He was a chronicler of the emerging Rock scene in America who wrote articles and books, and published photographs of musicians and groups such as Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Johnny Hallyday, and Grateful Dead.
[1] He was among the first European photographers to join the Haight Ashbury scene in San Francisco in the mid-1960s (sexual liberation, drugs, psychedelic music, etc.)
[2]: 17–18 After publishing his first article in issue #4 of Rock & Folk, Dister was sent to London in February 1967 by the head of Atlantic Records' French subsidiary, to interview Hendrix and take photographs.
[2]: 32–33 When Hendrix traveled to Paris the following month to promote his first singles, Barclay Records appointed Dister to act as facilitator and take photographs, which would later feature on the covers of the French & Benelux releases of "Hey Joe" / "Stone Free", "The Wind Cries Mary" / "Highway Chile", and the album Electric Ladyland.
[4] His view of the attitudes and aesthetics of Rock, of Punk, and of other genres ignored by academics (especially in France) made him a witness of the counter-culture in America.