Etliott Land!

\ When Woodstock's official PhotograPher Etliott Land! told us he couldn't staY for Jimi Hendrix because he had fought with his girlfriend, we knew a [reat story was brewing' 6ut we didn't know how much better it was going to get," ,* ,rF'J August 1969. Mike Lang rides his motorcycle over to Elliott compelled us to believe these folk were not only having the Landy's house in Woodstock, and asks if he would be interested in best time known to mankind back then, they were probably photographing a festival he's planning. lt wasn't even a handshake,'it experiencing something much more sacred and other-worldly than was preordainedi Elliott tell us, and'one of the most important Yeses we'll ever understand. ever.'But being sent out on to the grounds of Max Yasgur as the December 2004. Thirty six years after that bike roared by after a official photographer of Woodstock 69, Elliott returned home a night historic windfall invitation, Elliott spoke to us about his intimate before Jimi Hendrix took stage. While that's tough to explain, there's exchanges with Bob Dylan and The Band with the same preordained just no way of figuring out how Elliott might've first met Dylan at his sense of destiny that had him say yes to Mike Lang. lt was a big old brown wooden house, and not realized it. Elliott would go on connection that Elliott felt was very special about lndia too. Elliott to take the pictures that would remind the world about this one'great continues writing to us in his most striking humble manner, about the cosmic event.' 'spiritual energy'that we seemed to have picked up from him. He told Strange in a way that you'd probably never consider hooking up us about a form of work he's taken up, called Sharing Stillness. lt's Elliott on a frame in your room - strange because this one man took tough to admit when we're still going 'yes, yes' and rocking over his the pictures that would someday fill up the rooms of generations of pictures. kids idolizing the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison. ln a conversation that covered beards and suits and car-riding babies in the 60s, love, peace and rock n' roll, the sharing of mind- expanding substances with Janis and others - the photographer who never turned activist, struck an impression of spirituality so strong, it THE INTERVIEW lS: What was it like, being at hloodstock 59? I have some extraordinary Elliott: lt was a very special manifestation of spirit. lt was really a pictures of Jimi performing at cosmic kind of event, the result of a generation of young people the Fillmore East, so it's not like wanting to make the world a better place. And there were so many I never got to photograph jimi other people who did not want to make the world a better place, so Hendrix. ln that case it would this kind of energy ball - let's call it an energy field - was made with have been regret. half a million likeminded people, who came together, and it was a cosmic example of people really joining together spiritually, trying to lS: Fair enough... it would do the right thing. be tough to have regrets after Woodstock. Elliott Landy JS: Most of the musicians were unknown at the time, even limi... Elliott: As far as Woodstock Elliott For me it never mattered if an artiste was well-known, famous goes, I took so many pictures there, I was so fortunate - I don't really or not. lt only mattered whether I liked them. I have a lot of have any regrets, photographs of the 60s of a lot of unknown bands who never became famous, and there are some bands who ljust didn't like and so I never lS: The whole'peace, love and music'messagg is it lost on the 90s photographed them - like the Crateful Dead, for some reason I just and beyond? never liked their music, so I never photographed them. lt was Elliott: (Laughs) A lot of people who are really inspired by that irrelevant if they were famous or not. message contact me for my photographs. That was the most illuminating time of their lives - the 60s, and they still love the 60s. JS: So what made you dislike the Grateful Dead? There are people of my age, who lived through the 60s and were part Elliott 0h, ldidn't dislike them at all - it's just that their music of it, and there are young people who weren't even alive during the didn't appeal to me. Whenever I photograph music that I like, it's 60s, but understand what it was about, and love it. The spirit is still very interesting - if I don't like the music, I just can't get myself to def initely alive. Sadly enough, in this country, it's kind of the opposite take pictures. lt's just that some like the color red, others like the color of that. green. Certainly, there are a lot of people who were inspired by the 60s and still are, My wife and I - we're children of the 60s - and our ideas, ,lS: What about Jimi? optimism for social and cultural change, were certainly formed by the Elliott: Actually, I didn't stay for Jimi Hendrix. I went home the spirit of the 60s, night before. JS: Was the message lost on say, the later Woodstock festivals, J5: You're kidding... what with all the violence on stage? Elliott: lt was one of the few times in my life that I didn't follow a Elliott: A name is only a word - the later Woodstock festivals were show to the very end. I do usually spare no effort to make it right - really not the Woodstock festival. usually I would have stayed till the very end and even past that. But this one particular time, I was having problems with the woman I was J5: You first picked up a camera to photograph anti-war demos, and living with. And we had a big fight and so on, and she came to the then moved to rock n' roll - quite a contrast in terms of combined Woodstock festival, but instead of staying there, that night we went energies. home together. So I really let my emotions overcome my will. But Elliott: ln those days, I began as a photojournalist, I first worked on a "A\rEl28 feature film in Denmark, and during that time, I started feeling JS: How would you describe ta/oodstock as a spiritual center, responsible for the Vietnam War - so I went back home to take especially with all the revelry, the booze, drugs, and women? pictures of anti-war movements, peace demonstrations, to show that Elliott: I don't really know how to answer that. lf alcohol is considered a lot of people in the country were against the war. But according to 0K, then why isn't marijuana 0K? What marijuana does it makes you the government, nobody was against the war, although in fact there very peaceful and laid-back, while alcohol makes you very aggressive. were millions of people demonstrating. And none of these pictures Alcohol is much worse for your body than marijuana. Tobacco is really were actually published in the newspapers. I tried to get published in bad for you also, I don't think that smoking marijuana makes someone major newspapers and magazines, but that didn't work, so I started bad necessarily: yes, smoking it all the time is very bad. But if people working with a lot of underground newspapers and publications. are at a picnic or at a concert, then I don't think anyone would argue ln those days, rock n'roll music was really part of the same culture that the experience of listening to music is much better when you - it was the underground culture - the musicians who played rock n' smoke marijuana. ljust want to make it clear that l'm 60 years old now roll like Joplin, and Jerry Carcia, and The Who, were all aboard... and don't smoke much marijuana really. I was just talking about what universally they were for the same ideals, and we were together and it was like when I was 27, cool in a sense that there were no rock n'roll superstars in those days, It's really a question of how it's used. And having been in we were all one. Woodstock, you wouldn't go there and think that everybody was By photographing rock n'roll I felt that by exposing people to this stoned - it was just there, it was available; nobody stopped you from new form, it was going to change their consciousness. I felt that to doing what you wanted to do. dance freely, and to experience the beat of the music and the light As far as excess sexuality is concerned, I didn't see anything like shows, also smoking marijuana, it was all part of that culture - and I that at Woodstock; l'm sure people had sex in the open, people were felt, this could change your life, if you would let yourself go and be naked in public, they were bathing in a lake - people lost their part of the meaning of rock n'roll - because I really took part of this inhibitions, but the nudity was very limited, culture to try and change the world, to try and bring the world to what I consider a better place.

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