Renowned Deadhead Photographer Jay Blakesberg will be bringing his Between The Dark and Light – Grateful Dead Slideshow Storytelling Presentation to the East coast for four dates in celebration of his new book – Jerry Garcia: Secret Space of Dreams.
Between The Dark and Light: is a dynamic slideshow/storytelling event featuring rock-and-roll photographer Jay Blakesberg sharing stories from his amazing 40+year career photographing the Grateful Dead experience. During this 70- minute presentation, the charismatic and funny Blakesberg regales attendees with photos and stories related to his epic rock-and-roll American Dream story. Over the last few years, this presentation has entertained thousands of Deadheads and music fans around the country.
This engaging, fast-moving presentation grants the audience an “all-access” pass to his many years photographing the band, first as a fan, and then as a journalist, and ultimately as an insider working for the band. Between The Dark and Light: includes Blakesberg’s story of serving as the official photographer for the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary “Fare Thee Well” concerts that took place in 2015.
Between The Dark and Light kicks off with Blakesberg’s colorful teenage years growing up in suburban New Jersey in the late 1970s, when he and his friends’ lived soley for the thrill of sex, drugs and rock and roll. He describes how his love for photography began in 1978 after his father gave him an old Pentax camera to shoot the Grateful Dead performing at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Back then Blakesberg simply wanted to create memorabilia to plaster on his bedroom walls and began obsessively seeing and shooting his favorite bands
live: Hot Tuna, Eric Clapton, The Grateful Dead, Neil Young, The Who and Bob Dylan to name a few. He then shares how after high school he embarked on a wild psychedelic ride, joining the music-loving circus of freaks and misfits: Deadheads. In the mid-80s he settled in San Francisco and began to build a professional career as an in-demand commercial rock photographer whose work has been published in preeminent books and magazines (including Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and Relix – to name a few) thousands of times.
Today, Blakesberg – the once shutterbug hobbyist – is one of the music industry’s most sought-after rock photographers, known for capturing the explosive energy of the live music experience as well as the intimate moments of one-on-one portrait photography. Most significantly, Blakesberg is a preeminent fixture on the jam
band scene whose body of work in this arena makes up a comprehensive photographic archive of the modern psychedelic rock-and-roll tribe that began 50 years ago in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.
East Coast Jay Blakesberg Dates
Sunday, February 23 – Elation, Norfolk, VA – doors 4PM, program 5PM Advance tickets at Eventbrite.com
Tuesday, February 25 – The Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC – doors 6PM, program 7PM – Advance tickets at Eventbrite.com
Wednesday, February 26 – Charleston Pour House, Charleston, SC – doors 5PM, program 6PM – Before Dead Tribute band “Reckoning”.
Friday, February 28 – Miami Beach Botanical Garden, Miami Beach – doors 2:30PM, program 3:30PM – before Bob Weir/Wolf Bros.
