Iconic Rock Shots by Elliott Landy

Photographer Elliott Landy shot many of the most memorable images in classic rock from the late 1960s to early ’70s. Featured here as part of BCB’s “Through The Lens” showcase of notable rock are two of his finest. You can browse his catalog of photos and purchase signed fine art prints on his website, Landyvision.com. Check back for more of Landy’s work over the next few months.

Eric Clapton’s 1970 band Derek and the Dominos were a short-lived group whose existence lasted only about a year. Their album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was a commercial and chart failure when it was released in November 1970, but has since become a treasured classic in both Clapton’s oeuvre and classic rock overall. Landy took this shot during the band’s two night stand at the renowned Capitol Theatre in Westchester County, NY on December 4-5, 1970.

“In the summer of 1969, Mike Lang rode his motorcycle over to my house in Woodstock and asked if I would be interested in photographing a festival he was planning.” recalls Landy. It was one of the most important yeses I ever said. We didn’t talk about money except to say that we would work it out. It wasn’t even a handshake – it was preordained.” As the official photographer of the Woodstock Festival, Landy captured and then transmitted the events and spirit of those amazing three days from August 15-17 to the world.

“Woodstock showed us that people can live together in a peaceful and sharing way. It showed that the goal many were going toward during those years was reachable. It actually happened for 500,000 people at one time for three days,” he observes.

See our previous post of Landy photographs here.

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Elliott Landy

Elliott Landy began photographing the Vietnam antiwar movement and the New York City underground music culture in in 1967. He shot many memorable images of iconic rock’n’roll artists of that era such as Bob Dylan and The Band, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Van Morrison and Richie Havens onstage, backstage and in intimate personal settings that can be found on his website, LandyVision, and on the covers of a number of classic albums. His documentation of that pivotal time in music and American culture culminated with the 1969 Woodstock Festival, for which he was the official photographer. His photographs have been published worldwide, including the covers of such major publications as Rolling Stone, Life, The Saturday Evening Post and more as well as calendars and photographic book collections. He has published a compendium of his photos, Woodstock Vision, The Spirit of A Generation, and authored the book Woodstock 69, The First Festival.

Latest posts by Elliott Landy (see all)

• Iconic Images from Noted Photographer Elliott Landy - 06/01/2015
• Iconic Rock Shots by Elliott Landy - 05/31/2015