Dark Star Palace: September 2010

Artifact(s) of the Week: Robbi Cohn Photographs!

Tape of the Week: 7/16/88 (Zero with Jerry Garcia)

This week, Dark Star Palace's own Unterfunken is going to sit down and chat (via trans-time, quasi-physical means) with one of the great Grateful Dead photographers, Robbi Cohn. Robbi’s photography (from 1984 until Jerry’s passing in 1995..and still going!) has captured some of THE classic on-stage Dead images. Indeed, Robbi’s company (aptly named: Dead Images), has some of the best deals around for getting some amazing original Grateful Dead photographic works. As Dark Star Palace has been acquiring as many of Robbi’s images as possible over the past few years (100+!), we feel privileged to catch up with Robbi as she is preparing to head out on the road with Furthur.

Dark Star Palace: Hi Robbi! Thanks for taking the time to check in with Dark Star Palace. I know you must be busy as you prepare to head out on the road for Furthur’s West Coast tour.

Robbi: Not so busy I can't take a few minutes for DSP!!

DSP: 10 points for that correct answer! So, how long has it been since you’ve been out on the road with your camera?

Robbi: I started shooting pics of the Dead and other bands in 1984...but...lost my gear seven years ago. So it's been essentially 20 years with a seven year hiatus. I'm working on replacing my gear...

DSP: Ok, so you started out taking pix of the band in 1984. Was this just a random thing, or did you consciously see a great opportunity and say: “Hey! No one seems to be capturing this amazing band, culture and scene…let me start documenting!”

Robbi: Well, in all honesty, it was a way to keep me on tour. Others had been selling their photos in the parking lots...mainly Mark Curry and Gretchen Rhymes. I think Bob Minkin was as well as Jay Blakesburg...but no one was doing it as much as I ended up doing it. I always kept the Henri Cartier-Bresson adage in my mind...shooting the "decisive moment".

DSP: In those early days, were you just using a cheapo point-and-shoot, or did you have a spiffed-out Nikon/Canon 70-200mm telephoto rig with “L” glass, etc.?

Robbi: Kinda sorta, not really...I used a Pentax ME...not an awesome camera, but not bad as 35 mm goes. I think I had a cheap 70-210, but not one with a large maximum aperture, so...you either had to use REALLY fast film or wait for perfect light. And a 50 mm Pentax lens. Later I became a Nikon devotee, with the fat 80-200 2.8 lens, my workhorse.

DSP: How were you able to get your gear into the shows?

Robbi: Any way I could...and that included my leg, back & crotch, as well as friends' anatomical spare cavities. It was always fun to stand in line with twenty pounds of gear and film stowed somewhere on your body. You'd have to walk a little funny... good thing there were crowds and you couldn't walk normally anyway. Other wise I'd have been dead in the water. LOL. As soon as we made it in, I'd run to the bathroom and unpack all the gear. Some shows were never a problem... and... eventually they let us bring gear in without a hassle in all but the really uptight venues. Later on, after I was licensed, it rarely was a problem.

DSP: Did the Dead crew ever come over and try to stomp on your camera or take your film? Or were they supportive?

Robbi: Not the Dead crew, although Dennis McNally and I have had somewhat of an adversarial relationship. Most hassles were at the door with ticket takers and inspectors who loved portraying that "muscle flexor" personna. Robbie Taylor used to call us "photogaggers" so I'd have to say that he probably thought of us more as a nuisance than anything else.

DSP: Time for some Road Stories! What is your stand-out favorite from your days of touring with the Grateful Dead?

Robbi: Egads...this is hard...do I pick a special show...a weird day on tour...a special event? Okay...since this was a special moment for me, this'll have to do. I'd been photographing the Dead several years before I met Steve Kimock, seriously my second favorite guitarist of all time. I shot pics of Steve and whatever band he was in when I wasn't on the road with the Dead...I probably have more photographs of Steve in my archives than any other performer, after Jerry Garcia. I have a thing for lead guitarists (she understates the obvious), which you can tell only after a short perusal of my work. I had always wanted to see ZERO open for the Dead...badgered Steve about it ad nauseum. Being the gentleman Steve is, he never once asked me to stow it. Around late Spring of 1988 (just after Spring Tour), Steve told me about the Russian/American Peace Walk to be held in Golden Gate Park at the band shell. What's more...he told me ZERO would be the house band, with lots of other performers sitting in. Paul Kantner...Grace Slick...Norton Buffalo and... Jerry Garcia. I nearly freaked!! I knew if I let the secret out, there'd be thousands... no... tens of thousands...of deadheads overrunning Golden Gate Park. I kept it fairly quiet, until I learned the gig was the same weekend as the Dead at the Greek...so it was packed anyway! They played three songs with Jerry and it was just a little bit of heaven!
To make the story even a bit more magnificent...before the gig, Steve asked me did I want to come down to the Front Street studio rehearsal. Just ZERO band members and Jerry. How much cooler could it get?? Well...about six months after the gig, Steve was on the East Coast, standing on a corner in New York City, when who drives by in limo? Jerry Garcia. Steve had a copy of the photograph of himself and Garcia I had shot...signed it and asked Jerry to sign it. This double-autographed photograph has always had a cherished spot on my wall...

DSP: Did you you mostly travel solo, or were part of 20-person, day-glow, deluxe-hippie school bus freak show?

Robbi: Sometimes solo, sometimes with large groups, never in a school bus, though...

DSP: Were you selling your photos from the previous tour on the road for food money, or how were you able to stay afloat on tour?

Robbi: You have it exactly right...selling pics from the last show to get pics from the current show and to eat and put gas in the car. I must have gone through 30 vehicles...I could only afford beaters, so they'd eventually break down, sometimes on tour, where I'd have to buy another vehicle so we could to get to the next gig.

DSP: I can remember buying my first Rob Cohn photograph back around ’96 in San Rafael at some Dead-related head-shop off of Sir Frances Drake by the old High Tech Burrito. When did you start selling your work in shops and galleries?

Robbi: In 1985. A head shop in Boulder, Colorodo was my first sale...I eventually wholesaled photos to hundreds of shops all over the country and some overseas. That became part of my touring...stopping by the shops to see if they needed inventory. I eventually added post cards, greeting cards and j cards to my inventory.

DSP: How about today? Do you primarily sell direct?

Robbi: Yes...mostly online, although I am back on the road, selling pics in the parking lot, just like in the old days. And, I have even started wholesaling again. There seems to be an increased interest in the Grateful Dead and my images. I wonder if it has something to do with the Dead's fiftieth birthday approaching. Whatever it is, the legacy Jerry and the Dead have left is huge. You can see it with all the festivals the summer brings, as well as the bands which continue the tradition and magic of improvisational music.

DSP: Did you have a favorite venue for photographing the band?

Robbi: Several...Red Rocks, the Greek, the Frost...these were always my favorites. I liked afternoon gigs with good lighting as a contrast to all the indoor venues. I tried to keep the work fresh, not the easiest task with subjects who didn't do a whole lot of moving around...lol. Lighting played a big part in keeping the work varied. Candace Brightman, the Dead's lighting guru, gets much of the credit for how my stuff looks. Band member t-shirts became a point of interest as I saw them take stage, as well as stage design and any other variable to give the photographs a sense of uniqueness.

DSP: What about hanging out with the band back at the hotel or backstage? Did your camera act as the magic golden ticket?

Robbi: Never...and...no. As I mentioned, Dennis McNally was never a big fan of yours truly. Part of it was just chemistry, part was the fact that I represented competition for his wife, who also photographed the Dead. I always thought there was room enough for all of us...we each had our own styles...but...go figure. So, I was always a thorn in Dennis' side and systematically excluded. He once told me that nobody wanted me there, not the least of which included the band members and, specifically, Jerry Garcia. You can imagine how THAT hit me. Whatever...I wasn't going to let Dennis stop me from fulfilling my destiny as archivist. I was a Deadhead who came from the people who loved Jerry unreservedly...other Deadheads.

DSP: How about getting feedback from GDP and the band? Did they ever contact you about your photography before Jerry died?

Robbi: I had one awesome ally in Patricia Harris, VP pf marketing for GDP. She always used my images in the yearly GD calendar and was a stalwart ally and advocate. As it turned out, both Bobby and Phil used my images for their CD's...a Bobby and Rob Wasserman piece and the Phil Zone. Both have framed pieces I've sent. Jerry's estate has also used my images, so, it's a kind of mixed bag. I shot for Deadheads, for posterity and for the sheer love of the music and the art. I will always credit the Dead...I was merely a recorder of history who was lucky to be in the right spot at the right time...Cartier -Bresson, again. Patricia always came through for me...even forced Dennis to give me access on Jerry's birthday in 1994 and on other occasions...I LOVE you, Patricia!!!

DSP: Ok, so desert island show…if you really had to pick…what was the most memorable / best you ever saw?

Robbi: I'm sorry...there were just so many to pick out just one. I guess the last one...that final Black Muddy River broke my heart!!

DSP: Robbi, thanks so much for our chat. We can’t wait to see your latest works on Bobby, Phil and Furthur after this tour wraps up!!

NOTE: For more information on Dead Images and for ordering some of Robbi’s great photos (starting at TEN BUCKS!), check out: http://www.deadimages.com/.

For this week's Tape of the Week, Dark Star Palace will link to a stream of the 7/16/88 Golden Gate Park show that is so dear to Robbi's heart! :)

This version of the show is a bit dry, but you can grab the audience recording if you prefer. So sit back, stream the show while checking out some of Robbi's pix and enjoy!