Own An Iconic Piece Of Greenwich Village History

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — Prints from one of the most diligent chroniclers of Greenwich Village life are up for grabs in a special benefit sale – and they include images of icons of the neighborhood's beatnik heyday.

Fred McDarrah, the late Village Voice photographer, was one of the most dedicated witnesses of Village life and the Beat Generation of the 1950s and 1960s. In his work for the Voice, he photographed some of the most important artists and musicians of the time, including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Jack Kerouac.

Now, through a partnership with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, some of McDarrah's most famous prints are available to purchase through a sale to support GVSHP, a local nonprofit that works to preserve places of historical and cultural significance in the neighborhood.

McDarrah, wrote his colleague J. Hoberman, documented "the city’s be-ins, demonstrations, peace marches, happenings, free concerts, coffee-house readings, loft performances, jazz bars, and underground movie emporia, not to mention the flotsam and jetsam of Sheridan Square, Bleecker Street, Avenue C, St Marks Place, and the Bowery.

"He was a real newspaper guy and a genuine historian of his times. His street and studio portraits of downtown artists, avant-garde luminaries, local pols and boho celebs were often definitive."

His work documented a Village environment that no longer exists, for an alt-weekly that today is a shadow of its former self.

The GVHSHP shared some of McDarrah's image with Patch, including a portrait of Bob Dylan taking in 1965, perhaps McDarrah's most recognizable photos. The immortal image, which has been used by everyone from Martin Scorcese to Dylan himself, was the cover photo for the final print edition of the Village Voice, printed earlier this year in September. McDarrah shot the photo in Sheridan Square Park in the Village.

McDarrah also captured a rare photo Jimi Hendrix in his Greenwich Village recording studio, Electric Lady Studios. The photo, seen above, shows Hendrix with with producer and engineer Eddie Kramer and studio manager Jim Marron in the space, located at 52 W. Eighth St. The studio opened shortly before Hendrix died in September 1970.

Also included in the collection is a photo of the artist Andy Warhol taken while Warhol and McDarrah were out shopping on St. Marks Place. McDarrah took the photo while Warhol tried on a military bandleader jacket at an East Village thrift store. The photo later ran on the front page of the Voice.

In addition to his photos of icons of the Beat generation, McDarrah also photographed some of the city's most pivotal cultural moments, including the Stonewall uprising in 1969.

He died in his Village home aged 81.

The rest of the images, which include shots of Willem de Kooning, Jane Jacobs and Allen Ginsberg, can be seen and purchased exclusively through GVSHP here.

A previous version of this article misstated the year of the Stonewall uprising. It happened in 1969.

All images: Copyright Estate of Fred W. McDarrah, courtesy of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation