Linda Ann Wolf (born March 17, 1950) is an American photographer and author. She is one of the first female rock and roll photographers. Wolf also makes fine art photography with an emphasis on women and global photojournalism.
Early life
Wolf was born in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, on March 17, 1950 and raised in
Sherman Oaks, California
Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...
. Her mother, Barbara Wolf (née Friedman), is a
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and was a fashion model and English literature teacher at Beverly Hills High School. Her father, Joseph Wolf, was a businessman and avid photographer. Wolf's interest in photography was born out of her father's passion for photography. He bought her first camera for her when she was a teenager.
Wolf attended Hollywood High School and graduated in 1968. In 1969, she began dating Sandy Konikoff, the drummer for Jackson Browne. He invited her to live at Paxton Lodge in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where Elektra Records was recording one of Browne's first albums. There was a darkroom at the studio, and she was inspired by the experience and made a decision to pursue photography professionally.
Wolf's grandfather, Jules Wolf, managed the historic
Lincoln Theater, often called the Apollo of the West.
Rock & roll photography
1969 – Fanny
In 1969, Wolf began working at Warner Bros./Reprise Records, where she met the first all-girl rock band to sign with a major record label,
Fanny. They became friends, and she moved in with the group at Fanny Hill, a mansion on Marmont Lane in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
, where she lived for a year and a half as the band's documentary photographer. Over 80 of Wolf's archival photos of Fanny are presented in the documentary of the band, Fanny: The Right to Rock During her stay, she met
Lowell George
Lowell Thomas George (April 13, 1945 – June 29, 1979) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, who was the primary guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and founder/leader for the rock band Little Feat.
Earl ...
and band members from
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles. George disbanded the group because of creative differences shortly before his death in 1979. Surviving ...
and began photographing them as well.
1970 – Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour
![Joe Cocker in the Spotlight](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Joe_Cocker_in_the_Spotlight.jpg)
Wolf met
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...
a week before the Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour began. He had just arrived in the U.S. and was staying with his roadie and keyboard player at
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...
's house. His record label informed him that he was to start a U.S. tour in six days, but he had just recently broken with his band,
The Grease Band
The Grease Band was a British rock band that originally formed as Joe Cocker's backing group. They appeared with Cocker during the 1960s, including his performance at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. The band's name derived from an inte ...
. Russell offered to quickly assemble a touring band, and recruited over 40 of his friends. Denny Cordell, who produced the tour, invited Wolf along after seeing her photography. She and Andee Nathanson were the two official photographers for the two-month U.S. concert tour, which included Russell,
Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge (born May 1, 1945) is an American recording artist. During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on '' Billboard'' magazine's pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts, and she won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and t ...
,
Chris Stainton
Christopher Robert "Chris" Stainton (born 22 March 1944) is an English session musician, keyboard player, bassist and songwriter, who first gained recognition with Joe Cocker in the late 1960s. In addition to his collaboration with Cocker, Stai ...
,
Claudia Lennear
Claudia Lennear (born Claudia Joy Offley; 1946) is an American soul singer and educator. Lennear began her performing with the Superbs before becoming an Ikette in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She was also a background vocalist for various acts ...
,
Bobby Keys
Robert Henry Keys (December 18, 1943 – December 2, 2014) was an American saxophonist who performed with other musicians as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Ni ...
,
Pamela Polland
Pamela Anna Polland (born August 15, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter who made three albums for Epic and Columbia Records in the 1960s and 1970s and whose songs have been recorded by a number of popular artists. In the 1980s, she re-eme ...
,
Matthew Moore, and musicians representing the
Tulsa Sound
The Tulsa sound is a popular musical style that originated in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the second half of the twentieth century. It is a mix of blues, blues rock, country, rock and roll and swamp pop sounds of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Ar ...
including
Carl Radle
Carl Dean Radle (June 18, 1942 – May 30, 1980) was an American bassist who toured and recorded with many of the most influential recording artists of the late 1960s and 1970s. He was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame i ...
,
Jim Keltner
James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America".Howard Sounes. ''Down ...
, and Chuck Blackwell.
The music documentary ''Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen'' was released in 1971 and credited Wolf for her tour photography.
Wolf authored ''Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen: A Memory Book'', which included over 150 new photographs, quotes and stories from alumni. It was released in 2015 at the Lockn' Festival.
On September 11, 2015, Wolf joined the
Tedeschi Trucks Band
The Tedeschi Trucks Band () is an American blues and blues rock group based in Jacksonville, Florida. Formed in 2010, the band is led by married couple Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. Their debut album, '' Revelator'' (2011), won the 2012 Gramm ...
& Friends and alumni from the 1970 Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tour, as the official photographer, and sang in the encore with the Space Choir, for a tribute concert to honor Joe Cocker and the Mad Dogs and Englishmen music. Participating alumni included
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...
,
Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge (born May 1, 1945) is an American recording artist. During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on '' Billboard'' magazine's pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts, and she won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and t ...
,
Claudia Lennear
Claudia Lennear (born Claudia Joy Offley; 1946) is an American soul singer and educator. Lennear began her performing with the Superbs before becoming an Ikette in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She was also a background vocalist for various acts ...
,
Chris Stainton
Christopher Robert "Chris" Stainton (born 22 March 1944) is an English session musician, keyboard player, bassist and songwriter, who first gained recognition with Joe Cocker in the late 1960s. In addition to his collaboration with Cocker, Stai ...
, and
Pamela Polland
Pamela Anna Polland (born August 15, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter who made three albums for Epic and Columbia Records in the 1960s and 1970s and whose songs have been recorded by a number of popular artists. In the 1980s, she re-eme ...
.
Cocker died on December 22, 2014 and Wolf's photographs were used in articles written about his life and music legacy by the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
.
2020 - ''Tribute: Cocker Power''
On April 28, 2020, Insight Editions released ''Tribute: Cocker Power'', a 335-page coffee table book featuring Wolf's documentary photos, tour alumni stories, and vignettes from the
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...
:
Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tour and the 2015 tribute concert at the
Lockn' Festival
Lockn' Festival, formerly known as Interlocken Music Festival, is an annual four-day music festival held at Oak Ridge Farm in Arrington, Virginia. The festival focuses primarily on jam bands and other music improvisation acts. Its inaugural even ...
led by the
Tedeschi Trucks Band
The Tedeschi Trucks Band () is an American blues and blues rock group based in Jacksonville, Florida. Formed in 2010, the band is led by married couple Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. Their debut album, '' Revelator'' (2011), won the 2012 Gramm ...
with
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...
and original tour alumni. The book, which received favorable reviews, was released on the 50th anniversary of the tour. It includes contributions from over one hundred musicians and crew members, including
Denny Cordell
Dennis Cordell-Lavarack (1 August 1943 – 18 February 1995), known as Denny Cordell, was an English record producer. He is notable for his mid-1960s and early 1970s productions of hit singles for The Moody Blues, Leon Russell, The Move, Procol ...
,
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...
,
Chris Stainton
Christopher Robert "Chris" Stainton (born 22 March 1944) is an English session musician, keyboard player, bassist and songwriter, who first gained recognition with Joe Cocker in the late 1960s. In addition to his collaboration with Cocker, Stai ...
,
Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge (born May 1, 1945) is an American recording artist. During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on '' Billboard'' magazine's pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts, and she won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and t ...
,
Claudia Lennear
Claudia Lennear (born Claudia Joy Offley; 1946) is an American soul singer and educator. Lennear began her performing with the Superbs before becoming an Ikette in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She was also a background vocalist for various acts ...
,
Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks (born June 8, 1979) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and founder of The Derek Trucks Band. He became an official member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1999. In 2010, he formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife, blues sing ...
,
Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi (; born November 9, 1970) is an American singer and guitarist. A multiple Grammy Award nominee, she is a member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a conglomeration of her band, her husband Derek Trucks’ and other musicians.
Early li ...
, and
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes (born April 6, 1960) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his work as longtime guitarist with the Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a ...
.
Collections
Wolf's photographs are in the collections of:
* Musee Reattu, Arles, France
* Musee Cantini, Marseille, France
* Musee Het Sterkshof, Antwerp, Belgium
*
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
, Paris, France
* Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio, US
* Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, California, US
* Women's Building, Los Angeles, California, US
* Photographic Center of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
* Harborview Medical Center Hand Wing Gallery, Seattle, Washington, US
Exhibitions
Group exhibitions: 1980–2021
* USC Fisher Galley Museum of Art, ''Sight Specific: LACPS and the Politics of Community'', Los Angeles, California
* National Museum of Women in the Arts: ''Women who Rock'', Washington, DC, US
* L.A.C.E., Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California, US
* Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles, Arles, France
* Sala San José de Caracciolos de la Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
* Bainbridge Island Museum of Art: "Women in Photography", Bainbridge Island, Washington US
* Bainbridge Island Museum of Art: "Breathe" Bainbridge Island, Washington US
In 1981, Wolf exhibited her ''Bus Bench Mural Project'' at
Rencontres d'Arles
The Rencontres d’Arles (formerly called ''Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles'') is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historia ...
in Arles, France.
Her photography was included in the ''Multicultural Focus'' exhibition at the
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery is located in the Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles, California. It focuses on the arts and artists of Southern California. The gallery was first established in 1954.
Main building
The Los Angeles Municipal ...
, in Barnsdall Park. In 2012, the 12 artists from the original Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery were brought back together to show new work at the Arena 1 Gallery: ''Refocus: Multicultural Focus: an initiative of the J.Paul Getty’s Pacific Standard Time''.
Solo exhibitions
* 1972 – ''La Chapelle des Penitents Bleus'', Aix-en-Provence, France
* 1973 – ''Le Chateau de Goult'', Aix-en-Provence, France
* 1973 – ''L'Ancienne Poste'', Goult, France
* 2013 – ''Grace Church''; Global Portraits, Bainbridge Island, Washington, US
Wolf conceived and co-curated the 2017 ''Women in Photography'' exhibit at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, where many of her own photographs were exhibited.
Wolf was a featured guest on the KNBC/PBS series ''Talk About Pictures'' in 1981.
Public art projects
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Wolf created a public art project of murals consisting of photos of ordinary people sitting on bus benches. The photographs were placed on the sides of buses and the backs of bus benches in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Oakland, California in the US, and Arles, France. The benches were conceived as a response to the dehumanizing effects of advertising, and were exhibited in numerous venues including the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the
Rencontres International Festival of Photography in Arles, France. One of the benches sits in the courtyard of
Musée Réattu
Musée Réattu (Reattu Museum) is an art museum in Arles, housing paintings, including works by Arles-born painter Jacques Réattu, drawings by Picasso, as well as sculptures and a large collection of photographs.Michelin TravelMusée Réattu I ...
as part of their permanent collection in Arles.
Wolf then developed the project ''L.A. Welcomes the World'', a series of large-scale multicultural portraits of people presented on billboards throughout Los Angeles, for the 1984 Summer Olympics, which was sponsored by
Eastman Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
.
Organizations
* 1981 – Co-founder of Women in Photography International, which is archived in Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Peter E. Palmquist Collection
* 1993 – Co-founder of
The Daughters Sisters Project, now called Teen Talking Circles, a non-profit organization supporting girl's empowerment, gender relationships, and youth activism
Books and documentaries
Wolf has authored five books and three documentary shorts featuring her photography:
* 1997 – ''Daughters of the Moon, Sisters of the Sun: Young Women and Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood''
* 2005 – ''Speaking and Listening From the Heart, The Art of Facilitating Teen Talking Circles''
* 2012 – ''Bridge of Glass: My mother and me: the relationship with my mother, poet, Barbara Wolf''
* 2014 – ''I Am A Full Woman'' (documentary)
* 2015 – ''Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century: Stories from a New Generation of Activists''
* 2015 – ''Joe Cocker Mad Dogs & Englishmen Memory Book''
* 2018 – ''The Caravan: Seeking Asylum in the United States ''
* 2020 - ''Tribute: Cocker Power''
Contributions to published books and films:
* 1984 – ''Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of LA'' - Alfred van der Marck Editions
* 2010 – ''Leon Russell'' - Tulsa Area Music Archives
* 2011 – ''Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Video'': Joe Cocker, Mad Dogs and Englishmen (film, 1970)
* 2012 – ''Making Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing'' - Imperfect Publishing
* 2012 – ''Twenty Feet From Stardom'': Leon Russell Montage (film)
* 2013 – ''Willin': The Story of Little Feat'' - Da Capo Press
* 2015 – ''Land of a Thousand Bridges: The June Millington Autobiography''
* 2016 – ''Delta Lady: the Autobiography of Rita Coolidge''
* 2017 – ''Intensa Levedad: Pury Estalayo''
Education
Wolf graduated from Hollywood High School in 1968.
From 1970 to 1975, she lived and studied in
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
, France, attending the
Institute for American Universities, and L'Ecole Experimental Photographic.
Her early photographic work in France focused on people and village life in the
Vaucluse Mountains
The Vaucluse Mountains (French: ''Monts de Vaucluse'') are a mountain range of the French Prealps located in the departement of Vaucluse, between the Luberon Massif and Mont Ventoux
Mont Ventoux (; oc, Ventor, label= Provençal ) is a mountai ...
.
Upon returning to the US, Wolf attended
Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...
in
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
European ...
. She taught photography through the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
at Los Angeles Extension and worked as a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Citywide Mural Project.
[Muchnic, Suzanne, Moving to Back of Bus Bench, Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1979, p. IV- 9.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Linda
American photographers
20th-century American writers
American feminists
1950 births
Living people
American women photographers
21st-century American writers
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American women writers