It was then that Hamilton began to capture the steady stream of bands that came through the city, spending weekends shooting at the Fillmore East and, according to James, "...covering the music life of NYC."
Thus began a decades long career that would find Hamilton photographing the NYC music scene during some of its most fervent and fertile years, capturing the likes of Nico, Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, Beastie Boys, and James Brown.
During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Hamilton photographed war and civil unrest in areas including El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Haiti and Grenada.
He was situated in the Philippines during the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos, and in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square massacre (sneaking photos past authorities that became some of the few to appear in US newspapers).
After meeting George A. Romero, Hamilton was enlisted to capture stills for his next two movies, Knightriders and Creepshow, following with work for Francis Ford Coppola on the set of The Outsiders.
The book provides a detailed chronicle of pinball's rise and becoming of a national pastime, starting with its pre-war roots and tracing its history up to its ubiquity in now long-extinct bars, penny arcades, and coffee houses across the US and in Europe.
The musicians pictured represent a wide variety of genres such as Duane Allman, Dolly Parton, Madonna, Eubie Blake, Charles Mingus, Joni Mitchell, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lee Lewis, Glenn Branca, The Ramones, Gil Scott-Heron, Laurie Anderson and Bob Marley.