Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
 Peter Simon is a nationally acclaimed photographer. In his latest work, "I
 and Eye: Pictures of My Generation," Peter offers a wide-ranging pictorial
 meditation on his own life, as mirrored in photos of love-ins and sit-ins,
 communes and nude beaches, "New Age" and reggae culture, The Grateful Dead
 and the New York Mets.
 
 Peter has lived on Martha's Vineyard since 1973. He's a contributing
 photographer for the Vineyard Gazette and the Martha's Vineyard Times. "I
 and Eye" is his ninth book. They include two books on Martha's Vineyard ("On
 the Vineyard" and "On the Vineyard II"); one on his sister, "Carly Simon
 Complete"; an exploration of "Reggae Bloodlines"; and a retrospective on the
 Mets ("The New York Mets: 25 Years of Baseball Magic").
 
 His photos have been shown in numerous galleries on the East Coast. He's
 also been published in many newspapers and magazines, including Time,
 Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly and Rolling Stone.
 
 Leading the discussion with Peter is Gary Lambert, who says "I was 
 immediately drawn to Peter's book for a lot of reasons. At times I
 got the eerie feeling that I was reading my own life story rather than
 someone else's. Not all the details of our stories are alike, of course
 -- for one thing, I grew up without famous singing sisters. But we
 certainly seem to have traveled a lot of the same roads, and shared a
 lot of the same consuming passions -- for music, baseball and radical
 politics, to name a few. We both found ourselves rather intimately
 entangled with the world of the Grateful Dead (an entanglement that
 continues to this day for me); we both found ourselves in the thick of
 the political and social upheaval of the 60s (I just might be somewhere
 in that remarkable photo of the enormous throng in front of the
 Washington Monument on pages 24 and 25!); and we both seem, thankfully,
 to have come through it all mostly intact. I look forward to our
 conversation!"

 Please join me in welcoming Peter and Gary to inkwell.vue!
  

    
Thanks, Linda!

And hello, Peter!  Now, before we start, there's one thing I think I
should tell you...

I am a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees.

Can we still get along? I fervently hope so! (For what it's worth, I
love those Metsies, too!)

And now that we've gotten that out of the way...

Allow me to congratulate you on your wonderful book... well, actually,
"I and Eye" is, in a way, several wonderful books at once -- a
gorgeous collection of your photgraphic work, covering an extraordinary
range of subjects, but also an affecting personal memoir of growing up
in a remarkable family, falling in love with baseball, rock 'n' roll
and reggae, getting embroiled in the tumult of 60s radical politics,
and then joining in back-to-the-garden communal movement that was, in
part, a reaction to that tumult. And in its final chapters, the book
brings us up to date, with reflections on life as a husband and father
in your longtime home, Martha's Vineyard, and your first-hand
observations of the cross-generational chaos of Woodstock '99.

Photojournalism, nature photography, stories from the rock 'n' roll
trenches, tales of the Movement -- it's a hugely ambitious project, and
one that could have easily wound up a hopeless hodgepodge in lesser
hands.  But it all coheres into a remarkably satisfying whole.  I think
a good place to start the questioning is: how long did this big,
beautiful baby gestate in your head, and how difficult was the birthing
process?
  

    
Hey there Gary - you really seem to "get" my book, which I truly
appreciate!!! As far as the "gestation," I guess I subconsciously
always felt compelled to record the passage of (my) time through camera
and pen. Then in the late 60's, the times, they got amazin'.Since my
Dad founded S & S, I had inherited
 the book gene, so it seemed natural to want to publish various books
along the way. After collecting this body of work, most of it amassed
on various photo assignments, it seemed about time (at the age of 53)
to finally put it all together into one big retrospective. Another
incentive was the fact that I often recieved letters, phone calls and
emails about whether any of my former books were still available. Alas,
only "Playing in the Band" (with Danid Gans) and "Reggae Bloodlines"
(with Stephen Davis)are still in print, thus I wanted "I and Eye" fill
in some of those missing blanks.

I got a deal with Bulfinch Press in the fall of 1998 based on a
lengthy proposal (sample chapter and over 300 photos). Then I was off
and running. It took two years to complete the project, which I finally
handed in around June, 2000, and it came out last August. I must say,
it was a real pleasure working with my editor (Janet Bush) and designer
(Susan Marsh) who kept me focused and on task....It was a
collaborative effort, with lots of back and forths (but no fights!!!).

Fortunately, my life seemed to have broken itself down into a cohesive
timeline and categorical, thematic compartments, so the organizational
process wasn't very hard. I always kept in mind that I wanted to tell
MY story, but make it universal as well, so that the book wouldn't
overly self-indulgent or narcissistic. 

The only thing I specifically DID for the book was to attend Woodstock
'99, because I felt the book needed some sort of "closure" and to tie
in the relationship with my son, which I never could achieve with my
own father.

The process was overwhelmingly theraputic. The only problem is, I have
no idea what to do next. My agent, Sarah Lazin, says it has become
impossible to get publishers to sign expensive photo books now - the
economy and 9/11 aftershock has killed the market (for now). She says
I'm lucky the book was sold, created and manifested when it was.....I'm
so glad you enjoy the book! - Peter -  
  

    

> Then in the late 60's, the times, they got amazin'.

That's so very true.

I also want to welcome Gary and Peter to the inkwell.

I'm a California native, a couple of years younger than both of you, and I
was more of a spectator than a participant in uch of the amazin' stuff you
two were both ebroiled in so deeply.  Reading your brave, text, Peter, I
really got a feeling for how amazing those times were.
  

    

Also, as Peter mentions, we becae friends by collaborating on Playing in the
Band: An Orla nd Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead, which is indeed still
in print!

As a lapsed photographer (in the '70s and '80s, I earned my living as a
magazine journlist, contributing pictures as well as text), I have to say
that my photos NEVER looked as good as when Peter Simon printed them.  I
treature the prints yu made for me while we were working on "Playing in the
Band," Peter.
  

    
I second David's words of welcome!

I've also done photos for some of my articles, most recently for my Austin 
Chronicle pieces a couple years ago. I haven't had a darkroom in years, so I 
outsourced printing and felt weird about it, like I was only doing part of the 
job. I've run into other photographers, though, including some doing 
higher-end art photography, who seemed to have others doing their printing. 
Have you always made your own prints? What's your thinking about photographers 
who don't do darkrooms?
  

    

What Jon said about printing.  I gave it up, at least in part, because I felt
that I would have to do a lot more of it to be as good as I needed to be.
  

    
Hi there David and John....about printing - the whole landscape of
darkroom work is undergoing a sea change right now. I'm thankful to
have become an expert B&W printer since the mid-sixties. Many an
otherwise lonely night was spent toiling away under the amber light. I
then started doing my own color prints from slides in the mid 90's,
using a cibachrome system processor. I actually found it easier, once I
got the hang of it, to make color prints!

But over the last two or three years, the quality you can get from
scanning images to a computer, tweeking them around in adober photo
shop, and then printing them out on photo paper using an epson printer
has been extraordinary. I use my darkroom a lot less now. I'm still
learning the ropes of digital printing, but it sure is FUN.

Many of my photos are now archived on CDrom, and can be seen (and
ordered) on my website - petersimon.com. When I get print orders (be it
celebrities, lifestyles or landscapes, I can just push PRINT on my
computer, and 4 minutes later out will pop a high quality image from my
printer.

I have tried using a digital camera (canon EOS d30)but feel the
quality is still somewhat lacking.My best results so far are
professional scans from color slides. I use the medium format Pentax
camera (645) and get awesome results....

As far as the age old question of whether a photographer MUST be able
to develop and print his own stuff - my opinion is that knowledge is
power, and the more well-rounded one can be, the better. It's sort of
like a singer/songwriter going into the studio and producing their own
CD, without having hire someone else to engineer, etc. But I recall
that photographers like Annie Liebovitz or Herb Ritz rarely print their
own stuff. Thus, I feel doing your own prints isn't a "necessity" to
being considered a top professional photographer, but it is a helpful
tool.

In the next year or two, I hope to improve my photoshop work and have
some more of my historic images scanned and imputed. 

And by the way David (Gans), I appreciate your comments about printing
your negatives for our "Playing in the Band" book. You had some nice
stuff to work with!!!
  

    
Astonishing website over there at (www.petersimon.com), folks.
Best-organized photographer's site I've ever seen. 
  

    
>As far as the age old question of whether a photographer MUST be able
>to develop and print his own stuff 

This reminds me of many arguments about photography, things like
archival quality, matting issues, RC vs. fiber paper, etc.  Yet I never
hear painters challanged for their materials (watercolor is
notoriously fugitive.) Do you think photographers are held to
unreasonable standards?  
  

    

Excellent question!
  

    
I think since photography is a chemical process rather than merely
paints and a canvas, we are held to a stricter standard. Remember how
hotly the question of "is phoptography an art?" was debated? Well, of
course it can be/is, but I think there is a prejudice of sorts
regarding the fact that film and chemikcals are used. Personally, I
much prefer photography over paintings, but then again, I'm sure I'm
prejudiced on my side. There is nothing like a frozen chunk of time
captured on film. Artrists renditions of pre-civil war history doesn't
engage me as actual events captured by a camera - it all seems so much
more real.....I hope that answers the question. Keep 'em coming!!!!   
  

    
Great book Peter.  Reading it made me wish I had grown up in the 60's.  Do
you perfer color or B&W?  What are your favorite subjects to photograph?
  

    
Re subject matter:  From the title I'd expected this book to be chock
full of self-portraits, but it seems you intended to achieve a
self-portrait indirectly.
  

    

Peter, I loved your stories of life on the commune.  I appreciated your
candor in describing yourself - throughout the book, actually -- and I would
like to know more about those times and those people.  Are you still in
contact with your fellow communards?
  

    

 "There is nothing like a frozen chunk of time
 captured on film."

 Especially when the chunk in question is one you've lived through, too!
 Memories that have been dulled by 'senior moments' are coming back
 into focus, and I'm grinning as they do, so thanks.

 Adding to David's question, I'm wondering about the subjects in the
 'natural' photos.  Do you try to get their permission to publish those
 entirely revealing shots (or did you when _Indecent Exposures_ came out),
 or just trust that they've not gone on to careers and situations where
 such revealing portraits might be problematical?
  

    

Reminder:  Those who are reading this off the WELL are invited to send
questions or comments to inkwell-hosts@well.com
  

    

And while we're on the subject of those commune shots, and what happened
to your fellow communards -- I would love to hear more specifically
about Ray Mungo. For those who don't know the name, Ray was one of the
founders of the Liberation News Service (a 1960s effort to create an
underground press equivalent to the AP, UPI or Reuters). His book about
the making and unmaking of the LNS, "Famous Long Ago," is one of the
great Movement memoirs, and a sad, clear-eyed view of the Left's
infinite capacity for self-defeating internecine warfare (something that
continues, alas, to this day). Not surprisingly, the book has a
wonderful cover photo by Peter Simon. Peter, are you still in touch with
Ray, and if so, what's he up to?
  

    

Oh, and also one of Ray's longtime co-conspirators, and owner of one of
my alltime favorite names -- Verandah Porche!
  

    

Hey! Watch it, lambert! As someone who worked at LNS *after* the Split, I
take mild umbrage at "unmaking." The organization continued pretty
effectively for a few years, even without the damned press.

Knowing the people on "the other side," I always had to regard "Famous 
Long Ago" as a pretty novelized version of events -- not that there's 
anything wrong with that. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled interview. 
  

    

Objection noted, and apologies for any umbrage aroused!
  

    
my family enjoyed the book - my 18 yr old commented that it must have
been neat to live in a itme when everyone was naked. 

Having spent a great deal of time in the Haight, my husband and I felt
right at home with the ideas presented in your book. Did you wear
clothes when you photographed? Seriously - did you shoot with the idea
of publishing, or just for your own self or as history?
  

    
"itme" above translates as "time"
  

    
Hi Peter. I happen to have a couple of photos you took back in ... in ...
well, I think it was the spring of 1973. I admit that the late '60s/early
'70s tend to blur a bit in my so-called mind.

Anyway, I scanned them and put 'em up on my web page so you can look at
them.  

                http://www.well.com/~cdb/alun.html

Do you remember shooting them? And what the heck were Alun and I doing
there in Waikiki? Was Mark Almond doing a gig or were we on vacation?

Also, what do you think of the pictures nearly 30 years later?
  

    
Gosh - thanx for all these provocative questions. First of all for
David: I still stay in touch with about half of my fellow communards.
When I was writing the text, I actually tracked most of them each down
to recollect and corroborate. It was very emotional to flash back to
all those memories and feelings. Tim Rossner, Elliot Blinder, Catherine
Marriot and Harry (believe it or not, we made up) I am still close
with. Lacey Mason slightly less so....Each one is still alive
(thankgod) and each one retains some of the values that we adhered to
back then. We all feel it WAS a very special time; innocent and
adventurous and full of deep sharing and lots of laughs. Would I do it
all over again? Probably not. I think, in retrospect, those two years
in Vermont compromised a budding career as a Boston based
photojournalist. But obviously, I wanted to push the envelop, and forge
a new lifestyle.

In answer to "gobeyond," yes I did have to get written permission for
the naked shots. But since I had gone through that process with my 1974
book "Decent Exposures," my new publishers relieved me by saying that
a lawsuit wouldn't hold up in court, since the photographs had already
been published once. For the few new shots in that chapter, I did have
to get permissions. By the way, there are still PLENTY OF NUDE BEACHES
around the world - two right here on Martha's Vineyard - but the spirit
is somehow different now...less openness and slightly more fear at
being ogled or come on to.

Gary, I actually AM still in touch with Ray Mungo. He lives south of
LA and is a social worker. I sent him a copy of the book and he wrote
me back such a wonderful letter saying that he adored it and thought it
was probably the most definative record of those crazy times. He has
an email address, raymungo@juno.com. Verandah (whose real name is Linda
Jacobs, by the way) still lives at the old farmhouse in Vermont and
writes poetry.Most of that commune has long ago split up, however.

To Marilyn - interesting question! I guess I knew the stuff I
photographed back then would one day make it into book form. But as I
wrote earlier, I was just born with some sort of compulsion to record
the passage of time, mostly mine. It still seems strange to me that
people don't walk around with hippie clothes and patchouli oil with
flowers in their hair. It that time, I thought it would last forever.
As an aside, I recall seeing an animated cartoon of Jerry Garcia and
the Dead (probably in the late 70's) cleverly depicting what they would
all look and act like in their old age. Garcia was in a wheel chair,
smoking a joint, and saying "I never thought this long strange trip
would last this long!!!" That was an eye-opener for me at the time.
When you're young, you can't believe you are ever going to get old.....


And finally Cynthia - I will check out your photos posted on the
website. I wonder how many other people still keep these old shots I
used to hand out.

And finally - keep those questions coming. There is a lot more I can
write about. 
  

    
Cynthia - just checked out the photos!!! I still like them, although I
now probably would have used some fill in light on Alun's face and
body. Are you still that gorgeous???