Ruth Bernhard

Diltz’s professional career began with the serendipitous $100 sale of a single shot of the
Buffalo Springfield in 1966. In a memorable six-year partnership with design legend
Gary Burden, the list of album covers and artists he shot grew to read like a “Who’s
Who” of rock ‘n’ roll history. Musicians liked him for the natural quality of his photos
and because he was not part of the Establishment press. His work graced magazines like
Rolling Stone and included a LIFE cover of Paul and Linda McCartney in April 1971.
Diltz’s photos are distinguished by a lyrical sense of composition that actor Harrison
Ford once referred to as “Henry’s framing Jones.” There’s an intuitive, naturalistic
luminosity that only available light – which he prefers – can deliver. Whether working in
conventional film or digital images, he always finds the perfect balance of illumination,
color and reportage. Henry and his images are such fixtures in rock culture, he is
interviewed regularly and often for books, articles and documentaries about the era and
speaks regularly on college campuses.

Today, his extensive archive is handled by Henry Diltz Photography. He continues to
document the music scene from his base in Southern California. Diltz is a partner in, and
is exclusively published and represented by, the Morrison Hotel Gallery, which
specializes in fine-art rock photography. “I am amazed at the accumulation of images that
has resulted, simply by doing what I love to do, day after day after day,” he says. “It’s a
result of being with countless people over the years, waiting at the sidelines for the
moment to happen. Photography has been my passport, and I have arrived in the present,
where I have always been, camera in hand. There! That says it best for me!”