Postcards from the Underground: Portraits from the Beat Era

By Larry Keenan

In 1965, Larry Keenan was asked by the poet and playwright Michael McClure if we would like to photograph a group of his friends. Asking McClure who his friends were, Kennan was astounded when he listed the names that included Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Bruce Conner, Neal Cassady, and Ken Kesey. He had studied the works of these groundbreaking poets, writers, and artists, and recognized the significance of this opportunity.

Twenty-one years old, Keenan spent over a year documenting the last days of the Beat Generation with a borrowed 35mm camera, photographing the Beats in their homes and with their families and friends. His portraits constitute a unique chronology and reportage of this era, and many of these photos have since become iconic images that represent a literary generation. Here, in this book of 20 postcards, is a timeless rendering of the spirit of the Beats.

"This slim volume produced by City Lights Publishers offers the reader a taste of Keenan's astounding work in post-card-sized bites: Especially riveting are the shots of Bob Dylan, Michael McClure and Allen Ginsberg taken in the alley behind City Lights Bookstore in 1965, before Dylan's San Francisco show with Robbie Robertson and The Hawks. Also of note is the shot of Neal Cassady in front of the mirror shaving, and the wonderful photo of the late Allen Ginsberg sharing a private moment with Dennis Hopper. Keenan's work, always pristine and often over-looked, provides a personal glimpse into the magical cool and troubled heart of the 1960s." --Jacob Aiello, Electric Review

Larry Keenan was a recipient of the prized Phelan Award for his fine art photography. He was also an award-winning advertising and corporate photographer who specialized in combining the traditional medium of photography with contemporary digital techniques. His photographs are in museums and private collections throughout the world, and were exhibited in the Whitney Museum's Beat Culture and the New America and the Smithsonian Institute's REBELS: Artists and Poets of the '50s. He died in 2012 at the age of 68.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872863654
• ISBN13: 9780872863651
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: City Lights Books
• Length: 20 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.4" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Keenan's incredible ocular journey

Thanks to Larry Keenan's masterful photography, we are left with a visually potent view of the Beat Generation and beyond. Keenan's photo-documentation is necessary, for it captures many essential moments of Ginsberg, Whalen, Cassady, McClure, Dylan, and many others. Without Keenan's illustration of people and events that have already hooked us deeply, we would no doubt be struggling along empty-eyed, wondering where's the color, the depth, the light, and the angle of the Beats? We know their literature; we know something about their personal biographies. Yet equally (if not more) important is knowing what everything looked like. Keenan has provided us the images. He has provided us the most incredible ocular journey, one that goes wham and hits us with sentiment and longing. Keenan wasn't just behind the camera; he was and is part of the rich fabric that wraps around several ripples of 'eras,' including the Beat Generation. Keenan has transcended a few decades of American history and created a movie for us that is shot in still-frames, but which is alive and three-dimension....