Bob Seidemann
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Seidemann first gained notoriety in 1967 for a photographic interpretation of the Pieta. He reversed the traditional subjects, depicting a mourning male cradling the body of a nude female, with a graphic combination of sexuality and violence.
In 1969, Eric Clapton formed a new band and Seidemann was commissioned to create the cover for their album. Seidemann photographed a nude 11 year-old girl to create what would become his most famous and controversial work, entitled "Blind Faith". Not only did it become the cover and title of the album, but the band as well.
Although unpublished until her death, Seidemann's 1967 portraits of a semi-nude Janis Joplin earned him wide acclaim. In fact, a Baron Wolman photo of Joplin used a number of the earlier Seidemann portraits as a backdrop. Seidemann also photographed The Grateful Dead a number of times during their peak, both for posters and album liners, as well as designing the covers for Go to Heaven and Jerry Garcia's debut solo album, Garcia. Other works include the cover of Jackson Browne's Late for the Sky, Neil Young's On the Beach, and numerous concert posters for bands such as Traffic and Big Brother and the Holding Company.
From the late 1980s through the 1990s, Seidemann took a series of 302 aviation-themed photographs entitled "The Airplane as Art". The collection sold at Sotheby's on October 12, 2000, for $236,750.
