Robert Altman photograph archive, bulk approximately 1965-1990

Summary

Creators:

Altman, Robert, 1944-

Abstract:

The Robert Altman photograph archive contains photographs Altman took, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area but also in New York, Washington D.C., and elsewhere, beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1980s. The collection includes photographs of prominent musicians and bands, many of them taken for Rolling Stone magazine; counterculture events, gatherings, and people; anti-war demonstrations; the burgeoning environmental movement; spiritual leaders; and other political and cultural figures.

Extent:

40,000 photographs (39 boxes and 2 oversize folders, comprising: 1400 rolls of 35mm negatives in 26 boxes; 1200 contact sheets in 4 boxes; 800 photographic prints in 6 boxes and 1 oversize folder; 300 slides in 1 box; photocopies of original annotated negative sleeves in 1 box; and tearsheets, publications, and ephemera in 1 box)

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Robert Altman photograph archive, BANC PIC 2018.014, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Background

Scope and content:

The Robert Altman photograph archive contains negatives, contact sheets, photographic prints (chiefly black and white, a small number in color), and slides. Altman took photographs of prominent folk, rock, R&B, and blues musicians, chiefly in the late 1960s and early 1970s performing, backstage, in the recording studio, and posing for portraits. Among the musicians and bands he photographed are: Joan Baez; the Beach Boys; Ray Charles; Eric Clapton; Joe Cocker; Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen; Country Joe and the Fish; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; Delanie and Bonnie; Bo Diddley; the Doors; Mama Cass Eliot; Mimi Fariña; the Flamin' Groovies; the Flying Burrito Brothers; Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead; Arlo Guthrie; George Harrison; It's A Beautiful Day; Jefferson Airplane; Elton John; Janis Joplin; Lamb; Joni Mitchell; Dorothy Morrison; Paul Morrissey; Mott the Hoople; Mountain; New Riders of the Purple Sage; Laura Nyro; Gram Parsons; Pentangle; Iggy Pop; the Rolling Stones (including a recording session for their album Let It Bleed); Santana; Ravi Shankar; Taj Mahal; Tina Turner; the Who; Johnny Winter; and Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Altman took photographs at festivals including the Monterey Folk Festival, Gold Rush in Stockton, California, and the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, and at Bay Area venues including Family Dog on the Great Highway, the Winterland Ballroom, the Oakland Coliseum, the San Francisco Civic Auditorium, the Avalon Ballroom, and the Berkeley Community Theater.

Altman also took photographs of counterculture gatherings, events, and figures. He captured hippie gatherings in Golden Gate Park and Dolores Park in San Francisco, on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, and at other locations. He photographed the residents of Wheeler's Ranch, a commune in Northern California, and he photographed Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsburg, Dennis Hopper, Ken Kesey and members of the Merry Pranksters (including on the set of Kesey's 1971 film "Atlantis Rising"), Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory, and other prominent figures of the era. There are a large number of photographs of demonstrations against the Vietnam War and the draft in New York City, Washington, D.C., and the Bay Area. The collection also includes photographs of events surrounding People's Park in Berkeley and of Paul Krassner and Youth International Party (Yippie) exploits at Grand Central Station, Disneyland and elsewhere. There are photographs of burgeoning environmental movements including pre-Earth Day events at People's Park, the Boulder Earth Fair in Colorado, the Survival Faire in San Jose, the Whole Earth Fair in Davis, California, and Smog Free Locomotion Day in Provo Park, Berkeley. There are also photographs of gay pride events from the early 1970s. Altman photographed prominent spiritual leaders including Swami Satchidananda, Ram Dass, Steve Gaskin and his Monday Night Class, Shlomo Carlebach, and Yogi Bhajan, among others. Altman took photographs of labor actions and activists, including of Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong, and he took pictures of the San Francisco State University strike of 1968-69. His later work includes photographs of actors, writers, and politicians at events such as the Bammies Awards and the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

The collection also includes tearsheets and ephemera related to Altman's photography and web design work.

Biographical / historical:

Robert Altman (October 10, 1944 – September 24, 2021) was an American photographer known for his work with Rolling Stone Magazine and for his documentation of rock and roll in the late 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hunter College at the City University of New York and referenced photographic training from Ansel Adams (see the biography in his 2007 book "The Sixties", published by Santa Monica Press). Beginning in 1967, Altman took photographs, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, but also in New York City, Washington D.C., and elsewhere, of musicians, writers, counterculture gatherings, festivals and fairs, spiritual leaders, anti-war protests, the burgeoning environmental movement, and labor actions. From 1969 to 1971, he was chief staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. Altman later worked as a producer at KEMO television station and he maintained a commercial photography studio in San Francisco from 1975-2000. An early adopter of digital photography, he taught web design and related topics at San Francisco State University and University of California Extension from 1995 to 2005. His photographs have appeared on the covers of prominent publications and are in the collections of The San Francisco Public Library, The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian Institution, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in addition to his archive at U.C. Berkeley's Bancroft Library.

Acquisition information:

The Robert Altman photograph archive was purchased by The Bancroft Library from Robert Altman between November 2017 and May 2019.

Processing information:

Processed by Isabel Breskin with James Eason in 2023-2024.

Physical location:

Many Bancroft Library collections are stored off-site and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.

Physical facet:

: chiefly black and white

Dimensions:

; film width chiefly 35mm, prints chiefly 8 x 10 in.

Rules or conventions:

DACS

Related resources

Other descriptive data:

All titles in the finding aid are devised from Altman's notes, identifiable people in the images, and/or identifiable locations or events. Spelling errors in Altman's notes (for instance Alan Ginsburg for Allen Ginsberg) have been corrected, and, when he refers to himself, "me" has been changed to "Altman".

Altman's terminology for events can be variable and inconsistent. He used the term "Be In" for at least two gatherings in 1969 in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Neither of these events is the well-known Be In that occurred in 1967 during the Summer of Love. Rather, Altman seems to use "be in" as a general term for this kind of gathering. Similarly, he uses the word "Moratorium" to refer to several anti-war protests, and not only to the two national events that took place in 1969. While some effort has been made to regularize and correct the names Altman gave to events, many discrepancies and inconsistencies persist and researchers seeking photographs of specific events should search using various possible terms.

The dates and subjects Altman has provided can be inaccurate. For instance, he refers to the 1970 Big Sur Folk Festival as the Monterey Folk Festival (it was held at the Monterey Fairgrounds that year) and the Monterey Pop Festival (which was actually held in 1967). He ascribes dates for the photographs of the 1970 festival to August, September and October of that year when it actually occurred in October. In another example, Altman has given the images of Laura Nyro on roll 913 three different dates and three different locations on the prints, negatives, and contact sheets. Some attempt has been made to clarify inaccurate information but researchers should be aware that library staff have not attempted to catch and correct all errors and that names, dates, and locations should be confirmed.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Rock musicians -- Photographs
Rock groups -- Photographs
Musical groups -- Photographs
Counterculture
Hippies -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area

Names:

Altman, Robert, 1944-

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Negatives are available by appointment only. Advance notice required for use.

Some files have been restricted and sealed due to third party privacy concerns. These are noted at the file level within this finding aid.

Duplication requests require curatorial review and approval due to third party privacy concerns. Of particular concern are images of nudity in private intimate contexts.

Terms of access:

Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Copyright for material created by Robert Altman has been assigned to the University of California Regents, managed by The Bancroft Library. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For additional information about the University of California, Berkeley Library's permissions policy please see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies

Robert Altman's copyright to the photographs in this collection has been assigned to the University of California Regents. The Regents are unable to reproduce or license works at this time (2023-2024) due to contractual limitations. Please contact Getty Images directly for reproduction or licensing.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Robert Altman photograph archive, BANC PIC 2018.014, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

Website