In this engaging document of the times, award-winning photographer and documentary filmmaker Lisa Law uses 28 interviews with 1960s 'icons' to expand and explain the marching orders for a whole generation: 'make love not war,' 'tune in, turn on, drop out,' 'Question Authority.' Perhaps as much as anything,
Interviews with Icons serves as a direct rebuttal to the revisionists of recent years who debate the relevance and legacy of the '60s and challenge the efficacy of the counterculture and the 'revolution' which it advocated and idealistically pursued. It would seem, now, looking back, that time, science, and history have substantiated the '60s advocates' claims. In almost every interview there is mention of ecology and expansion of consciousness; as Paul Krassner says, 'Sex, drugs and rock & roll were only the visible signs of what was basically a spiritual revolution', or as Lenny Bruce said: 'People are leaving the Church and going back to God.' The 'We' generation's representatives reminisce on everything from communes to the bomb, from Native Americans to LSD, from the death of JFK to the death of rock & roll- all singing the epoch's praises to the melodies of its songs while 'flying their freak flag high.' These through-lines, and the expanded soulful remembrances that support them, serve as a mirror held up to the era and its participants who witnessed the coming together of evolutionary and revolutionary forces. 'A social epiphany,' as Ginsberg calls it. Or, as Ram Dass says, 'It was a time when we realized that process and product were the same thing, and that Love is a stronger power than fear. We were looking at the world with fresh-washed eyes.'
Collected here are not only philosophical musings, but some great personal stories such as Dennis Hopper's telling of Dylan's writing 'The Ballad of Easy Rider,' or Viet Nam vet Craig Preston's account of his homeless life in Golden Gate Park. The book not only contains a gala of famous names (Leary, Fonda, Ginsberg, Taj Mahal...), but also chronicles many of the behind-the-scenes characters and movers-and -shakers from the flowerpower years (Mountain Girl, Jahanara Romney, Viola Spolin, Ron Thelin, Rick Klein...) who have equally integral stories
Lisa Law s career as a photographer began in the early Sixties. With her new Honeywell Pentax camera in hand and working as an assistant to The Kingston Trio manager Frank Werber, Lisa captured the genesis of a new era. Backstage with The Beatles, Peter, Paul & Mary, The We Five, Otis Redding, The Lovin Spoonful, The Velvet Underground, and The Byrds; taking promotional photographs of Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company; at home making dinner for house guests like Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Nico and Barry McGuire; and helping feed hundreds of thousands at Woodstock with the Hog Farm Commune at the free kitchen, her passion for photography grew into a profession. In the mid-Sixties Lisa lived in San Francisco and captured the life of the flower children in Haight-Ashbury. She carried her new Nikon camera wherever she went, documenting the Human Be-In, spotlighting Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and the Grateful Dead, and the anti-Vietnam march in San Francisco, Monterey Pop Festival, and meetings with the Diggers. She then joined those who migrated to the communes of New Mexico in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Wavy Gravy, and Ram Dass use her photographs consistently today. Since that time, Lisa has specialized in documenting history as she has experienced it on a daily basis. As a writer, photographer and social activist and mother of four and grandmother of five, her work reveals distinctive communities of people. She uses her camera as a powerful tool to champion the rights of indigenous nations, bringing to a wide audience riveting insights into their cultures just as she did during the social revolution of the Sixties. As a photographer and documentarian, Lisa's perspective is rare and unique. From the reservations of Arizona and New Mexico to up front with the Barack Obama Campaign, she is welcomed as a friend and participant, thus allowing her images to reflect a sense of intimacy and spontaneity rarely seen by outsiders. Lisa s work can be seen at the Smithsonian and the Bethel Woods Woodstock Museum and many galleries throughout the United States and Europe. She created the Museum of the Sixties in Santa Fe at the El Museo Cultural for 7 months in the winter of 2016 and some 8,000 people enjoyed her work and that of other artists she has collected. It was a destination point for people from all over the world. Lisa lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico--whenever she isn't travalling and capturing images and words essential to the growth of the human spirit.
