Although I recognized Howl and Kaddish as major works, I never found Allen Ginsberg's beat poetry as accessible as that of his colleague Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I remembered the ubiquitous Ginsberg primarily as a stock figure in the 1950's and 1960's counterculture. One cannot read a history of those times without encountering Ginsberg over and over again, whether with the Beats, Leary, Kesey, Wavy Gravy or any number of artists and rock musicians. He was seemingly at every be-in, love-in, happening and protest held during that turbulent period. Additionally, his spiritual affinity with Buddhism led to a major awakening of interest in Eastern mysticism and that in turn had a great effect upon me personally.
It was something of a shock then to visit the excellent retrospective currently at NYU's Grey Gallery and realize that the well known poet was also an extremely talented photographer. Of course, the photos are worth seeing for their content alone. Where else can one find such intimate documentation of the early Beat movement? Here are all the major players, from Orlovsky, Kerouac and Neal Cassady in NYC to Paul Bowles and Burroughs in Tangiers. There is a wealth of history here.
Beyond the content, though, the photographs themselves are great art. Beginning in 1953, Ginsberg began taking black & white snapshots which he then had processed and printed at the local drugstore. These early photos are portraits of friends and lovers that never fail to capture their subjects in revealing moments. The most shocking are those of Jack Kerouac. They show his transformation from a handsome, clean cut young man in the early 1950's to a dissipated derelict in 1964 when he visited Ginsberg's apartment for the last time.
The second part of the show consists of photos from roughly the mid-1980's through the mid-1990's. Here Ginsberg used his celebrity status to document not only the aging Beats, but also the stars of a younger generation. There is a terrific shot of Lou Reed backstage, a photo of Madonna with Warren Beatty, and a portrait of Bob Dylan mugging as a homeless person in Tompkins Square Park. One particularly poignant portrait is of an older Herbert Huncke, a seminal figure from the Beats' Times Square days. According to his Wikipedia entry, Huncke did prison time for refusing to roll over on his roommate Ginsberg when the latter tried to run down a motorcycle cop in Queens in the 1940's.
An intriguing aspect of Ginsberg's art is that he often handwrote fairly lengthy descriptions in black ink on the photos' matting. Unexpectedly, this gives the work a greater immediacy than it would otherwise have.
There is a hardcover catalog with excellent reproductions available for $50. The exhibit runs through April 6, 2013.
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