Friday, February 6, 2015
Yesterday, American photography legend Rowland Scherman donated three additional photographs to the archives of FOLK New England.
Each of these new digital prints has been custom-printed by Mr. Scherman from a scan of the original camera negative. The three photographs are all from his revered collection of Newport Folk Festival 1963 photographs. FOLK New England has frequently exhibited his first donation, an iconic photograph of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan singing at the 1964 March on Washington.
The newly donated photos (Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, John Hammond, Jr.) will be exhibited for the first time at the FOLK ALLIANCE conference in Kansas City, February 18-23.
Rowland Scherman studied Fine Arts at Oberlin College. In 1957, he was the dark room apprentice at LIFE magazine, and upon returning to college he began a photographic career that has spanned nearly a half a century.
Scherman became the first photographer for the newly-formed Peace Corps in 1961, and traveled the world to help give the agency its image. He shot editorial, fashion, and covers for Life, Look, Time, National Geographic, Paris Match and Playboy, among many others.
In 1968 he won a Grammy Award for that year’s Best Album Cover, as well as the Washington DC Art Director’s Award for Photographer of the Year.
Living in England and Wales in 1971-77 Scherman ran an advertising studio for Conran Associates. At that time, he created the first freestanding anthropomorphic alphabet “Love Letters.” He also herded sheep and was an apprentice carpenter in Abergavenny.
Back in the US, Scherman moved to Birmingham, Alabama and resumed photography, doing portraits and corporate work. With the help of an NEA Grant, Scherman documented Alabama’s famous Highway 11, which showed in museums throughout the state.
Now living in Cape Cod, Rowland Scherman returned to his first love, portraiture, and is continually inspired, as so many artists are, by the majestic Cape light.