Grateful Dead Photographer Jay Blakesberg & Historian Blair Jackson Announce San Francisco Exhibit

Grateful Dead photographer Jay Blakesberg and historian Blair Jackson announced Between the Dark and Light: Grateful Dead 1965-1995 an art exhibit celebrating the legendary band. The photo and poster art exhibit is set to take place at the Haight Street Art Center in San Francisco beginning on July 11, (buy tickets for the opening night reception) just ahead of Dead & Company’s final shows, coming to Oracle Park.

Curated by Blakesberg with text from Jackson, Between the Dark and Light: Grateful Dead 1965-1995 saw the photographer mining into his own Retro Photo Archive to curate nearly 100 rarely seen images for the exhibit. Jay also delved into the work of his fellow Dead visual chroniclers including photos from Adrian Boot, Alvan Meyerowitz, Andy Leonard, Baron Wolman, Bob Minkin, Dave Seabury, Ed Perlstein, Elizabeth Sunflower, Greg Gaar, Herb Greene, Jonathan David Sabin, Mark Norwine, Mary Ann Mayer, Michael Dobo, Patti Healy, Ron Rakow, Rosie McGee, Snooky Flowers, Steve Schneider and Susana Millman.

“The Grateful Dead has always allowed fans to bring cameras into their concerts,” Blakesberg noted, “which has left us Dead Heads with a vast photographic history of this band. Some of us started our careers photographing the Grateful Dead, myself included. The photographs on display show the band on and off stage, and create a wonderful historical look at the band’s 30-year career.”

A press release further detailed some of the iconic highlights of that 30 year career:

Blakesberg and Jackson take viewers to free concerts in Golden Gate Park, New Year’s Eve shows around the Bay Area, the October 1974 Winterland shows that were filmed for what would become The Grateful Dead Movie, the band’s legendary performances in Europe and Egypt, and their historic runs in 1980 at the Warfield in San Francisco and Radio City Music Hall in New York City, to name just a few. Rounding out the exhibition are a number of key rock posters from the Haight Street Art Center’s collection that show the evolving visual style of poster art that defined the three-decade career of the Grateful Dead, and still inspire poster artists to this day.

“What a great trip it is to see the Dead’s incredible journey told through so many rare or never published photographs, as well as iconic images by some of the best photographers who documented the Grateful Dead experience,” Jackson said. “From the group’s humble beginnings to its shows in football stadiums packed with dancing Dead Heads, the contours of the Grateful Dead story really come alive in new and exciting ways on the walls of the Haight Street Art Center.”

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Jay to host this extraordinary collection of photographs that capture the musical and cultural journey through the Grateful Dead’s career,” Haight Street Art Center Executive Directors Kelly Harris added. “When combined with posters from the Art Center’s permanent collection, the exhibition poignantly tells the story of a Bay Area treasure that came of age during the golden age of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury.”

Between the Dark and Light: Grateful Dead 1965-1995 will run between July 11 and September 3. Dead & Company’s final shows take place July 14 – 16.