Welcome to the official blog of Jim Marshall Photography LLC. My name is Michelle Margetts and I’ll be serving as lead writer and editor of this conversation, pulling from my 25-year relationship with Jim and Amelia Davis’ encyclopedic knowledge of him and his body of work and, we hope, your stories, anecdotes and ideas, as well. Jim was without a doubt one of the biggest technophobes I have ever met. He loved beautifully constructed, elegant MACHINES.
The Independent: Rock photographer who took classic shots of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Beatles.
There are good photographers and there are great photographers; Jim Marshall was one of the latter, an inspirational photojournalist. When he took his Leica to San Francisco's Candlestick Park on 29 August 1966 for another sold-out concert by The Beatles, few – certainly not him – knew the group was kissing goodbye to screams and touring. Marshall repeatedly froze history, sometimes dramatically, as when Hendrix set fire to his guitar at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. More often he caught the living ginger of his subjects' personalities.
SF Weekly: Memorial For Legendary Photographer Jim Marshall Monday.
Hanging in the living room of Jim Marshall's Castro flat is a photograph of Obama standing in the White House, pointing to a picture of John Coltrane on the wall. Marshall took that Coltrane photo more than 40 years ago in San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ralph J Gleason's living room. Underneath the image of Obama is inscribed, " To Jim--I'm a big fan of yours and John's. Best, Barack Obama."
LA Weekly: LEGENDARY ROCK PHOTOGRAPHER JIM MARSHALL REMEMBERED.
The Water is Muddy, the Belly Is Lead, the Wolf is Howlin, the Heat is Canned. Jim Marshall, Rock and Roll Photography Legend, 74, Dies.
After getting the message about Jim Marshall's passing last Wednesday, my heart went narrow. And my hand -- surely leaked mojo. "Too close for comfort, baby," I thought. "But as always, too far away."
The photographer Jim Marshall, who has died aged 74, was as colourful and unpredictable as many of the rock stars he shot. "I've been busted a few times for drugs, guns, assault with a deadly weapon," he admitted in a recent documentary about his life and work. "I shot a guy once. It got out of control ... It's just part of who I am."
Whether it was Jimi Hendrix setting fire to his guitar, Johnny Cash performing for hardened criminals at San Quentin State Prison, the Beatles leaving the stage after their final concert or the Rolling Stones at their most hedonistic, the photography of Jim Marshall helped to define the golden years of rock music.
Jim Marshall, 74, a notoriously abrasive photographer who helped establish rock-and-roll's public image with his intimate and iconic portraits of Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and other performers in the 1960s and '70s, was found dead March 24 at a hotel in New York. The cause of death was not immediately known.
