Baron Wolman

[1][2] A graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied philosophy, Wolman's professional photographic career began in West Berlin in the 1960s while stationed with U.S. Army military intelligence.

Because of Wolman's virtually unlimited access to his subjects, his photographs of Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Phil Spector, Jim Morrison, Ike & Tina Turner, Peter Rowan, and other musicians were the graphic centerpieces of Rolling Stone's layout.

For the most part, Wolman eschewed the studio and never used on-camera strobes, preferring informal portraiture, a style appropriate to both the musicians he was documenting as well as the audience for these photographs.

Wolman's approach was gradually supplanted by highly stylized, mostly studio image makers, whose photographs were published only upon the approval of the musician and of his or her management.

In 1974, Wolman spent a year with the Oakland Raiders football team, using his full-access status to photographically document the entire 1974 season.

2011 saw the release of an auto-biographical, image-heavy book Baron Wolman: Every Picture Tells A Story, the Rolling Stone Years published by Omnibus Press.