| March 14th, 2005 09:56 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Photographer has 'proof' of legends
This famous shot of rock legend Jimi Hendrix in his Sgt. Pepper jacket by photographer Jim Marshall was actually taken at the sound check prior to his legendary performance at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival. The deteriorating 'proof' sheet (below) shows the shot marked in yellow.
Proof
Jim Marshall
Chronicle Books
$56 (Hardcover)
**** (out of five)
Proof is a great idea for a book. Jim Marshall's four-decade plus career as a photographer has produced some iconic images - Jimi Hendrix and his guitar at the Monterey Pop Festival, eyes closed, hand arcing gracefully; Janis Joplin crushed by fatigue in dim backstage light, cradling a bottle of Southern Comfort; Johnny Cash giving the camera a furious finger. Proof is a chance to see just how those images were born, by placing them in the context of the seconds, minutes, or hours preceding them.
Very simply, Marshall pulled out the contact or "proof sheets" of his images - 8x10 sheets on which a roll of film is laid out flat and exposed in sequence - and placed them on a page opposite the finished image, the proof sheet covered in wax marker and pen scribblings, frayed and torn from years of handling. The famous Hendrix shot arrives at the end of a rapid series of shots, while other great shots, like Johnny Cash looking solemn and anxious behind the gates of Folsom Prison, is a solitary moment in the middle of a job.
Of course, the dawn of digital photography means that artifacts like Marshall's proofs are already curiosities - relics of another age, like huge glass plate negatives or daguerreotypes, which will need to be carefully explained to future generations.
Rick McGinnis/Metro Toronto
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