Jay Blakesberg, Photographer/Author to Appear at Clark Barnes & Noble on Nov. 9th
Arthur L Johnson High School’s very own alum from class of 1979 has really made a name for himself as a photographer, author, creative director, and the list goes on. Jay Blakesberg’s name got perhaps the most notoriety it’s ever gotten this past summer when he landed a major gig as the exclusive photographer for the Grateful Dead’s 50th Anniversary Fare Thee Well tour (five-show run). Blakesberg’s work was plastered on every piece of press that resulted from that tour. It was through his eyes and camera lens that those who couldn’t make it to the sold out shows or fork over the money for the streams would perceive these historic concerts. But the Fare Thee Well gig didn’t come easy; it was a culmination of over 35 years as one of the hardest working and most creative photographers in not just the jam band and Grateful Dead scene, but in the music industry as a whole.
Jay is returning to his hometown of Clark to speak at ALJ high school, his alma mater on Monday, November 9th at 1:30pm, then he will be appearing at Barnes & Noble that same night at 7:30pm for a slideshow lecture about his 35- year journey in rock and roll photography documenting from the Grateful Dead to his latest book, Hippie Chick: A Tale of Love, Devotion and Surrender, a coffee table book for which he shot all the photography. The event is FREE to all, and Jay will be signing copies of the book after the presentation.
Photos aren’t the only form of expression in Blakesberg’s ok. It also features several written works including a forward by Grace Slick, an afterward by Grace Potter, and three essays by journalist Edith Johnson. Johnson, who pens the Festival Girl blog, wrote three essays that break down the book’s subtitle, exploring the concepts of love, devotion, and surrender through eyes of a hippie chick. Johnson was also responsible for gathering the quotes that are peppered throughout the book which Blakesberg considers the thread that holds his project together, lending honest insight to his images.
While he was still in high school, Jay had a propensity for photography and loved rock and roll. In 1978, a year before he graduated from ALJ, his dad lent Jay his Pentax camera. He photographed a concert at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ at which Jorma Kaukonen (of Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane) was performing. After the concert, Jay and his two ALJ buddies followed Jorma’s limo into NYC and when he stopped at a deli to get some food, they followed Jorma in and took his picture. The photo ended up being published in Relix Magazine as a “letter to the editor”. Then in the fall of 1979, after just having graduated from ALJ, Jay was hired to photograph a Grateful Dead Concert in Rochester, NY for the Aquarian Weekly newspaper. The paper ran two photos and paid Jay $7.50 for each one.
To date, Jay has published a total of ten photographic volumes of pop culture with Hippie Chick as the most recent. And for those who are wondering, he is also planning to release a Fare Thee Well coffee table book on December 1 with a forward by ultimate Deadhead Bill Walton. For more information, please visit JayBlakesberg.com
(above, l-r) Jay Blakesberg on ALJ’s School grounds in 1979.
Current photo from 2015.
(above) A shot from his latest “Hippie Chick.”
