It is somewhat ironic that as a photographer the photograph I have ever sold for any reason was one taken by mistake when I was likely under the influence of (possibly) many things at the tender age of eighteen.

With the recent passing of Bobby “Ace” Weir, I have spent a fair amount of time reflecting on my experiences listening to, watching, absorbing GD lore, maybe this nugget from my early days is worth a mention.

I recently discovered what I hope will be the last batch of photo images that had not been scanned into my archive (currently standing at over 100K) When I found this last batch I was excited about a photo I had taken in Florence, Italy of a piece of pizza (and posted about here), then I noticed another more quixotic image I had shot at a Grateful Dead concert in the 1980’s. (It’s astounding to note that back then you could walk into a concert with a 35mm camera strapped around your neck and no one said boo!) I went in with a full roll of film loaded, but what on that particular night my camera jammed, or I jammed, some sort of jamming took place and the entire roll was multi-exposed onto one frame.

Almost forty years later I realized, “hey this is pretty cool!” and being a avid user of /reddit for answers to virtually anything, I posted on the photo on the /rgratefuldead sub trying and get an accurate time stamp on this show. The response was far greater than expected with comments such as:

• “Wait, you mean that’s not what shows look like?“
• “I’ve been to shows that looked like this, no film required.“
• “One photo of an entire show. This is incredible I love it s much. This is also my favorite Era of dead. It’s like panoramic photograph of a memory of watching a show”

I also got several people asking to buy a print, or at least saying they wanted to purchase a print. When I actually tried to pin point buyers, most disappeared, all except one really. A nice fellow who said he planning to hang it on the wall of his new wine bar in Petaluma, California.

Another grateful sub redditor recommended I copyright the image, something I have never done, so I did that mostly for the experience of doing it and now my mistaken image is registered with the US Government (or what left of it)

You can listen to the show (the hive mind thinks) via the internet archive and just stare at the image because in the words of another subredditor who enjoyed the post,

“It’s like the entire concert in one photo!”

Grateful Dead Live at Springfield Civic Center on 1978-05-11

Or, better yet! Want to own a piece of copy written Grateful Dead history? $20 all in for a glossy 8×10 shipped to you anywhere in the U.S.

_{(the title of this blog post was generated with the help of AI, I was stuck, I needed a suggestion and went for it. I am happy with the results)}