For Immediate Release:
Chasing the Light: The Rock and Roll Photography of
Jay Blakesberg
A Dynamic Slideshow/Storytelling Event
Garcia’s at the Capitol Theatre
Port Chester, NY
Saturday, October 29, 2016 at 4:00 – 5:30 PM
(This event takes place before Phil Lesh and Friends performing later that evening at the Capitol Theatre.)
Davis Auditorium
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY
Tuesday November 1, 2016 – 7 PM
BOTH EVENTS ARE FREE ADMISSION
San Francisco, CA- October 2016: Announcing Chasing the Light, a dynamic slideshow/storytelling event featuring rock-and-roll photographer Jay Blakesberg, who shares stories from his amazing 38-year career shooting many of the most important musical artists of our time. During this 75-minute presentation, the charismatic and funny Blakesberg regales attendees with photos and stories related to his epic rock-and-roll American Dream story.
Chasing the Light kicks off with Blakesberg’s colorful teenage wasteland years growing up in suburban New Jersey in the late 1970s, when he and his friends’ lived soley for the thrill of sex, drugs and rock and roll. He describes how his love for photography began in 1978 after his father gave him an old Pentax camera to shoot the Grateful Dead performing at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Back then Blakesberg simply wanted to create memorabilia to plaster on his bedroom walls and began obsessively seeing and shooting his favorite bands live: Hot Tuna, Eric Clapton, The Grateful Dead, Neil Young, The Who, Bob Dylan…
Blakesberg then shares how after high school he embarked on a wild psychedelic ride, joining the music-loving circus of freaks and misfits known as Deadheads. In the mid-80s he settled in San Francisco and began to build a professional career as an in-demand commercial rock photographer whose work has been published in preeminent books and magazines (including Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and Relix – to name a few) thousands of times.
This engaging, fast moving presentation grants the audience an “all access” pass to the exclusive world of rock and roll highlighted by Blakesberg’s epic tales of shooting Tom Waits, Neil Young, Primus, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eddie Vedder, and many others. Chasing the Light culminates with Blakesberg relaying the magic of serving as the official photographer for his most beloved band–the Grateful Dead and their 50th anniversary concerts that took place in 2015.
Today, Blakesberg – the once shutterbug hobbyist – is one of the music industry’s most sought-after rock photographers, known for capturing the explosive energy of the live music experience as well as the intimate moments of one-on-one portrait photography. Most significantly, Blakesberg is a preeminent fixture on the jam band scene whose body of work in this arena makes up a comprehensive photographic archive of the modern psychedelic rock-androll tribe that began 50 years ago in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. “I have felt for a long time that what I am doing is visual anthropology, and I truly believe that this is a unique tribe whose story is an important part of pop culture history,” says Blakesberg.
For more information about Blakesberg’s Chasing the Light, email jay@blakesberg.com
To learn more about Jay Blakesberg, please visit: www.blakesberg.com or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Blakesberg
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