Larry Keenan, Photographer - Beat Generation & Counterculture Photos
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Early 1960s

Gerald Gooch, Artist

GERALD GOOCH, ARTIST
Alameda 1964

The best art student at the time at California College of Arts & Crafts was Gerald Gooch. Even fellow students were collecting his work. We knew how really great his lithographs were. While still an under graduate he did a cover for Time magazine. Gooch is posing in front of the old sea wall right in exactly in the same spot that he is illustrated on his shirt. The New-Realist artist Robert Bechtle produced the shirt for Gooch. He said, "The palm trees stood for all the pricks in the world."
Folkways at Mt. View

FOLKWAYS AT MT. VIEW
Oakland 1964

Society was still fairly calm at this moment and folk music was king. I set-up this shot behind CCAC in a cemetery. The car was placed below to give the photograph some mystery. I liked working in there because by staying away from the funerals, I was left alone to work. The grounds were very beautiful, varied and surreal.
Flute Player

FLUTE PLAYER
Alameda 1964

The flute player is another example of my interest in photographing musicians and/or women on location.
Meeting at McClure's Place

MEETING AT McCLURE'S PLACE
San Francisco 1964

A group of us asked Michael to be our faculty sponsor for a publishing project we were doing at CCAC. He was the only teacher there who had real publishing experience. This was our first meeting at his place in the Haight. Michael and his wife Joanna's bed with his poster headboard amazed me. There was a cross by George Herms, looming over it. A student friend is lying on the bed in this photograph. My next photograph was going to be of Michael on the bed but my camera broke. After the meeting, Michael asked me if I wanted to photograph some of his friends. The rest is history.
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