NEW YORK, NY—Park Slope, Brooklyn native David Gahr was finally given his just due at the Morrison Hotel Gallery and Apple Store in SoHo, where friends and family all gathered in homage to a man whose iconic shots of rock, folk, jazz and blues captured an era from its infancy to its heyday in the ‘70s. A gruff, cigar smoking gent with a heart of gold, Gahr’s images using available light go down like an encyclopedia to the movement. Starting out as a stock boy at Sam Goody, he quickly became the go-to photographer at Folkway Records and then onto the ‘60s and ‘70s future luminaries Bob Dylan, Springsteen and others before they got famous. By the mid ‘70s, he added Miles Davis, John Lennon and Joplin to his portfolio and continued shooting Dylan, taking in all of his various incarnations.
The iconic shot of Davis in profile was used for the cover of his 1970 rocked out album, A Tribute To Jack Johnson. Shots taken of John Lennon on a walk through Hell’s Kitchen in midtown show the Beatle at play with loading dock workers and looking out for traffic. The English supergroup Blind Faith posing in London in front of an antique store looking ever so cool and relaxed, Janis Joplin in front of the Chelsea Hotel, and Jerry Garcia wearing a wide-eyed grin and holding his faithful guitar define an era.
At the Apple Store, slideshow presentation stories were shared and laughs were had as Gahr’s friends and his daughter took on the lighter side of his legacy, showcasing a regular guy whose impeccable taste in the arts somehow put his subjects at ease to get that shot. Gahr left us in 2008, but his images live on. Check them out at morrisonhotelgallery.com.
