reviews
FLASHING ON THE SIXTIES“Flashing on the Sixties” by Lisa Law Photographs by Lisa Law, foreword by Ram Dass. The Sixties were a time of personal journeys, fiery protests, and revolutionary happenings…an extraordinary era. Through it all, photographer Lisa Law was snapping pictures of now-legendary friends, concerts, and gatherings. A remarkable visual record that captures the essence and energy of the Sixties as no other book. Newly reprinted with additional photographs, commentary and reminiscences from those who were there.
In 1965, 22-year-old Law was living in a Los Angeles mansion where Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan and various musicians subleased suites. Joining this casual music scene, she took intimate snapshots of such stars as Lou Reed, John Sebastian and Janis Joplin, noting that “Perhaps because I was not a professional photographer and therefore not taken seriously by anyone, including myself, I was able to record some of the more relaxed moments from those days.” In the 160 photos presented here, Law also captures be-ins, antiwar protests, Woodstock and other memorable events. Accompanying these nostalgic photos are reminiscences by Paul Krassner, Wavy Gravy, Allen Ginsberg and others, Law has produced a book of depth, beauty and impact-she has captured the heart of the ’60s. Clarence Petersen for the Chicago Tribune In the ’60’s, Lisa Law was a flower child with a camera- a participant, a groupie of sorts, not a professional photographer. This is her scrapbook, an exercise in nostalgia. But what a scrapbook! Law appears to have known everyone from the rock stars and the leaders of the peace movement to the followers and to the poor people with whom the movement made common cause, and she appears to have been wherever the action was, high and low, forever taking pictures. Fortunately, though she was not a professional, she was gifted with a professional’s eye. These pictures stand up, and the book is a superb contribution to what looks to be a year of media reflection on 1968. From a big fan,Emma Aho (expat living in Hong Kong at the moment) Dear Lisa Law, I just wanted 2 rite 2 u tellin u how wonderful i think “Flashing On The Sixties” is, I am absolutely in love with it. I’m 15 and I love the ’60s, my biggest regret and probably, greatest “tragedy” in life is that I did not live during that time, because I am in love with the ideology that the sixties portrayed, the pot smoking, the yoga and meditation studies, the travelling and the coming together of people. It waz a beautiful time and I am sad not having been part of it. But I can be part of it in my mind, and I thank you for making this priceless book of photography that really displays these exquisite moments of the sixties. The photos are all so deeply personal and serene, they are really quite extraordinary. It makes me really sad to look at them though, thinking how life is like now and how things were so much better before. I really hate living during this time and wish that I could just turn back the time and step into the past… It just really sux that it’s not possible to live in that kind of community anymore, it’s not attainable in the modern world because things just do not work that way anymore, and >I feel that I miss something, although I haven’t even been there (in the sixties). So looking at your book makes me feel like I actually was there, like a time I missed but now I am making up for it. I wanna thank you for making this possible for me. You are an absolutely brilliant photographer, never have I seen such deep and personal photographs. Thank you for bringing the sixties into my life! (If only they could be brought back to the world now…or at least a part of it). Lumen Books “Interviews with Icons” by Lisa Law In Lisa Law’s Interviews with Icons, some of the best minds of any modern generation tell us where they were and what they were doing in the ’60s, when all hell broke loose all over the globe and “love” applied to more than just your partner or family. For more than 35 years, Lisa Law has captured the hearts and souls of our subculture’s icons with her camera. Now she presents us with a closer look. The dialogues and conversations in these pages retrieve the essence of what made the ’60s a time of tremendous transformation. Lisa captures deep thoughts-and flights of the memory’s fancy-from these powerful movers and shakers, presenting them in recorded moments of truth and delight. As Lisa points out, most people know most of these figures, but few really know anything about their personal memories and visionary intellects. You’ve seen them as characters in dozens of movies, heard them sing and read poetry, talk spirituality on radio and television, but you’ve never seen them the way Lisa captures them here. Lisa’s angle on an interview is as unique as her camera’s angle on her famous subjects. If you saw the movie or read the book, Flashing On The Sixties, you’ll relish these extended interviews. If you haven’t connected with Lisa Law’s documenting before, you are in for a ride that will tickle your intellect, make you mad, make you laugh, bring tears to your eyes, and show you why these icons made the ’60s such an important time in our evolution. High Times Magazine by Steve Bloom Just when you thought you had read every imaginable word from the mouths of ’60s legends like Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Wavy Gravy, Mountain Girl, Peter Coyote, Micky Hart, Ram Dass, Paul Krassner and Stephen and Ina May Gaskin, comes this brilliant book. Interviews with Icons (Lumen). Lisa Law’s follow-up to Flashing on the ’60s (her previous book and video of the same name) provides a roadmap of counterculture history. From the Beat Generation to the Merry Pranksters and beyond, these interviews, mostly conducted a decade ago, document the lives of many who have since passed on. “There are three dangerous side effects to psychedelic drugs, ” Leary told Law, ” The first is long-term memory gain, the second is short-term memory loss and the third I forget.” Law, however, doesn’t forget a thing and tries to set the record straight on various issues, such as the changes at The Farm, where the Gaskins once oversaw a large commune. Law may be obsessed with the ’60, but she was there as a member of the Hog Farm. An icon herself, someone should interview Lisa Law. New Mexico Book Association No one has recorded the uniquely American hippie era as thoroughly, affectionately and well as insider Lisa Law. Indeed, we mush rely on Lisa’s photographs, films and interviews for the most reliable and authentic view of this short and too often maligned explosion of experimentation, love and freedom. While others were dropping acid and grooving on the scene, New Mexico’s Lisa Law was dropping another roll of film in her camera to capture that groovy scene for posterity. In this new book you will find her candid and revealing interviews with 30 personalities who gave form and substance to that remarkable time, including Allen Ginsberg, Wavy Gravy, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Graham Nash, Dennis Hopper, Steve Gaskin, Taj Majal and Paul Krassner. Lisa’s award winning film, Flashing On The Sixties, her footage from Woodstock, her memorable still photos (Janis Joplin, the Beatles and Bob Dylan), and now this book make her unquestionably the great documentarian of the life and times of ’60s counterculture. 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.” Rain Taxi Review by Thomas Rain Crowe 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. |
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