{"id":80614,"date":"2025-08-13T21:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T21:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/80614\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T21:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T21:55:15","slug":"rock-photographer-henry-diltz-brings-his-iconic-shots-to-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/80614\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock photographer Henry Diltz brings his iconic shots to Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEntertainment\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHe climbed a mountain with The Eagles. Rode horseback with America. ‘Rolled a fatty’ with Neil Young. Now, Henry Diltz takes New England.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\tHenry Diltz (left) with Paul and Linda McCartney. Henry Diltz Photography\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Lauren Daley<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAugust 13, 2025 | 10:01 AM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

11 minutes to read<\/p>\n

One early morning in 1972, Henry Diltz found himself trekking the California desert in the pre-dawn dark with The Eagles.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d left LA \u201cat 2 a.m. when the bar closed. We drove three hours to the desert. We got there at 5 a.m. An Indian medicine man named Semu had given us peyote buttons. We were sucking on those as we climbed the mountain in the dark. We got to the top as the sun came up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026 This is the kind of answer you get when you ask Diltz about a photo. (I\u2019d asked about the photo he took for The Eagles debut album cover<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

There is nothing ordinary about Henry Diltz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every word out of the legendary rock photographer\u2019s mouth is colorful. Every quote sparkles. Every photo has a banger of a story behind it.<\/p>\n

The 86-year-old tells me he\u2019s a \u201ctiger in the bushes\u201d when he shoots photos. Recommends I read Paramahansa Yogananda\u2019s \u201cAutobiography of a Yogi<\/a>.\u201d (\u201cI gave it to everyone in \u201965.\u201d) One tale involves \u201crolling a fatty and watching llamas\u201d with Neil Young.\u00a0 Another: riding through the desert on a horse (not sure if it had a name) with the band America. \u201cWe had a guide show us how to get to this bubbling oasis with palm trees in the middle of the desert.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d\u2019ve been a studio photographer, the story would be, \u2018The group walked in at 2 p.m. They stood in front of the paper.\u2019\u00a0 But we would go on adventures!\u201d he says with a gleeful laugh.<\/p>\n

I sat rapt as Diltz, also the official photographer of Woodstock, told colorful behind-the-lens tales.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly what he\u2019ll do when he brings \u201cLegends in Focus: The Photography of Henry Diltz\u201d to New England. Catch him, VH1 Storytellers-style, at Boston\u2019s Emerson College Aug. 14<\/a> (7 p.m., $60.) See a free public gallery showing from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or you might take a Diltz-style adventure up to King Pine Ski Area in Madison, N.H. Aug. 16<\/a>, for a barbecue dinner, meet-and-greet and full show with cash bar. ($85)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Living in the \u201860s California music mecca Laurel Canyon, Diltz became a fly-on-the-wall (or \u201ctiger in the bushes\u201d). His body of work includes photos of Paul and Linda McCartney, Brian Wilson, David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, The Who, Keith Richards<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 But I\u2019ll let him tell you about that.<\/p>\n

\"\"David Crosby. \u2013 Henry Diltz Photography<\/p>\n

Diltz, honored with a Recording Academy Trustees Award during Grammy Week in 2023, was a Herb Alpert Scholar in Residence at Berklee College of Music in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

I called him at his home near Laurel Canyon to talk gurus, peyote, fireworks, James Taylor, and more. Warm and laid-back, he laughs at his own memories, endearingly exclaims \u201cgosh!\u201d often \u2014 and, a few weeks from his 87th birthday, still seems filled with wonder for this world.<\/p>\n

Boston.com: I love that you\u2019re bringing slideshows to New England, because slideshows are your true passion, what sparked your journey as a photographer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Henry Diltz: I didn\u2019t become a photographer the moment I bought the camera \u2014 I became a photographer the moment I saw the first slide on the wall. I went, \u201cOh my gosh. This is amazing. It\u2019s like we\u2019re right back there.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to take more photos because it\u2019s fun to have these slideshows.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I started taking pictures just about 60 years ago.\u00a0 See, I was a folk singer before that, in Hawaii. We got to California in \u201963; I picked up a camera in \u201966 by accident, and it changed my life.<\/p>\n

You were on tour in \u201966 with your group, Modern Folk Quartet<\/a>. You bought a camera on a whim one day in East Lansing, Michigan.<\/p>\n

Right. We\u2019d just played University of Michigan, we were in a Clark Cortez motorhome<\/a>. We pulled over at a second-hand store because they\u2019re so much fun. Oh my God, you gotta go see the treasures, right? Buy something you don\u2019t need.<\/p>\n

[laughs] Right.<\/p>\n

I walked in behind [bandmate] Cyrus Faryar. Right inside the door was a table with little second-hand Japanese cameras, like 20 bucks. Cyrus, without stopping, said, \u201cA camera, I\u2019ll have one.\u201d He grabbed one. I was behind him, and just imitated him. Why not?<\/p>\n

We got back in the motorhome, Cyrus says, \u201cPull into the drugstore and I\u2019ll buy film for everybody.\u201d He handed each of us a yellow box of Kodak film.<\/p>\n

We took pictures for two weeks as we traveled back to LA. We stopped at fields of cows. I got on my stomach and looked up and photographed cows looking down. At a junkyard, I found a toilet with a flower growing out of it. Our bass player had this old broken cardboard case he wanted to blow up in the desert with M-80 firecrackers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[laughs] Oh my God.<\/p>\n

The thing went boom! and flew 30 feet. I got a picture of it up in the air and him running away in the background. [laughs]<\/p>\n

[laughs] A perfect fireworks shot.<\/p>\n

We get back to LA; we develop the film. I was surprised to find out it was slide film! I said, \u201cLet\u2019s have a slideshow!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then I\u2019d take pictures of all my friends: Mama Cass, Stephen Stills, The Turtles. I\u2019d show these pictures on the weekend. I loved it when they\u2019d say, \u201cOh, I didn\u2019t even know you took that!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So I just stumbled into it. I don\u2019t even know why I grabbed the camera. But I\u2019m so glad the universe steered me in that direction.<\/p>\n

Soon your friends wanted you to take publicity shots. You started, accidentally, with Buffalo Springfield.<\/p>\n

One day I heard music coming out of a friend\u2019s house in Laurel Canyon. I walked to the door \u2014 Stephen Stills was over, playing guitar.\u00a0 I\u2019d met him in \u201963 in New York City, when he was a young kid who came to see our folk band.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cHey, Henry, want to come with us this afternoon to a folk club in Redondo Beach?\u201d I said, \u201cI\u2019d love to!\u201d Thinking I\u2019d photograph people on the beach for my slideshow. And I did. I got a great shot of a guy with a monkey on his shoulder. They look similar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[laughs] That\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

So I walked back to the club and see a huge two-story pink mural of a guy riding a bicycle. I thought, \u201cThat\u2019ll look good in my slideshow.\u201d When the band walked out, I said, \u201cGuys, would you stand in front of that mural<\/a> so I can show the size of it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They used that photo for publicity shots.<\/p>\n

It was almost by accident.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your first album cover was The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful.<\/p>\n

A friend of mine, Erik Jacobsen \u2014 his group was called the Knob Lick Upper 10,000<\/a> \u2014 called me one day and said, \u201cHenry, I hear you want to be a photographer. I\u2019m producing this new group; we need pictures. Why don\u2019t you come to New York and we\u2019ll pay for your film and processing, you can get practice?\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a musician, I could easily hang out in a dressing room. Photographers can be pushy. \u201cStand over there.\u201d I never did that. I just hung out. When I saw something interesting, I\u2019d quietly take the picture.<\/p>\n

Almost photojournalist style.<\/p>\n

I learned something a few years ago. A girl said, \u201cWhat\u2019s your Chinese animal?\u201d I said, \u201cGosh, I think I\u2019m a tiger.\u201d She said, \u201cTigers are playful, sociable \u2014 but they\u2019re loners. They like to hide in the bushes and watch other animals.\u201d I thought, \u201cOh my God. That\u2019s what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a great analogy.<\/p>\n

I never get in anybody\u2019s face. I don\u2019t start walking in and clicking. I quietly observe and take a picture of a real thing happening. That\u2019s like a tiger hiding in the bushes!\u00a0<\/p>\n

[laughs] It is. And you have a Massachusetts connection:\u00a0 Wellesley-born lighting designer Chip Monck<\/a>, who also did Newport Folk Fest, asked you to photograph a concert, and you ended up as the official photographer of Woodstock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edward Herbert Beresford Monck. His friends called him \u201cChip.\u201d [laughs] One day in late July, my phone rang in my kitchen in Laurel Canyon\u2014 that\u2019s the way every adventure started. He said, \u201cHenry, I\u2019m out here in New York. We\u2019re going to have a huge concert in a couple in a few weeks. You oughta be here!\u201d
I said, \u201cLook, Chip, I\u2019ve read about it, but I don\u2019t know those people. How am I going to get a photo pass?\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019ll talk to the producer.\u201d Next day, Michael Lang called me. He said, \u201cChip says we need you. I\u2019m sending you an airline ticket and $500.\u201d Click.<\/p>\n

Woah.<\/p>\n

That was all he said!<\/p>\n

[laughs] Amazing.<\/p>\n

I was there for two weeks while they got ready before the crowd showed. It was like summer camp. All these hippie carpenters hammering, building, sawing by a field of alfalfa. Then the Hog Farm<\/a> [founded by Wavy Gravy] showed up from New Mexico, and set up kitchens. I\u2019d photograph all these people who were also my people. [laughs]<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite Woodstock shot?<\/p>\n

Jimi Hendrix was supposed to close the show Sunday night, but they were so backed up that he didn\u2019t go on until early Monday as dawn was breaking. To stand there next to him on the stage was amazing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then he started playing \u201cThe Star Spangled Banner\u201d which was puzzling. What\u2019s he playing the national anthem for? We were all anti-war hippies. Peace and love. Certainly against the whole idea of going over to Vietnam and killing strangers. I remember thinking, \u201cThat\u2019s not our song. That\u2019s Nixon.\u201d But as he started putting in sound effects [makes guitar sounds] I was like, \u201cWow, maybe he\u2019s reclaiming it.\u201d That moment was amazing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. \u2013 Henry Diltz PhotographyWow. James Taylor is local to Boston. How did you get connected with him?<\/p>\n

The phone rang one day in \u201969 and it was Peter Asher<\/a>. I knew him from The Troubadour. Peter had just come over from England, [working] for [The Beatles\u2019] Apple Records. He said, \u201cHenry, I\u2019m producing this new guy, and we need publicity pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

I knocked on Peter\u2019s door. He said, \u201cOh, he\u2019s in the living room.\u201d I walked in and James Taylor is sitting on the floor near a grand piano, finger-picking \u201cOh! Susanna\u201d on guitar.\u00a0 It sounded like a music box. It was so beautiful. That was my first moment of looking at, and listening to, James Taylor. It was mesmerizing, the way he picks. I got down on my knees and took a few pictures of him finger-picking.<\/p>\n

\"\"James Taylor. \u2013 Henry Diltz Photography<\/p>\n

Then for better light, we went to my friend\u2019s commune. James was standing near the shed, by a tall post. And he\u2019s a tall guy. He put his arms on the post. And it looked so good, the way he filled the frame.\u00a0 Peter Asher saw that picture, and it became the album cover. So it was an accident.<\/p>\n

\"\"James Taylor. \u2013 Henry Diltz PhotographyAnother fateful accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny, the universe was on my side. [laughs] Same thing with Crosby, Stills & Nash on the couch.<\/p>\n

Right. It was initially for publicity photos, not the album cover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I knew all three. These well-known musicians were going to make a super-group. They needed publicity shots. So we went out with Gary in his \u201956 Ford station wagon, hopping out here and there. We found this old house with a couch in front. They just jumped on the couch spontaneously. I took pictures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Crosby, Stills and Nash. (Or in this case, Stills, Nash and Crosby.) \u2013 Henry Diltz Photography<\/p>\n

Publicity shots were all black-and-white in those days. But I took color [for my slideshow]. When they saw it, they said: \u201cWow! That would make a great album cover. But we\u2019re sitting in the wrong order, because since you took that picture two days ago, we decided to call ourselves Crosby, Stills & Nash.\u201d They were originally going to be Stills, Nash & Crosby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cLet\u2019s go back. It\u2019ll take five minutes.\u201d We got in Gary\u2019s station wagon\u2014 but the house was gone. Flat. Bulldozed to build a parking lot. Like that song Joni wrote.<\/p>\n

Yes! I was just going to say, \u201cPave paradise, put up a parking lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

[laughs] The song wasn\u2019t about that, but it fits perfectly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The theory behind a lot of your work seems to be: Have an adventure, see what happens, document it. It does fit that tiger-in-the-bushes vibe. You told me about the first Eagles album adventure. What\u2019s the story behind your second cover for them, \u201cDesperado\u201d<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Gary knew this old ghost-town \u2014 a Western movie set out in the Santa Monica Mountains, in Agoura. The Eagles spent a day in this derelict town playing cowboys with their friends Jackson Browne and J.D. Souther. We had real guns with movie blanks. They went bang! They started playing cowboys, shooting at each other, grabbing their chests, falling down in the dirt.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Eagles, during the shoot for the cover of \u201cDesperado.\u201d \u2013 Henry Diltz Photography<\/p>\n

Suddenly, fire engines came. A cloud of smoke [from the blanks] was rising in the Santa Monica Mountains, and someone thought the hills were on fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your stories are unreal.<\/p>\n

[laughs] It was fun.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve also got great Neil Young photos.<\/p>\n

Neil Young was a good friend of Gary\u2019s. We\u2019d go to his Broken Arrow Ranch for a weekend, walk around. Of course, we were always smoking God\u2019s herb. I can say that now that it\u2019s legal.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t legal in the early \u201970s, but every musician smoked it. We\u2019d smoke a big fatty and look at llamas and geese.<\/p>\n

[laughs] I love it.<\/p>\n

One day Neil wanted us to go in this barn where he had a great guitar stashed. I turned around, he was standing in the barn door with this little farm dog \u2014 it\u2019s just a great shot. Once again, accidentally. Most pictures I took were not planned.<\/p>\n

\"\"Neil Young. \u2013 Henry Diltz PhotographyWhat slides stand out to you now, as you bring these slideshows to Boston and New Hampshire?<\/p>\n

Joni Mitchell lived near me in Laurel Canyon. She needed publicity photos, so we went to her house. We walked up the steps; she was sitting in the front window waiting. Gary started talking to her for five minutes, and I took some pictures. So natural. Nobody even noticed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Joni Mitchell. \u2013 Henry Diltz PhotographyWith all these stories and accidents, it does feel, like you said, like fate guiding you to bear witness.<\/p>\n

Photography, it\u2019s a reason to be there. Permission to hang out and watch. I\u2019m thankful to the universe for giving me that. Being a photographer was like having a passport into interesting people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

One time Rolling Stone called up. They said, \u201cHenry, what are you doing today? I said, \u201cOh, nothing.\u201d They said, \u201cCould you fly to Las Vegas, go to Truman Capote\u2019s house, and take a picture of him? We have a story, but no cover<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I knocked on Truman Capote\u2019s door, I thought: What the hell? I read his short stories in college \u2014 now here I am knocking on Truman Capote\u2019s door? How random is that? How fabulous is that?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I read the Indian gurus. Swami Satchidananda Saraswati<\/a> did the morning wake-up in his orange robe at Woodstock. In\u00a0 \u201cThe Golden Present\u201d<\/a> he says: We\u2019re all here to learn. But you should think of yourself as the only student, and everyone you meet is your teacher.<\/p>\n

Wow. That\u2019s profound.<\/p>\n

I think about those matters a lot: What is life? What are we supposed to do? I was a psychology major at the University of Hawaii because I was interested: Who are we? What is the reason? Reading these Indian gurus answers a lot of those questions. I would look at it that way: Gosh, how wonderful that this happened.<\/p>\n

Meaning you look at your life as a photographer that way?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah. From picking up a camera, to being in Laurel Canyon, to these album covers. Why would that happen to me? That\u2019s quite a coincidence. Or are there coincidences? Maybe it was my divine plan here on Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For more events, information, and photographs see henrydiltz.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lauren Daley can be reached at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. She tweets @laurendaley1<\/a>, and Instagram at @laurendaley1<\/a>. Read more stories on Facebook here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

Lauren Daley is a longtime culture journalist. As a regular contributor to Boston.com, she interviews A-list musicians, actors, authors and other major artists.<\/p>\n

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