Book Description
Love-ins and sit-ins, the "back to the earth" movement, nude beaches, the "New Age" quest for spirituality, reggae culture and The Grateful Dead, the New York Mets, and life on Martha's Vineyard-from an early age Peter Simon has delighted in documenting the world around him through photography. Here is his life's work thus far, an astonishing record of the far-ranging experiences of his generation, featuring many of the major figures, both in the mainstream and counter-culture, of the past 40 years.


About the Author
Peter Simon is a photographer and counterculture proponent. He was photo editor of the Boston Phoenix in the late 1960s and early 1970s and his work has appeared in a number of publications including Rolling Stone magazine and New Age Journal. He lives on Martha's Vineyard.

FROM OUR EDITORS

This powerful and wide-ranging collection of photographs by Peter Simon chronicles Simon's life and his photographic interpretation of current events, especially the tumultuous events of the 1960s and 1970s. Documenting the thriving counterculture scene's fashion, music, and illicit hobbies, and capturing icons such as Jerry Garcia, the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and Ram Dass, Simon evokes the unique energy of the era in his richly textured images. Carly Simon, Peter Simon's sister, contributes a warm introduction that shows us the photographer back when he was a precocious kid taking Polaroids for family newsletters. I and Eye is divided into sections, each representing a unique period in Simon's career -- from "Growing Up Is Hard to Do" to "Woodstock 99.com," which brings the story full circle as Simon escorts his son to the newly revived festival. Simon's essays and accompanying photographs tell his personal story in tandem with the history of our nation, from jubilant hippies harvesting apples on a farm to Martin Luther King Jr. giving a speech at a local high school. "College Daze," the section that covers Simon's years at Boston University, is a pictorial sledgehammer, juxaposing peaceful antiwar demonstrations gone awry with images of serene musicians, such as Richie Havens, serenading the masses. The "Reggae Bloodlines" section, featuring photographs from Simon's pioneering book of the same name, offers readers a taste of Jamaica, including Simon's famous photograph of legend Bob Marley. Whether in color or stark black-and-white, Simon's photographs convey an immediacy and freshness of composition that make even the oldest images crackle with energy.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The causes, celebrities, and defining moments of the baby boomer generation have all been captured by Peter Simon's camera in the course of his journey from the 1960s into the new millennium. Love-ins, sit-ins, antiwar demonstrations, the "back to the earth" movement, communes, protests, nude beaches, the New Age quest for spirituality, reggae and the Rastafarians, following the Grateful Dead and the New York Mets, and finally the idyllic life on Martha's Vineyard - no other photographer has so evocatively portrayed the kaleidoscopic saga of this generation." Accompanying these images of an era is a nostalgic, autobiographical amble through Simon's eventful life, a text full of wit and angst. In this astonishing record of the far-ranging experiences of his generation, Peter Simon has captured many of the major figures and events - both in the mainstream and counterculture - of the past forty years.

FROM THE CRITICS

Boston Globe

Simon jumped into the hippie movement with his camera, an appetite for illegal substances and eventually, no clothes. He attended every be-in and sit-in he could find, documenting all that he saw -- and participating.

Publishers Weekly