SAN FRANCISCO’S FINE, YOU SURE GET LOTS OF SUN /

I CAN CLAIM NO SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE OF HORTICULTURE… I EVEN CONFESS TO ENJOYING THAT IGNORANCE SINCE IT HAS LEFT ME FREE TO REACT WITH SIMPLE PLEASURE JUST TO FORM AND COLOUR, WITHOUT BEING DIVERTED BY CONSIDERATIONS OF RARITY OR TIED TO THE CONVENTION THAT A FLOWER MUST BE PHOTOGRAPHED AT ITS MOMENT OF UNBLEMISHED, NUBILE PERFECTION.

‘Flower Power’ unites two bodies of Penn’s work; flowers dating from 1967 to 2006 and ethnographic studies of San Francisco hippies and Hell’s Angels, 1964 to 1971. These two distinct series are strongly related in the context of the ‘Flower Power’ movement of the 1960’s. ‘Flower Power’ a slogan attributed to the American poet Allen Ginsberg, was used by hippies during the late 1960s and early 1970s as an symbol of peace, rooted in opposition to the Vietnam War.

All photos by Irving Penn.

From top: (Early) Hippie Group, San Francisco 1967, Rock Groups (Big Brother and the Holding Company and The Grateful Dead), San Francisco 1967, Hippie Family San Francisco.

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