Baron Wolman: Rolling Stone Magazine 50 years Down The Line

In conjunction with Rolling Stone Magazine's 50th Anniversary, Gallery 270 is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Baron Wolman, its first chief photographer, responsible for 21 covers over 3 years, establishing photography as the legendary magazine's graphic centerpiece from the outset. With a solid reputation already established by work at the leading photography magazines Life and Look, the 30 year old photojournalist luckily lived in the city at the center of  the music culture that captivated the world in the late sixties, San Francisco. His neighbors were Janis Joplin and Big Brother, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. He had their trust since he was "one of the tribe." Wolman's faithful lens recorded early studies of a who's who of future rock, folk and pop royalty Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Phil Spector, Frank Zappa, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jim Morrison, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ike and Tina Turner, Iggy Pop and many more. In his breakneck three year tenure at Rolling Stone Magazine, rock and roll changed and became big business.

The best photographs go further than just showing the literal. Baron's photographs still have such power and magic nearly a half century after they were taken, because they document a very special and innocent time in rock and roll history when a photographers intimacy with his subject was the compelling factor. Listen to John Burks, former Rolling Stone Magazine managing editor and currently professor of journalism at San Francisco State University: “The only way for Baron to do the work he did, so close to the performers, so lyrical and intimate, was through access,” confirms Burks, noting that today’s rock stars are so packaged, so protected, and so image-conscious that the kind of off-hand directness featured in those early issues of Rolling Stone shots no longer exists.

Baron's work is exhibited and shown worldwide and his photographs are in public and private collections from Mexico City to Tokyo. He has published books not only on rock and roll, but in aerial photography, fashion and sports.  Limited quantities of many of Baron's coveted and sold out special edition books are being made available for sale from the artist 's private remaining stock and will be personalized on request. We'll  have just twenty copies of Baron's long sold out book Every Picture Tells A Story...The Rolling Stone Years accompanied by one of six iconic signed 8x10 prints at $150!