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Steve Caraway

 

 

The greatest names in rock played San Francisco in the 60’s and 70’s. Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Allman Brothers, Cream, The Doors, Janis Joplin, you name ‘em… they played there… and I was there too. At the time, nobody cared about having their picture taken while performing. I would routinely take my camera to document the images of an era.

I began a casual relationship with the Bill Graham organization. Suddenly I had the opportunity to secure seats right in front of Pete Townshend or get into Winterland early to photograph The Grateful Dead, Jeff Beck, or Traffic. I would send Bill Graham Presents my shots, and they would periodically use them in the Fillmore West and Winterland showcases to publicize up-coming shows. This was a personal honor of the highest degree (thanks to "Uncle" Bill, Zohn Artman, and Jerry Pompili).

Eventually as an editor and photographer for Guitar Player Magazine in the mid to late 70’s, I began to actually work with the various artists that were touring. My "artist relations" affiliation with various musical instrument companies kept me in the mix for years. This collection of vintage rock images is a result of those associations

. My music photographs have been published in many major domestic and international periodicals. My images have been used on MTV, CMT, VH-1, and many other mass media sources as well as on many record album covers and CD releases. In August 2002, I had a two-month exhibit of rock photography, Vintage Rock Guitarists, at the Esoteric Coffeehouse & Gallery in Reno, NV. Those vintage rock photos were created during the late 60’s and 70’s, and beyond.

Since 2001, my favorite subject matter is Mother Nature. The majesty and balance in nature, the serenity, the spiritual and physical connection, the miracle - it's here now and it surrounds us everyday. We who reside in and around the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range are surrounded by this beautiful country and I attempt to digitally document those landscapes. If I am lucky, I capture that natural beauty both in season and in light. Our natural surroundings are sacred and would be long-lasting were it not for man’s persistent and negative impact on the environment. My images are meant to capture nature's fragile, yet rugged essence and remind us all that we need to rediscover the respect it demands and which we are so late in granting.

My nature photography has been exhibited in several locations in the San Francisco Bay Area including Body Therapy Center/Palo Alto, Apple Computer/Cupertino, Hewlett-Packard/Palo Alto and has adorned several publication covers, including Body Therapy Center’s 2002 and 2004 catalogs.

Most recently, Reno’s Sierra Arts Foundation sponsored my exhibit The Miracle Around Us at the Northwest Reno Library Gallery. The exhibit featured 33 of my nature images and ran from October through November, 2004.

I started out with 35mm Nikons shooting rock musicians. Now that I am older, I’ve graduated to Nikon digital camera systems and prefer shooting rocks, and stars, to shooting rock stars!

 

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