Larry Keenan
Beat Generation & Counterculture Photographs
Limited Edition Archival Silver Prints

These black and white archival photographic prints are printed, numbered, and signed by Larry Keenan. Please click here for pricing & ordering information.

Last Gathering of Beat Poets & Artists, City Lights, North Beach Lawrence Ferlinghetti wanted to document the 1965 Beat scene in San Francisco in the spirit of the early 20th century classic photographs of the Bohemian artists & writers in Paris. The Beats, front row L to R: Robert LaVigne, Shig Murao, Larry Fagin, Leland Meyezove (lying down), Lew Welch, Peter Orlovsky. Second row: David Meltzer, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Daniel Langton, Steve (friend of Ginsberg), Richard Brautigan, Gary Goodrow, Nemi Frost. Back row: Stella Levy, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Because this is a vertical image about half of the Beats attending are not shown. prices & ordering information
Neal Cassady / Shaving at Ginsberg's apartment, SF Allen Ginsberg did not have a bathroom in his apartment so Neal Cassady is shaving in Ginsberg's kitchen in this photograph. Cassady had a hard time trying to get some lather from the old bar soap. His face had gotten cut. When Cassady was introduced to people, he was always introduced as, 'meet Neal Cassady who is Dean Moriarty from Kerouac's On the Road'. I had been looking for a way to illustrate this dual role. While he was shaving, I suddenly realized, there they both were there. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight out. prices & ordering information
McClure, Dylan and Ginsberg, North Beach This session was arranged the night before at a party after Bob Dylan's concert at the Berkeley Community Theater. Allen Ginsberg introduced me to Dylan and we arranged to do a photo session (for the Blonde on Blonde album) the same day as the Beat's last gathering at City Lights Books. At City Lights we hid out in the basement with Dylan and when the people started to break the door down we climbed out a window and ran down the alley and took this photograph. I was in college and living at home during the Beat period. I had to mow the lawn before I could borrow the car and go to San Francisco to shoot this photo and the City Lights Books last gathering of the Beats event. prices & ordering information
Ginsberg/Breakfast at his apartment, San Francisco Once when I was visiting Allen in his apartment he asked me if I would like some coffee. Having said "yes," he presented me with a metal bowl with coffee in it. The bowl seemed strange (like a dog dish) and I nursed the coffee to cool it down. Soon he started asking "are you finished with that, man?" I would say "no, not yet" and after awhile I started to feel uncomfortable because the bowl seemed important to him. When I finally said "yes," he grabbed the bowl away - threw the remaining coffee in the sink and sat down with the bowl for his breakfast cereal. I was using his only bowl. prices & ordering information
Allen Ginsberg chanting in his apartment in San Francisco After meeting Ginsberg for the first time, I was not in Allen's Fell St. apartment long before he rolled up the rug, sat down, and chanted mantras for around an hour. A photo from this series became a Wes Wilson/Ginsberg poster "Who be kind to". prices & ordering information
Ginsberg, McClure & Conner chanting in Ginsberg's S.F. apartment After meeting Ginsberg for the first time, I was not in Allen's Fell St. apartment long before he rolled up the rug, sat down, and chanted mantras for around an hour. During that time Peter Orlovsky, Michael McClure, Bruce Conner and I joined in. With this photograph, I wanted the viewer to have the feeling of what it was like to sit down and join in the chanting with the Beats. prices & ordering information
McClure, Conner playing/singing,leaving Haselwood's apartment Michael McClure and Bruce Conner are playing and singing while leaving Dave Haselwood's house. Haselwood printed a lot of the small edition letterpress jobs for the Beats. McClure just bought the tambourine to accompany Conner's blues harmonica playing. prices & ordering information
Bruce Conner with his poster and apple at Haselwood's S.F. apartment Bruce Conner is posing in front of his film exhibition poster Haselwood's apartment. Dennis Hopper shot the poster photograph. Conner went into the gym ëBruce Conner's Physical Services' and demanded they take down their sign because he was the real Bruce Conner. They refused, so Conner returned with the women witnesses shown on the poster to prove he was the real Bruce Conner. They still refused to remove their sign, so he returned again and presented hundreds of buttons to the owner of the gym that read 'I am not Bruce Conner'. Bruce was wearing the only button that read 'I am Bruce Conner'. prices & ordering information
Bruce Conner mocking the Rolls Royce hood ornament While waiting for McClure to leave his place, Bruce Conner and I played around with my parent's car. He posed all over the old Rolls-Royce, but I like his flying lady hood ornament pose the best. prices & ordering information
Philip Whalen with his drip portrait by McClure at his S.F. apartment Poet and Zen Master, Philip Whalen emerged from his closet with a drip painted portrait of him by Michael McClure. It looks just like him. While I spent the day with him at his apartment, I was struck by the depth of his inner peace. I was so impressed by him and sad that he could not attend the Last Gathering session at City Lights Books. During that session I elbowed into the photographers on my right so I could move over a little get his book behind the window in that photograph. I wanted him to be there. prices & ordering information
Ferlinghetti/I Am the Door, City Lights Books Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a Beat poet, artist and owner/publisher of City Lights Books (the first soft cover book store in the US). He was the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco. This photograph was taken in the basement of City Lights. Ferlinghetti told me that City Lights used to be a Holy Roller church and that he had left up the Biblical tracts on the walls. While posing for me in front of 'I am the Door' Ferlinghetti pulled his coat up to reveal the 'door'. prices & ordering information
Neal Cassady, looking for the cops, waiting for Ken Kesey, Oakland While waiting for Ken Kesey to arrive, Cassady kept a lookout for the cops. Kesey was a fugitive at the time. Cassady asked me "What's the heat like around here, man?" Thinking he was talking about the weather, I said "pretty nice". He gave me the weirdest look, then I knew what he meant. prices & ordering information
Artist Robert LaVigne at his studio in San Francisco Robert LaVigne is one of the few Beat artists that was aligned with the Beat poets. Besides his own work he did poster art and graphics for Allen Ginsberg and others. In this photograph he is talking about his huge nude painting of Peter Orlovsky hanging on the wall behind me. The next time I viewed his painting of Orlovsky, thirty years later, it was hanging in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. prices & ordering information
Julius and Peter Orlovsky, Robbie Robertson & Dylan in City Lights The Orlovsky brothers, Robbie Robertson and Bob Dylan in the City Lights basement waiting to escape. The door to the basement is locked, people are trying to break it down. Dylan is here to be photographed for Blonde on Blonde with McClure and Ginsberg. Finally, we climbed out a window and ran down the alley so we could have a private session. prices & ordering information
Ginsberg Profile 1965 prices & ordering information
Freewheelin', McClure & Montana performing at Moe's Books Michael McClure asked me to photograph this performance at Moe's Books. I had been working with his group shooting practice sessions and it was great to see them now performing live. Hell's Angel Freewheelin' Frank, Michael McClure and George Montana singing McClure's song 'Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercades Benz'. Janis Joplin made this song famous later on. The only posters sold out on the wonder wall behind the performance are Allen Ginsberg's and Steve McQueen's. Youth culture with heros at both extremes. prices & ordering information

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