than half a century old, these are the freshest photos of the ‘60s you’ve likely seen, because while Mayes, whose work is held in MoMA, The Met, and The Getty, delivers the wild fashions and explosive hairstyles, she also zeros in on something that pierces the human heart.
KQED
Rae Alexandra
Mayes catches the individuals at the center of a whirlwind in quiet, contemplative repose, after the music, the party, the protest has stopped. The aura of the time is captured in the small details — peace signs hanging around necks, messages scrawled on walls about love and war and religion.
i-D
Sara Rosen
Rather than follow the story-driven approach of photojournalism, she began making documentary portraits of the people she encountered on the street with the same curiosity, tenderness, intimacy, and respect that Diane Arbus brought to street portraiture.
ICP
Vince Aletti
A reflection of boho idealism and optimism against all odds.
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Saturday, January 21 at 3 PM, Deborah Bell Photographs presents a conversation with photographer Elaine Mayes and editor Kevin Moore about the exhibition and Damiani publication, The Haight-Ashbury Portraits 1967–1968. Reception and book signing to follow. continue to blog
Thursday, November 17, from 6–8 PM, Deborah Bell, Fotofocus and Damiani Books invite you to join photographer Elaine Mayes for the launch and signing her new monograph, The Haight-Ashbury Portraits 1967–1968, published to coincide with the exhibition opening that night at the gallery. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11 in. / 96 pgs / 50 duotone. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $69 ISBN: 9788862087735 PUBLISHER: Damiani AVAILABLE: 11/8/2022 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Elaine Mayes: The Haight-Ashbury Portraits 1967–1968
Published by Damiani. Edited with text by Kevin Moore.
Everyday life on the Haight: previously unseen portraits from the hippie epicenter by the acclaimed documentarian
Elaine Mayes (born 1936) was a young photographer living in San Francisco’s lively Haight-Ashbury District during the 1960s. She had photographed the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and, later that year, during the waning days of the Summer of Love, embarked on a set of portraits of youth culture in her neighborhood. By that time, the hippie movement had turned from euphoria to harder drugs, and the Haight had become less of a blissed-out haven for young people seeking a better way of life than a halfway house for runaway teens.
Realizing the gravity of the cultural moment, Mayes shifted from the photojournalistic approach she had applied to musicians and concert-goers in Monterey to making formal portraits of people she met on the street. Choosing casual, familiar settings such as stoops, doorways, parks and interiors, Mayes instructed her subjects to look into her square-format camera, to concentrate and be still: she made her exposures as they exhaled. Mayes’ familiarity with her subjects helped her to evade mediatized stereotypes of hippies, presenting instead an understated and unsentimental group portrait of the individual inventors of a fleeting cultural moment.
Elaine Mayes: The Haight-Ashbury Portraits 1967–1968 is the first monograph on one of the decade’s most important bodies of work, presenting more than 40 images from Mayes’ series. An essay by art historian Kevin Moore elaborates an important chapter in the history of West Coast photography.
