Larry Keenan
Nov. 20, 1943 - Aug. 12, 2012
“He was still doing it when he died,” McClure says. “If we had an important event, he would be there in his wheelchair, photographing.”
"A good photographer knows which 1/125th of a second is the right one."
—Dale Smith.
Larry Keenan, was an internationally noted San Francisco Bay Area photographer, graduated with highest honors, from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1967, and majored in Design and Education. He holds two degrees, a Bachelors of Fine Arts and a Bachelors of Applied Art. He also holds a lifetime state teaching credential. During this period, Keenan photographed the final days of the Beat Generation. A selection of his "Beat Era" work is in the permanent collection of the Archives of American Artists in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C..
In 1965, California College of Arts and Crafts student Larry Keenan was asked by his teacher, poet and playwright, Michael McClure if he would like to photograph a group of his friends. Asking McClure whom his friends were, Keenan was amazed when he listed names that included Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Bruce Conner, Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey. Keenan had studied the works of these groundbreaking poets, writers and artists, and recognized the significance of this opportunity.
Twenty-one years old, Keenan spent over a year photographing the Beats in their homes and with their family and friends. He began documenting the last days of the Beat Generation with a borrowed 35mm camera using mostly Tri-X film push processed with available light and no tripod. He cleverly made an enlarger from an old slide projector to print his work.
During this time, Larry was living at home, and his parents (who didn't share his respect for the Beats) presented certain obstacles for him, but he continued to persevere. For instance, as he was leaving the house to photograph the McClure, Dylan and Ginsberg, North Beach image for Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album cover, his parents determined he could only borrow the family car to drive to San Francisco after he mowed the lawn of their stately Alameda home. Keenan says, "The entire time I was mowing the lawn, with the loud power mower and gas smell, I was trying to center myself knowing I was about to document some very important events." On this day he shot The Last Gathering of Beat Poets and Artists at City Lights. Ironically, these two photographs are some of Keenan's most noted Beat images.
A former high school classmate of Larry's, Jim Morrison of The Doors, fostered his natural instinct of being able to distinguish talent at an early age. He was very aware of his good fortune of being able to photograph the Beats under the auspices of McClure and Ginsberg. Keenan's innate understanding of the historical value of the images has provided the general public not only with a unique chronology and reportage of this era, but also with a timeless rendering of the spirit of the Beat poets and artists. Much of this work, shown at the Whitney Museum in New York, Walker Art Center of Minneapolis and the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, in the exhibit Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965 and in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery show Rebels: Beat Artists and Poets, are the icon images that represent these exhibitions.
From 1967-70, Keenan taught Photography and Art at Concord High School in Concord, CA. In 1971, he won the James D. Phelan Award -- the most prestigious award bestowed upon California-born artists. Keenan operated his own business as a professional photographer from 1970-2012. He worked in his studio and on location and has traveled the world on numerous commercial and personal assignments. His prized photographs are in museums and private collections throughout the world.
Because of his interest and talent in conceptualizing, multi-imaging and digitizing, Keenan produced exceptional images with the computer since 1985. He was featured on the PBS television program Computer Chronicles digitizing and creating the award winning package cover of Deluxe PhotoLab for Electronic Arts using the Amiga 2000 computer system. In 1992, Willow Mixed Media produced a half hour artist's profile on Keenan and his work for cable television. He is celebrated as a "digital pioneer" in the Random House book Digital Photography and produced his own line of Fractal greeting cards. City Lights Books published his Postcards from the Underground in 1999. Keenan is an alumnus of the Center of Creative Imaging in Camden, Maine.
Keenan was an award-winning advertising and corporate photographer who specialized in combining the traditional medium of photography with the contemporary digital platform. Larry's unique vision and style are his trademark, and clearly illustrated in his enduring fine art and commercial work.
Keenan was a featured speaker for various photographic associations, expos, college and university classes including teaching part-time for one year at The Academy of Art College in San Francisco. His award-winning photographs have appeared in numerous ad campaigns, corporate and professional publications, CD and record albums, books (including many publications worldwide about the Beats), magazine covers and top selling software packages. He received awards from Graphis, Art Direction and Communication Arts magazines as well as excellence awards from the N.Y. Art Directors Club.
Keenan's impressive client list included: American Restaurant Group, AT&T, Babette, Bank of America, Blue Cross, Bristol Farms, BuyProduce.com, City Lights Books, Clorox, Dean & Deluca, Del Monte, Electronic Arts, Foster Farms, Genentech, Intel, PacBell, Microsoft, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pharsight, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Shell Alliance, Sony, Williams-Sonoma and Visa. Advertising, annual reports, stock photography and computer imaging (using his trademark special effects) are the main areas of his expertise.
A Career highlight for Larry was in November 1995, Keenan's photography was exhibited in Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. From February to June 1996 his work was featured at The National Portrait Gallery for the Smithsonian Institution's exhibit REBELS: Artists and Poets of the 1950s. In 1996 he had a solo exhibit in NY at Great Modern Pictures.
In 2002 Larry was diagnosed with parkinsons, he again persevered and continued his career, still attending Beat gatherings and events to photograph the remaining Beat Poets. In 2011 an award winning documentary was made about Larry and his work, titled ‘Keenan.’ Larry was in attendance for the premier in Berkeley, CA. In 2012 after many years of living with severe parkinsons, Larry passed away. His work as lived on in the form of exhibits, books and featured in movies.
Keenan Produced by Kurt Hemmer and Co-produced by Tom Knoff
In 2011, shortly before Larry’s passing, an award wining documentary was released, produced by Kurt Hemmer and co-produced by Tom Knoff. The film was showcased at the Berkeley Film Festival — with Larry in attendance.
Keenan with Dylan — Self Portrait
— Alameda 1966
“When I came back from Europe on a student scholarship in the summer of 1966, my parents had moved. My friend Dale Smith and I wanted to silk screen some Dylan posters to make a few bucks. The house being empty was perfect. Dale had the Dylan image and I knew how to silk screen. We formed a company called Redcross + Rainbow and produced 300 signed posters. We dried the posters all over the downstairs in the house, then we took them to Moe’s books to sell. We were so scared that they might not sell that we waited a month before going back to Moe’s. Upon our return, Moe said ‘where in the hell have you guys been, we sold out in less then a week.’”
— Larry Keenan
