The photographer Herb Greene captured Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and an unidentified model during a fashion shoot at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival. Jim Marshall Photography LLC

Herb Greene, 82, Dies; His Photographs Captured the San Francisco Sound
One of the first to shoot the Grateful Dead, he also memorably chronicled many of the other bands that were on the scene in the late 1960s.

By Richard Sandomir
Published March 26, 2025
Updated March 28, 2025

Herb Greene, whose evocative portraits of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and others helped define the rock scene that emerged in San Francisco in the mid-1960s, died on March 3 at his home in Maynard, Mass. He was 82. … His wife, Ilze Greene, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.

Mr. Greene pursued music portraiture in his spare time while working for about a dozen years in the 1960s and ’70s as a fashion photographer for the Joseph Magnin department store and the men’s wear retailer Cable Car Clothiers.

Instead of photographing concerts, which did not interest him, he invited bands and musicians to studios in San Francisco and to his apartment, where some of them stood in front of a dining room wall filled with hieroglyphics drawn by a roommate with knowledge of Egyptology.

His pictures of the Dead, a favorite subject, include Jerry Garcia, the band’s leader, in a vest and tie, playing a banjo while seated on a stool, with a wall-sized American flag behind him; Ron McKernan, the Dead’s organist, known as Pigpen, striking a threatening pose in front of Mr. Garcia; and the band on the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets, in the district known as a center of the hippie counterculture.


Mr. Greene’s many pictures of the Grateful Dead, a favorite subject, include a well-known one of Jerry Garcia against a wall-sized American flag. Herb Greene, via Greene family


He also photographed Ron McKernan, the Dead’s organist, known as Pigpen. Herb Greene, via Greene family


Mr. Greene photographed the Grateful Dead (from left, Mr. Garcia, Mr. McKernan, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann) on the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets, in the district known as a center of the counterculture. Herb Greene, via Greene family

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Mr. Greene photographed Janis Joplin during a walk in his neighborhood in San Francisco in 1966. Herb Greene, via Greene family

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A self-portrait from 1966. Herb Greene, via Greene family

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In January 1967, Mr. Greene photographed the Human Be-In, the countercultural gathering attended by thousands at Golden Gate Park that came to be seen as a preview of the Summer of Love. Herb Greene, via Greene family

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Mr. Greene in 2019. Ilze Greene

Richard Sandomir, an obituaries reporter, has been writing for The Times for more than three decades. More about Richard Sandomir