Back in the 1970s, in the aftermath of political, civil, and sexual revolution all over the world, photographer James Fortune plied his trade in the backstages and VIP sections of some of the nation’s biggest music events.
Beginning in his college days in the late ’60s, Fortune spent more than a decade photographing rock’n’roll icons such as Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Jim Morrison, Elton John and countless others. His catalog of over 15,000 images from the tumultuous ’60s and ’70s contains shots of everything from hippie riots in Hollywood to Gene Simmons and Cher sharing an e’clair.
He ran with the high-and-mighty and photographed them all, including Jimmy Carter, the Bee Gees, Led Zeppelin and Gerald Ford. His work even spanned the Pacific to Viet Nam, where the intrepid photographer served active duty from 1968 to 1970 with the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet Combat Camera Group.
The bedroom walls of America’s youth in the ’70s and early ’80s were plastered with his rock star posters. Now, for the first time, his limited edition prints from his original negatives are now available through jamesfortunephotography.com.