Of this photo, Nacio Jan Brown wrote simply, “This man asked me to photograph his tattoo.”
Historian Howard Brick has noted that the counterculture “defined itself by what it stood up against”—”a culture of life against a culture of death.” This photograph suggests, however, how a certain “culture of death” came to roost on Telegraph Avenue in the late-’60s and early-’70s, in the form of hard drugs. Above the tattoo of the Grim Reaper smoking, one can make out track marks.
Nacio Jan Brown, Rag Theater: The 2400 block of Telegraph Avenue, 1969-1973 (Berkeley: Great Star Press, 1975).
One of Nacio Jan Brown's favorite photographs: capturing a tense moment in an antiwar protest
During a protest over People's Park, police shot indiscriminately at Telegraph Avenue rooftops
A helicopter spraying tear gas on demonstrators on the Cal campus
The photographer Nacio Jan Brown found himself at the center of the story
When Huey Newton's manslaughter conviction was reversed, supporters held a rally upon his release
In the aftermath of a Telegraph Ave protest, the crowd disperses
The photographer speaks about his career and Rag Theater
The motion and life of Telegraph Avenue, in a photograph jammed with contrasts
A popular place to wile away the hours: on the sidewalk facing Moe's Books
A young woman tends to the hair of a young man
A magical moment on Telegraph, captured serendipitously by photographer Nacio Jan Brown
Two ways of living on the Ave -- on the move, and planted in place
The Telegraph Avenue scene in black and white
In a photo, a window onto the handicrafts revolution
From Nacio Jan Brown, a dog's eye view of Telegraph
An image that asks the eye to roam over it
In a card game, street hustle and performance art
Death, taking a hit
An older man lifting up a woman's shirt, in a jumbled-up moment on the Ave
The portrait that helped 'Rag Theater' click into place
Flanked by a middle finger and question marks
In an altered pair of eyeglasses, a skewed sense of humor
Rachel's mother at Telegraph's most popular hangout
A beguiling photograph of childhood play on Telegraph
An abbreviated moment of dress-up and dreaming
Dressing up for—and beyond—the street's 'rag theater'
On the street, with a dog nestling at her feet
A moment in the churn of Telegraph Avenue life
Looking up from an underground comic
A haunting look, caught in shadow
"People were just drawn to her"