Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Here's a "Folk Alley" Photo.

It was almost 1970, and The Whitsuntide Singers were dabbling with electric pickups on their guitars, and shedding their striped shirts for a more Bohemian Greenwich Village look. The face and sound of folk music was undeniably changing. So our producer/quasi agent folk singer Joel Cory wanted us to get new publicity shots, as the "record" would soon be released.

We were sent to the well known Chicago photographer Curt Cole Burkhardt. Curt did most, if not all of renowned singer Bonnie Koloc's album covers. Bonnie and Curt were a very close couple as I recall. He was a great guy, welcoming the group into his massive warehouse studio. Curt didn't want to do the customary "posed" shots, so he took us out into the streets (and alleys) of downtown Chicago to do candids. We must have walked miles that afternoon.

The above photo is one of my favorites of that shoot. It was done in the alley, I believe behind the Chicago Public Library. Curt experimented with grainy sepia tones in the developing process (which we saw the following day back at his studio). I'll post some more of that photo session down the pike here.




2 comments:

Dave Schipper said...

cool

Anonymous said...

Very cool! Did listening to folk alley make you think of this? - Eileen