Legends – Barrie Wentzell

The Legends Series by Barrie Wentzell, shot in the decade spanning 1965 – 1975, straddled  one of the most important decades in the history of popular music and social change. (Above – Led Zeppelin, 1970)

The exhibition, on through June 17 at Howard495 gallery in Vancouver, brings together 100 of the renowned photographer’s most notable portraits documenting a cultural revolution.

“Rock and Roll acted as a catalyst in mitigating racial discrimination and segregation, it heralded in the second wave of feminism, denounced the Vietnam war and celebrated peace and love,” notes for the exhibition say. “Barrie Wentzell’s work recognizes this and pays homage to the cultural impact of rock and roll and the birth of a progressive society.”

“We were out there discovering bands,” Wentzell says of the days when he worked as chief photographer for Melody Maker, an influential British music magazine that predated Rolling Stone. “Nobody was really famous, apart from the Beatles, and even they were very sweet,” he says in an interview with Galleries West magazine.

Wentzell spent music’s most important decades, 1965 to 1975, as chief photographer for UK music publication, The Melody Maker. Born in England, he now lives and works in Toronto.

See all the images in the exhibition on the Howard495 gallery website, here.

Barrie Wentzell’s website, here.