Tag: Bill Owens

A limited-edition publication, Bill Owens: The Legacy of Suburbia Photographs 1964-2022 is available with a special edition print included. This book features images from Bill Owens’ entire career from his work in Jamaica with the Peace Corp to his current Digital Renaissance. The book is available in an edition of 100. The book can be bought at gallery in Carmel or ordered through True North Editions.

The concert was featured in the documentary film “Gimme Shelter,” and a few photojournalists captured the experience. Among them was Bill Owens, who would soon rise to photographic fame for his seminal early 1970s project “Suburbia,” which cheekily documented the rise of the suburbs in California.

In December, 1969, the photographer Bill Owens got a call from his friend Beth Bagby, who occasionally shot photos for the Associated Press. As Owens explains in his new photo book, “Bill Owens: Altamont 1969,” the A.P. wanted to hire him for a day “to cover a rock and roll concert in the Altamont hills.” The Altamont Speedway concert had been reported as the West Coast’s response to Woodstock. It was also part of a return to public view for the Rolling Stones, who had started touring again, after nearly two years off the road. Their efforts began in July, with a free show in London’s Hyde Park. The concert was a success, an entirely peaceful event financed and filmed by Granada Television. Security had been provided by a ragtag group of people wearing leather, who the Stones mistakenly believed were part of the Hells Angels. Emboldened, the Stones hired the man who organized the Hyde Park concert, Sam Cutler, to work on an American tour in the fall of 1969.