Laurel Canyon served as the artistic hub of Southern California’s music scene during the 1970s, where artists like Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and Frank Zappa created their works. Ginny Winn captured images of them along with other emerging musicians. She was the inaugural staff photographer for both Warner and Reprise Records but eventually departed from the music industry to pursue a career in therapy. Recently, she discovered her collection of photographs and published a book titled Grievous Angels, Trout Masks, and American Beauties: 1970s Rock & Roll Photography of Ginny Winn.
Winn shared with KCRW that during her time photographing concerts, she rarely encountered other female photographers, a fact she only reflected on later. “I recall the first shoot at the Hollywood Bowl, where I was positioned in the pit. I arrived quite early and settled in the middle. Then I simply concentrated on capturing the shot.”
Frank Zappa plays his guitar. Photo credit: Ginny Winn.
Throughout her career, Winn developed a friendship with singer Maria Muldaur, famous for her 1973 hit “Midnight at the Oasis.” The two first connected at a Warner Bros. gathering for which Winn was hired to photograph: “She was seated on a step in front of a calendar showcasing a girl with a fish coming out of a bikini. Because she was positioned there, I thought it made for a delightful shot. However, I had no clue she was Maria Muldaur.”
Eventually, they discovered that they both resided just down the street from one another in Laurel Canyon. Muldaur frequently visited Winn’s home to do laundry, and that became the setting for many photographs of Muldaur for her albums. Over time, they became very close friends.
Winn also enjoyed the opportunity to travel to Marin County to photograph Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. On that day, the musicians were passing around a bottle of acid.
“I’m at the Grateful Dead ranch. We convened by the horses that morning. One of them, presumably Mickey, appeared with a [small glass bottle], and everyone took a drop. I just went along with it; it felt like the right thing to do. As it turned out, it was pure, high-quality acid,” she reminisces. “One word kept circling in my mind. It’s irrevocable. … And then that day concluded. We went … to Mickey’s preferred Chinese restaurant … which felt heavenly, and then off to the Grateful Dead studio. Yes, I felt like, ‘This truly is the pinnacle of experiences.’”
“I just went along with it. It felt like the proper course of action,” Ginny Winn reflects on photographing Mickey Hart and the Grateful Dead. Photo credit: Ginny Winn.
Another musician highlighted in the book is Gram Parsons, a pioneer of the alternative country Americana style. His track “The Return of the Grievous Angel” partially influenced the title of Winn’s book.
Parsons passed away at the young age of 26 in 1973 due to a drug overdose in Joshua Tree.
“I feel such sorrow that he didn’t have more time. His voice was extraordinary. I sensed that we shared a uniquely timeless, innocent connection, heart-to-heart,” Winn expresses.
Ginny Winn mentions having a “heart-to-heart connection” with Gram Parsons. Photo credit: Ginny Winn.
In her 40s, Winn chose to make a career shift and train as a therapist. At that moment, she was employed as a bartender and was asked to help care for Keigh Lancaster, the granddaughter of actor Burt Lancaster, who struggled with undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia: “That experience made me realize, ‘This is my purpose. This is what I am meant to do with my life.’”
Consequently, she returned to academia, earned her master’s degree, successfully completed state licensing examinations, and amassed 3,000 hours of supervised training.
The competencies she acquired as a photographer benefited her in her role as a therapist, she details.
As a therapist, she states, “You’re present with someone, honoring them, aiming to establish a connection, being respectful, getting to know each other, and assisting them to become their best self.”
She elaborates, “And when you’re capturing someone’s image, you wish for them to be their finest self. … In both scenarios, you are, in essence, honoring that which is in you and also in me. … I believe that somehow comes through in the images. It is evident in the eyes, the eyes reveal everything.”
Joni Mitchell is featured in “Grievous Angels, Trout Masks, and American Beauties.” Photo credit: Ginny Winn.
The cover of Ginny Winn’s book depicts Alice Cooper performing in thigh-high leopard print boots. Credit: Fantagraphics.