Baron Wolman: Jimi Hendrix 1968–1970

“To this day I still believe it was impossible to take a bad photo of Jimi Hendrix. Just look at how he visually presented himself throughout his life. He was extraordinary and unique and creative, unlike anyone else, a natural and complete artist.”
— Baron Wolman

In 1967, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner invited Baron Wolman to become the magazine’s first chief photographer. Over the next several years, Wolman documented many of the defining artists of the era, including The Grateful Dead, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, and Jimi Hendrix.

Among Wolman’s most remarkable photographic relationships was his connection with Jimi Hendrix. Between 1968 and 1970, Wolman photographed Hendrix on four separate occasions in San Francisco and New York, capturing the artist both onstage with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and in quieter, more intimate moments away from the spotlight.

“These are priceless images from a half-century ago, photos of an iconic artist whose flame burned fast and bright. Revel in the past, a past long gone, and be grateful Baron was there, film and camera in hand.”
— Ross Halfin

Jimi Hendrix: 1968 / 1970 brings together Wolman’s complete surviving Hendrix archive. The book reproduces all 422 frames he made during these sessions, including contact sheets and numerous images published here for the first time. Created to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Wolman’s first encounter with Hendrix, the publication offers an unusually complete view of the photographer’s working process and his evolving relationship with one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. Most of the images in this book are published here for time.

The archival material includes Wolman’s 1968 photographic logbook recording his assignments for Rolling Stone, together with early magazine covers and articles devoted to Hendrix. The book also reproduces original concert material connected to Hendrix’s four-night February 1968 engagement at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland Ballroom, including tickets and Rick Griffin’s celebrated “flying eyeball” handbill.

New essays, detailed captions, an introduction by music photographer Ross Halfin, and an interview with Wolman provide further context for the photographs. Together, these materials reconstruct Wolman’s personal “Jimi Hendrix Experience”—from his first assignment with the musician to the preservation and publication of the complete archive five decades later.