Print Details
About this photograph
Cream was a new kind of blues band. British of course, but putting their unique stamp on a classic American musical idiom, the blues. And where else to shoot a blues band than traveling, on the mythical rails of American music lore. Art Kane carefully scouted a westward bound railroad track in Chadds Ford, PA, a rural area outside of Philadelphia where Cream was performing. Photographed for Life Magazine’s The New Rock” photo essay in April 1968, Kane brought the band out to the location in the late afternoon, in time for a perfect sunset at the apex of the tracks.
During the shoot, drummer Ginger Baker, elated at news that morning of the birth of his son in the UK, repeatedly leapt up whooping with joy and rolling down the embankment into the bramble bushes, necessitating Kane’s assistant to wipe him off. Later, grabbing a bite at a diner in a small country town, Baker was incensed at some local firemen who were laughing and pointing at them. Marching up to them and getting in their grills he exclaimed; “What are you laughing at? Haven’t you ever seen an Englishman before? Look at you in your silly hats!”
Print sizes and editions
16” x 20” paper size - Edition of 40
30” x 40” paper size - Edition of 7
50” x 75” paper size - Edition of 3
Print type
C-type print
Paper type
Epson Fine Art semi-matte archival paper
Signature
Estate stamped
About the photographer
Art Kane was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. Kane's work encompassed fashion, editorial, celebrity portraiture, travel, and nudes with a relentless and innovative eye. Kane pioneered photographic storytelling by investigating his image with metaphor and poetry, effectively turning photography into illustration. In 1958, Kane assembled the greatest legends in jazz and shot what became one of his most famous images, Harlem 1958.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he photographed, among others, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Doors, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan. In his lifetime Kane was honored by almost every photo-design organization in the United States and his contributions to photography continue to resonate to this day.
© Art Kane. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.