‘Hurricane of Colors’ explores major rock icons

In 1964, 15-year-old Mike Frankel found himself amongst photojournalists covering a Beatles concert during the band’s first tour in the U.S.

Years later, he continued to photograph important events in American music history. He was able to photograph nearly every major rock figure from the 1960s and ’70s, including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead.

Frankel joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss his book ‘Hurricane of Colors,’ which takes a look at all of his famous photographs.

“It was a lucky thing; I’ve had a charmed life in arts,” Frankel said. “I was attending the Beatles concert when I was fifteen years old in Philadelphia, and a security guard that I knew from my home area saw me, called me over and said ‘Wanna see them up close?'” Frankel was then led to the press conference before the concert, his camera at the ready, and began shooting alongside professional photographers and photojournalists. He was then led directly in front of them and took photos during the show.

In his book, Frankel shared never before seen photos of the Beatles that he took and has been sitting on for the past 60 years.

Frankel was also at the 1969 Woodstock concnert and was able to capture photos of the iconic music festival. He shared his experience at Woodstock and the moment he knew it was would be different than every other festival he had shot, which Frankel said was rooted solely in the large number of people who were there.

Frankel was able to show the impact and feeling the music gave him while taking photographs in an age prior to photo-editing software like Photoshop. To do this, he used motion and multiple exposures- settings only available on the camera.

Frankel also shared photos of Neil Young, Grace Slick, The Who and David Bowie.