The Seventies: A Photographic Journey

Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood

by Ira M. Resnick

Foreword by Robert Klein

When Ira Resnick was 12 years old, he went to his first concert (Ray Charles at the Westchester County Center) equipped with his camera, and he was hooked. Fast forward 10 years to a decade-long journey he took from his home in New York City to California, trusty Nikon camera in tow. The Seventies: A Photographic Journey is a highly personal collection of celebrity photos taken by Resnick that evoke the cultural and social ferment and above all, the unbridled spirit of the era for which the book is named.

As a freelance photographer for Rolling Stone and concert promoter Bill Graham, he had access to some of the most iconic figures of the time: Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac, and The Who, to name just a few. He covered events like all-day concerts at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley during these years when he was on his own, and it was his sheer determination and passion that propelled him forward, into the front rows of the top venues in the Bay Area and LA, where he captured some of his most memorable shots.

In The Seventies, Resnick has opened his archives for the first time to share with us his photographs—many of them never before published—of the era’s most legendary celebrities. He takes us with home on his journey, sharing the stories behind the photographs and placing us front and center to experience the palpable energy that emanates from this images. There are high-profile shots that earned Resnick coverage in Rolling Stone, People magazine, and US, but equally compelling are the unguarded moments that offer us a rare opportunity to see a different side of these uber-public personalities. Through his lens we see the Pointer Sisters grabbing a quick bite of barbecue backstage, Rock Hudson enduring a wet smooch from his Irish setter, and Al Franken and Bill Murray sharing a laugh during a rehearsal for Saturday Night Live.

Celebrities who have been A-listers for decades make some of their first public appearances in these pages—a long-haired Martin Scorsese, a fresh-faced 23-year-old newcomer Sissy Spacek, and young Emilio Estevez with this father, Martin Sheen.

From Ira Resnick’s first celebrity photo—a candid shot of Ali MacGraw at new York’s Earth Day rally in 1970—to an electrifying series of photos taken in 1979 of Pat Benatar, The Seventies spans a decade that epitomized sex and drugs and rock and roll, but also much more: heart and hope. And as he writes in his introduction: his pictures give us a sense of what it was like to be an active participant in a rapidly changing America. [READ MORE]