Cover photo: Hendrix and Joplin shot at backstage in San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in 1968.
Photographer Baron Wolman, who took some of the earliest and most iconic images of rock & rollers during his stint as Rolling Stone’s first staff photographer, died Monday night at age 83. Wolman’s rep, Dianne Duenzl, confirmed the photographer’s death to Rolling Stone. Wolman had recently been diagnosed with ALS, the nervous-system disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.(Rolling Stone)
It is with a sad heart that we announce the passing of Baron Wolman on November 2, 2020,” Duenzl said in a statement. “Baron died peacefully at the age of 83, after a battle with ALS. Baron’s pictures gave us a rare, comprehensive, and accurate reflection of that time executed by a gifted artist whose visual intelligence is unsurpassed.”
“Sad to say I’m now in the final sprint to the end,” Wolman wrote on Facebook on October 4th. “I go forward with a huge amount of gratitude for the many blessings bestowed upon me (family, friends, travels and more), with no regrets and appreciation for how my photographs — my life’s work — have been received.”
During his three years at Rolling Stone, between 1967 and 1970, Wolman caught the rise of rock & roll as few had during the time: an open-mouthed Jimi Hendrix attacking his guitar at the Fillmore West (a “money shot,” Wolman called it), Janis Joplin relaxing at home with her cat, Smokey Robinson adjusting the do-rag he wore before shows to keep his hair in place, Grace Slick ironically wearing a Girl Scout uniform, Frank Zappa sitting atop a tractor at a construction site, and Jerry Garcia flashing his missing, chopped-off finger for the first time publicly.
