When you think of the great rock photographers, Allan Tannenbaum’s name isn’t the first two or three that pop into your mind, I’m sure. People cite Jim Marshall, Mick Rock, Bob Gruen, Henry Diltz, or Gered Mankowitz much more often than Alan. And while those other photographers are great, they took some legendary live and studio shots, I would put Tannenbaum’s photo journalism up there with the best. And it just so happens that much of his photo journalism that he was shooting for the SoHo Weekly revolved around the emerging punk and New Wave scenes of NYC in the late 70s and early 80s.

Much of the genius of his work owes itself to the fact that he was a photog on the beat. Just like an old school detective or a writer looking for a scoop, he was always on the scene. I mean, he was there when Sid Vicious was being hauled off to jail. How many people can say they have that shot?

These pictures and some more that our bosses may certainly deem too racy for this forum, are collected in a book called, NEW YORK IN THE 70s

His work is on exhibit for the entire month at the NOT FADE AWAY GALLERY in NYC.

UPDATE 7/9: YOU CAN BID ON SOME OF THESE GREAT PRINTS WITH THE PROCEEDS BENEFITTING the VH1 SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION

Tags: allan tannenbaum, cbgb's, new wave, new york in the 70s, not fade away gallery, punk, sid vicious, the clash

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under Daniel Siwek's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.