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Photographic Beginnings
 

photo Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison at the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California, 1965. The "British Invasion," led by the Beatles, helped rock music become a universal language for the sixties youth culture. The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, symbolized the creative, swirling energy of the era.  

 

Lisa Bachelis grew up in Burbank, California, in a middle-class family that shared liberal social and political ideals. As a high schooler in San Francisco, she was drawn to North Beach and Sausalito and their colorful bohemian communities--artists, musicians, and writers who rejected conformity, challenged the civil and art establishments, and experimented with many forms of personal expression, including dress and drugs.

In 1964, at age twenty-one, Bachelis became personal assistant to Frank Werber, manager of the Kingston Trio. He gave her a 35-mm camera and asked her to photograph musicians for his record company. That year she met Tom Law, her future husband, who was road manager for the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary.

  

photo We Five rehearsing at manager Frank Werber's house, Mill Valley, California, 1965. This San Francisco Bay-area folk-rock group had the hit "You Were On My Mind."  

 

photo The Kingston Trio, Mill Valley, California, 1964. The commercially successful group popularized songs they performed in a folk-revival style.  

 

photo Paul Stookey, Mary Travers, and Peter Yarrow, of the Peter, Paul, and Mary trio, Berkeley, California, 1965. This folk music group had several hits, including "Day Is Done," Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," and "Puff, the Magic Dragon"-songs that blended political activism with popular music.  

 

photo Tiny Tim and his trademark ukulele at Phantom Cabaret, Los Angeles, 1965. Known for "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," he later appeared on TV's Laugh-In, a show that mixed comedy and cutting social commentary.  

 

photo Hugh Romney (Wavy Gravy), Phantom Cabaret, Los Angeles, 1965. A comedian, Romney later organized the Hog Farm commune and was an emcee at Woodstock.  

 

photo Otis Redding at Whiskey A-Go-Go, one of America's first discotheques, Hollywood, 1965. Redding's appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 further popularized his rock-and-soul style. His many hits included "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay."