Charles Gatewood photographs

Charles Gatewood (1942-2016) was an American photographer, writer, and videographer, predominantly known for his photographs of Beat generation writers, American musicians and cultural icons, and alt- and countercultural figures and communities.

Gatewood was born in Elgin, Illinois in 1942. He attended University of Missouri in the 1960s and became interested in photography through the work of fellow student and photographer George W. Gardner. From 1964-1966, Gatewood lived in Stockholm, Sweden, where he apprenticed to a group of documentary photographers and worked as a darkroom technician for AB Text & Bilder news agency.

In 1966, Gatewood photographed Bob Dylan at a press conference and concert. One of Gatewood's photos from the event, “Dylan With Sunglasses and Cigarette,” was syndicated soon after and published worldwide. The acclaim the photograph received inspired Gatewood to pursue a career in photography.

Gatewood returned to the U.S. in 1966 and worked briefly as an assistant at Jaffe-Smith photography studio in Greenwich Village, New York City, before beginning a freelance photography career. He took assignments at the Manhattan Tribune, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Harper’s, Business Week, Time, and other publications. His work throughout the 1960s and 1970s included numerous portrait photographs of celebrities, civil rights leaders, musicians, and writers.

In January 1972, Gatewood travelled to London on assignment with Rolling Stone writer Robert Palmer to interview William S. Burroughs. During this visit, Gatewood took a series of iconic portraits of Burroughs and established a friendship with the Beat writer. Gatewood’s first photography book, Sidetripping, was published to wide acclaim in 1975, and contained an introduction by Burroughs as well as excerpts from his novels. The book chronicled scenes of 1970’s American alternative culture, and Gatewood’s continued interest in the subject garnered him the title “the anthropologist of the forbidden.”

Gatewood continued to document the American underground in photographs, writings, and film throughout the rest of his career, with a strong focus on fetishism, body modification, sexuality, social protest movements, biker culture, Mardi Gras, and nature. He was the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, and his work was exhibited widely from the 1960s through the 2000s. He lived and worked predominantly in San Francisco from 1987 until his death in 2016.

SOURCES:

Charles Gatewood, Photographer of Extremes, Dies at 73 - The New York Times. Accessed December 18, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/05/arts/charles-gatewood-photographer-of-extremes-dies-at-73.html?_r=0

William S. Burroughs, Charles Gatewood, and Sidetripping | RealityStudio. Accessed December 18, 2020. https://realitystudio.org/interviews/william-s-burroughs-charles-gatewood-and-sidetripping/

"The Portable-Infinite - Atom. Accessed December 18, 2020. http://portable-infinite.blogspot.com/2016/04/rip-charles-gatewood-1942-2016.html

You Gotta Put the Book On the Table | Art Practical. Accessed December 18, 2020. https://www.artpractical.com/event/you-gotta-put-the-book-on-the-table-art-by-charles-gatewood/