The music revolution was a vital and integral component of the sixties San Francisco art scene. Herb Greene photographed the rock musicians and other members of San Francisco’s cultural milieu during the height of its creative productivity. Greene, a friend of many of San Francisco’s most influential musicians, worked as few photographers have: not as a documenter from the outside, but as a participant within the music scene he was photographing.

Many of Greene’s photographs have become signature portraits of these musicians. His revealing portraits of The Jefferson Airplane, Jeff Beck, The Pointer Sisters, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Carlos Santana, Sly Stone, Rod Stewart and many others helped create astonishing family album for an entire generation.

A series of Greene’s photographs featuring the Grateful Dead called “Dead 50 Years,” is featured at the Griffin Museum at Digital Silver Imaging, 9 Brighton St., Belmont, MA, on September 21, 2015 through October 9, 2015. An opening reception will take place October 1, 2015 from 6-8 p.m. There will be live music, very light fare and a wine tasting at the opening reception.

Writer, Matt Nannis writes about Herb Greene and his photos of the Grateful Dead in an essay called “Language of the Dead.” He says, “The collected work of one Herb Greene dances upon.…pages comprised [of] ones and zeroes in such a manifest as never before seen. The emotions, the moments, the good times and the hardships of a storied guild of brothers that put the music and those willing to respond to [music] before all other things. Herb Greene was there when the fellowship was spread across Palo Alto. He was there at the peak when they were at their best and most illustrious. He was there at the beginning when they were their subtlest and unostentatious. He captured the glory that sang from their lips and their instruments.”