This year, Donovan celebrates the 60th anniversary of his remarkable career. 2025 also happens to be the 50th anniversary of Govinda Gallery, where we first presented Donovan’s extraordinary exhibition Sapphographs. Our first celebration of Govinda’s 50th is to present Donovan’s remarkable The Tale of the Gael, as mentioned in Variety magazine’s feature story yesterday on “A Complete Unknown” and Donovan.

By Steven Gaydos

PA images via Getty Images.

One of the chief pleasures of James Mangold’s acclaimed new Bob Dylan film biography “A Complete Unknown” comes from the assistance it provides to old-timers often trying, usually failing, to explain why the cultural landscape shift from folk to rock back in 1965 was such a big deal.

In “Unknown,” of course, it’s a very big deal and the journey from aspiring teenage folkie arriving in New York City in 1961 to rock star blazing onstage at the Newport Folk Festival vividly demonstrates the gravitational pull away from folk and toward increasingly loud electric rock and roll that was hugely lucrative as well as pop culture-defining.

In “Unknown,” Timothee Chalamet is drawing rave reviews, but students of the era know there’s a film record of the real Bob Dylan in the months just before that seismic event in Rhode Island. It’s called “Don’t Look Back,” directed by D.A. Pennebaker, and it might be the greatest rock music documentary ever made.

Also figuring prominently at the epicenter of that revolution and in “Back” is Scottish folk-rock flower-power pioneer Donovan, who this year celebrates the 60th anniversary of his first album’s release in May of 1965. Titled “What’s Been Did and What’s Been Hid,” the LP contained Donovan’s first global hit, “Catch the Wind,” and the buzz around the then-teen bard put him inside the Dylan entourage as Dylan launched a music tour in England with Joan Baez only a few weeks before the historic events of Newport.

Donovan was also there, and performed a short set at Newport, which included a duet of his newly released song, “Colours,” accompanied by Baez. This coupling caught the attention of a Variety reporter in attendance, who noted in their July 28, 1965, report of both the booing of Bob and the healthy box office of the Festival, the following rather uncharacteristic (for Variety) gossipy note:

“Joan Baez, the high priestess of the folk movement, performed on the festival’s second night, working with the British folk-pop singer, Donovan. In past years, Miss Baez and Dylan generally teamed for a duetting session and their failure to do so at this get-together sparked rumors that there had been joint exit from their mutual admiration society.”

Flash forward 60 years and Donovan is not simply recalling the creative triumphs of that period but stepping out to engage with fans through a week of celebratory events, including concerts in European cities such as Rome, from May 9 –15. (See Donovan’s website for details.)

He’s also creating new works in new ways.

Fans can plug into Donovan’s latest creative musings via the free release of what he calls a “visual essay,” “The Tale of the Gael,” a two-hour recitation/ photographic history of the ‘60s music revolution which he is releasing for one week exclusively on Variety.com, to be followed by release on his website.

Donovan describes “Gael” as “my story, but also the story of all of us who are called to a hidden vocation.”

He writes: “When we Gaels heed the call, we become aware that we are heir to an Ancient Skill, preserved here in Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Here, where the Industrial Monster was born, I will reveal how we Gaels from the mid-1800s on are preserving The Mythic Dreaming of Humanity by The Skill of our Music, Poetry and Theatre.”

You might have missed 1965, but here’s a chance to journey inside the mind and soul of one that era’s most inspired and unique troubadours.

Steven Gaydos

Christmas card by Stuart Sutcliffe, 1960.

Painter and original bass player for The Beatles.

Enjoy this story and photographs in The Georgetowner about Bob Dylan, Ted Russell, and Govinda Gallery!

Govinda Gallery, 1310 Kitchen & Bar Host Bob Dylan Presentation

By The Georgetowner • November 12, 2024

By Daisy Bateman

As anticipation for Bob Dylan’s biopic “A Complete Unknown” is reaching a fever pitch, Govinda Gallery launched the “Govinda Gallery Live” series which features intimate storytelling and photography events. This series, whose home base is in 1310 Kitchen & Bar,  combines dinner with art and music history, creating a unique cultural experience in the Washington, D.C. area​.

On Oct. 23, 1310 Kitchen’s Chef Jenn Crovato hosted an intimate event that brought Bob Dylan’s early years to life through the striking photography of Ted Russell, paired with the storytelling of celebrated curator Chris Murray. The night featured Russell’s rare and personal snapshots of a 20-year-old Dylan, taken in 1961 as the folk icon-to-be was still finding his voice in Greenwich Village. The photographs captured Dylan composing, rehearsing, and relaxing with his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo. From his humble apartment to the famed stage of Gerde’s Folk City, Russell’s images showed a young artist on the verge of stardom, chronicling his earliest days before he transformed American music.

Chris Murray, founder of Govinda Gallery and a widely respected curator, led the audience through the rich history behind these iconic images. With experience curating Russell’s work in prestigious spaces like the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa and Dublin’s Photo Museum Ireland, Murray unveiled stories that added vivid context to Russell’s photography. For Dylan enthusiasts and newcomers alike, this presentation offered a rare opportunity to experience the intimate world of a young Bob Dylan and reflect on the roots of his legendary music career. This series adds depth to the visual narrative with personal anecdotes and historical context. Murray’s insights, drawn from years of curating similar exhibits internationally, allowed the audience to grasp the gravity of these moments captured by Russell—moments of candid introspection, artistic focus, and emerging romance between Dylan and his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo. By showcasing Dylan not only as a musician but as a young artist immersed in a pivotal creative journey, this presentation emphasized how cultural icons evolve from raw, often ordinary, beginnings.

Each Govinda Gallery Live event taps into a distinct cultural era, bringing historical photography and live storytelling together, making 1310 Kitchen & Bar a hotspot for art lovers and music enthusiasts eager to experience history in an intimate, meaningful way. This innovative series makes a powerful case for how culinary and visual arts can intersect to deepen our understanding of music legends​.

It was an extraordinary pleasure for me to first feature the baseball photographs of Walter Iooss at Govinda Gallery in April of 2003. That exhibition was also a launch for Iooss’s wonderful book Classic Baseball. Walter Iooss and his photographs are a national treasure.

Mickey Mantle (at Bat) and Roger Maris.

Yankee Stadium, The Bronx, N.Y. 1962. Photo by Walter Iooss.

I was born in the Bronx and my father would take myself and my four brothers and sister regularly to Yankee Stadium to see the New York Yankees, as well as having season tickets for decades to the New York Football Giants. My nephew, Vincent Murray, and his brother Michael, still keep those seats. I continue to make an annual pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees and I am delighted that they are in the World Series this year.

Roger Maris hits his 61st Home Run. Yankee Stadium, The Bronx, N.Y.

September 1961. Photo by Walter Iooss.

My favorite Yankee team is from 1961, when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth‘s home run record. My sports hero growing up was Mickey Mantle. Now Aaron Judge continues the great tradition of the Bronx Bombers. This year’s team is my favorite Yankee team since the Mantle/Maris days!

The Dodgers, who are playing the Yankees in the World Series, used to be in Brooklyn! Walter Iooss took some great photographs of the Brooklyn Dodgers as well.

Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Jake Pitler, Gil Hodges, & Walt Alston.

Old Timers Day – The Polo Grounds, The Bronx, N.Y. 1962. Photo by Walter Iooss.

I also featured Walter Iooss’s baseball photographs in a remarkable exhibition in Havana, Cuba at their national photo gallery, Fototeca de Cuba. So many current and past Cuban baseball players attended the exhibition opening. Cuban baseball fans are the most passionate in the world. They appreciated my bringing Walter Iooss’s photographs more than one can imagine. I was so moved by the love of the Cuban people.

Carnaval 1998. Havana, Cuba. 1999. Photo by Walter Iooss.

Jackie Robinson, 1955. Photo by Osvaldo Salas.

This last photo of the Brooklyn Dodgers’s Jackie Robinson is taken by the Cuban photographer Osvaldo Salas. Osvaldo and his son, Roberto Salas, were living in New York City in the mid-50s. When the Cuban Revolution began, both Osvaldo and Roberto returned to Havana and documented the Cuban Revolution. Roberto had a brilliant exhibition at Govinda Gallery in 2003 and his photographs are available through Govinda Gallery. Enjoy this blog on my friend and legendary photographer Roberto Salas, posted on April 15th, 2013.

Bob Dylan at his typewriter, NYC, 1964.

Next Wednesday, Govinda Gallery director Chris Murray is presenting an audiovisual program on Bob Dylan, featuring Ted Russell‘s compelling photographs of Dylan on his first arrival in New York City and then up through 1964, at which point Dylan had established himself as a remarkable songwriter and performing artist.

Murray also introduces a number of other photographers whose photographs of Bob Dylan were featured in their first one-person exhibitions at Govinda Gallery, including Annie Leibovitz, Daniel Kramer, Barry Feinstein, Baron Wolman, Ken Regan, and Jim Marshall. Murray also talks about the amazing Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Ted Russell’s photographs were shown in an extraordinary exhibition in 2023.

The program, “Bob Dylan, NYC 1961-1964”, is at Chef Jenn Crovato‘s restaurant Kitchen 1310 at The Georgetown Inn.

Reservations and information are available here.

New York, 161 W 4th St, Greenwich Village, 1961.

Enjoy an immersive journey as Chris Murray, writer, curator, and founder of Govinda Gallery, guides you through the early years of Bob Dylan‘s career. This storytelling event, featuring Ted Russell‘s extraordinary photographs of Dylan at the cusp of stardom, is perfect for Dylan enthusiasts and rock history fans alike. 

Chris will transport you back to late 1961, when photographer Ted Russell first captured the young, raw-voiced folk singer in his Greenwich Village apartment and onstage at Gerde’s Folk City. This intimate look at Dylan’s pre-celebrity years offers a glimpse into the making of one of America’s greatest musical icons. Russell’s photographs also document Dylan in 1963 with James Baldwin as Dylan receives the Thomas Paine Award, as well as in 1964 in his 4th St. apartment as he composes songs at his typewriter.

For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

This month, the estate of the late Paul G. Allen launched a series of three big auctions at Christie’s celebrating first-generation technologies and the brilliant minds behind them. This follows an incredibly successful auction of Allen’s collection in 2022 that raised $1.62 billion– a record-setting sale.

While Paul Allen was mainly known for his contribution to the technology world as the co-founder of Microsoft, as well as being an important art collector, he was also a devoted Rock & Roll fan. In fact, in 2001 Allen opened up the Experience Music Project Museum (now known as the Museum of Pop Culture) in Seattle. Chris Murray of Govinda Gallery had the honor of curating and co-organizing the museum’s inaugural exhibition, along with Chris Phillips from the Experience Music Project. Artist to Icon featured Alfred Wertheimer‘s photographs of Elvis Presley, Daniel Kramer‘s remarkable photographs of Bob Dylan, and Astrid Kirchherr, Max Scheler, and Jürgen Vollmer‘s photographs of the early Beatles. The Experience Music Project ended up acquiring from Govinda Gallery all of the photographs from that exhibition, making it the most important sale Govinda Gallery had made to a museum up to that point. The photographers were delighted!

Hats off to Paul Allen!

Elvis Presley by Al Wertheimer.

Bob Dylan by Daniel Kramer.                                                                                   George Harrison by Jurgen Vollmer.

Paul Allen jams with Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde and rocker Joe Walsh © Legacy Recordings.

This past Monday, The New York Times published a front-page story discussing recent research on the trees in the Columbian Amazon and the local researchers who climb up the trees in order to measure how much carbon dioxide is stored in them. The story talks about the recent scientific push to study the incredible trees of the Amazon in order to gather more data to strengthen environmentalist efforts against pollution and deforestation. This is only one of many examples of the recent budding interest in the Amazon forest and its importance to the study of biodiversity, climate change, Amazonian cultural traditions, and the use of hallucinogenic plants.

Richard Evans Schultes, a celebrated ethnobotanist and Amazonian plant explorer, was a leader in this field of research on the Amazon, taking an anthropological approach to the study of Amazonian plants and the ways in which they were used in Indigenous ritual practices and traditions. By partaking in their ceremonies and showing a deep respect for their culture, Schultes was able to build a rapport with the indigenous communities which then allowed him to capture significant photographs of their ways of life. Schultes’ photographs of his travels to the Amazon in the 1940s and 50s captured plants, landscapes, indigenous people, and Amazonian cultural practices that had never been seen before by Western scientists. Schultes was able to gain an incredible insight into a sacred life that would have otherwise remained hidden from the rest of the world. With these photographs and extensive research, Schultes advocated for the rights of indigenous people and their land, and documented the history and lives of a rapidly disappearing culture.

Portrait of Richard Evans Schultes at Savana of Yapobodá, Rîo Kuduyari, Vaupés, 1946. Photo by Richard Evans Schultes.

In 2006, Govinda Gallery had the incredible honor of hosting the first ever exhibition of Richard Evans Schultes’ photographs of his journeys to the Amazon to celebrate the launch of the book The Lost Amazon: The Pioneering Expeditions of Richard Evans Schultes (Chronicle Books/Insight Editions, 2005), co-authored by Govinda Gallery Director, Chris Murray and Wade Davis. Two years later, Chris Murray curated and organized with Wade Davis an extraordinary exhibition of these photographs at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. In his afterword for The Lost Amazon, Murray explains the significance of Schultes’ photographs, stating that, “[Richard Evans Schultes’s] field expeditions brought him places no one with a camera had gone before, into the path of medicine men, ceremonial practices, ornate masks, shamans and their dances, sacred waterfalls and rivers, austere mountains, stone engravings, and of course, exotic plants. Schultes’s powers of observation were highly tuned and served him well as both photographer and scientist. In this medium, he passed along his observations to us, revealing much with his particular photographer’s eye.”

The Rock of Nye, Río Piraparaná. Photo by Richard Evans Schultes.

More recently, the Museé du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris, France exhibited some of Richard Evans Schultes’ photographs in their show, “Shamanic Visions: Ayahuasca Arts in the Peruvian Amazon,” which ran from November 2023 through May 2024. This show explored the use of hallucinogens such as ayahuasca in many indigenous societies and the importance of them in social life and their impact on artistic creation.

Museé du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, France.

Makuna Shaman Lighting the Torch that Heralds the Beginning of the Yagé (Ayahuasca) Ceremony, Río Popeyacá, 1952. Photo by Richard Evans Schultes.

The current issue of Black & White Magazine features Schultes’ photographs. Rather than focusing on the topics depicted in the photographs, the main focus of the article is on the incredible photographic quality of Schultes’ work and his intuitive understanding of photography as a medium despite not being trained as a photographer. “His photographs record not just scientific information, but the passion a photographer taps into during a truly compelling experience” (Black & White Magazine, October 2024 Issue, page 68).

The entry falls at Jirijirimo, Río Apaporis, September 1943. Photo by Richard Evans Schultes.

Cubeo mother bathing child at Soratama, Río Apaporis. Photo by Richard Evans Schultes.

Opening tomorrow at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, UK is yet another exhibition on the impact and use of hallucinogens in Western Amazonian social life titled “Ayahuasca & Art of the Amazon.” This exhibition will run for six months as part of a bigger exhibit entitled “Why Do We Take Drugs?” on the different forms of drug use across different cultures. This exhibition also features an extraordinary selection of Richard Evans Schultes’ photographs showcasing the ritual consumption of hallucinogenic plants, along with some of the artistic output that came from such ritual consumption such as ceramics, textiles, paintings, and sculptures, and it will even include a guided virtual ayahuasca ‘trip’ using virtual reality technology.

Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.

Kamsá Youth with the Blossom of Culebra Borrachera, Sibundoy, June 1953. Photo by Richard Evans Schultes.

The recent interest in the Amazon and Schultes’ work is a testament to his remarkable legacy in the study of indigenous Amazonian cultures and their use of exotic plants, and the importance of the preservation of such cultures and environments.

Estate Prints of Richard Evans Schultes photographs are available through Govinda Gallery.

The great writer and activist James Baldwin was born 100 years ago this month. We celebrate his life and his work with these photographs by Ted Russell of Baldwin taken in 1963 with Bob Dylan.

Govinda Gallery Director, Chris Murray writes in the introduction to Russell’s photo book Bob Dylan NYC 1961-1964 (Rizzoli) about Baldwin and Dylan and these photographs, “In 1963, on assignment for LIFE, Russell photographed Dylan receiving the Tom Paine Award for distinguished service in the fight for civil liberty from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee at their annual Bill of Rights Dinner in New York City. Author James Baldwin who was a speaker that evening, sat on the Dias with Dylan and clearly enjoyed their time together. Baldwin himself frequented old Greenwich Village and he and Dylan seem like kindred spirits in Russell’s photographs of the remarkable event.”

Chris Murray will be giving an audio/visual presentation on Ted Russell and his photographs October 23rd, at the 1310 Restaurant in The Georgetown Inn, Washington D.C.

Ted Russell’s photographs are available through Govinda Gallery.

The New Yorker published a fine story on Black is Beautiful: JET Beauties of the Week, published by powerHouse Books featuring LaMonte McLemore‘s photography and edited by Chris Murray. Black is Beautiful also features essays by Sylvia Flanagan, Jayne Kennedy, Mickalene Thomas, and Chris Murray.

In Jennifer Wilson‘s compelling story in The New Yorker, she writes that, “McLemore knew to make the images look as natural as the beauties he was tasked with shooting.”

At any point in the day, I can open my closet, pull out a swimsuit, squeeze into it, pose for a selfie in my full-length mirror, and broadcast the image to the world. It’s easy to take for granted just how much the Internet has democratized the thirst trap; with social media, we can each be a part-time model and beach bunny for all seasons. But when I was growing up, in the early two-thousands, the only photographs of young women in bathing suits which I regularly saw were in the summer issues of the teen magazines that arrived on my doorstep. The bikini-clad models on those pages were impossibly thin; they were also, with rare exceptions, white. It was only in 1997 that Sports Illustrated featured a solo Black model on the cover of its iconic swimsuit issue, with Tyra Banks baring her washboard abs and breasts that nearly spill out of her top, in a red-and-pink polka-dot two-piece. So much for representation.

In those days, I knew of only one way that a mere mortal could be pictured in a bikini for paying subscribers. It was to submit a picture to Jet, a weekly magazine for Black news and entertainment. Each issue included an ad for “beautiful models between the ages of 18-25,” along with instructions to fill out a “coupon” with contact information and “a current snapshot of yourself in a bathing suit.” If the magazine liked your photograph, they would connect you with a professional photographer. From Jet’s inception, in 1951, until the magazine ceased its print operation, in 2014, it published pictures of these women in a column called “Beauty of the Week.” “Every issue of the magazine showcases one of the country’s most beautiful, shapely and radiant Nubian princesses,” Jet boasted, referring to the ordinary women of extraordinary confidence—nurses, paralegals, college students, post-office workers—who posed for the magazine. Though the text was essentially decorative, their professions were noted, alongside their hobbies. In Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout,” the narrator’s mother was a Jet Beauty of the Week, and all he knows about her is what was included in the small text alongside her “curvy expanse of thighs and lip gloss”; namely, that she was a student from Key Biscayne “who enjoys biking, photography and poetry.”

In an essay, the filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee (“The Best Man,” “Girls Trip”) recalled ripping out the Jet “Beauty of the Week” page and putting it up in his locker. His white private-school classmates gave him grief. They “would say, ‘They’re fat.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about? That was when I started to understand the different standards of beauty,’ ” Lee wrote. The women who graced page 43 (the “Beauty of the Week” column was typically on page 43) were thin, but curvier than a typical model, and, for decades, their measurements—almost always hourglass—were listed alongside their photos. On their bodies, you could spot faded stretch marks, on their teeth lipstick stains, on their faces an endearing “Am I doing this right?” expression. They kept their wedding rings on. These were real women, not fantasies. Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s mother—a part-time shopgirl at Saks Fifth Avenue—was a Jet Beauty of the Week (she borrowed clothes from work for the shoot).

A new book, “Black Is Beautiful: JET Beauties of the Week” (powerHouse Books), collects some of the pictures that LaMonte McLemore, a vocalist and a founding member for the psychedelic soul band the 5th Dimension, took for Jet in the forty-plus years he worked for the magazine as a freelance photographer. Jet, which had more than a million subscribers, was the saucy little sister of Ebony. Both magazines were part of the publishing tycoon (and fashion mogul) John H. Johnson’s Chicago-based Black media empire. Ebony launched, in 1945, as an African American answer to Life magazine, catering to the tastes of upwardly mobile Black readers. Jet was less buttoned up. In 1975, the magazine published an interview with Pam Grier on the subject of how “it takes more than one man to satisfy [her],” plus an update on her rumored romance with Freddie Prinze. Jet did not feel the need to present a prudish image of Black people to counteract white stereotypes about their hypersexuality. Jet was for Black people who wanted to look at other Black people. In fact, one of its best-known rubrics was a listing of every time a Black character was going to appear on television week by week. Jetwas also not like the respectable Ebony, but it was still respected, especially when, in 1955, it became the first outlet to publish the open-casket photographs of Emmett Till. McLemore, the first African American photographer hired by Harper’s Bazaar, was so proud to have his name associated with Jet that he squeezed in “Beauty of the Week” shoots between 5th Dimension tour stops.

There was an amateurish chaos to the “Beauty of the Week” photos that made them feel charged with erotic possibility. These were “around the way” girls, as the LL Cool J song goes. (The rapper wrote in his 1997 memoir, “I Make My Own Rules,” that he decorated his childhood bedroom with “posters of Bruce Lee and, later, Run-D.M.C. and Jetmagazine’s Beauty of the Week.”) They looked like someone whom you might catch a glimpse of at the Jersey Shore one day. “Hey, did I see you in Jet?” was a pickup line someone once tried on my aunt.

Though a professional photographer, McLemore knew to make the images look as natural as the beauties he was tasked with shooting. In one of his photos, a woman named Darolyn, clad in a red bikini and matching leg warmers, opts for an asymmetrical pose that makes her chest look lopsided. Another woman named Karen, wearing a gold necklace spelling out her name and a peach crochet bikini, blows soap bubbles from a plastic bottle of the kind I remember buying at the local dollar store in the summer months.

Many of the women were self-styled, donning the sultrier version of their Sunday best. In one photo, a woman named Denise pairs a tiger-print bikini with costume jewelry and pink acrylic nails. Tasha, whose hobby is listed as skydiving, has applied metallic silver eyeshadow that clashes with her gold earrings and matching bikini. When Jet did shoot professional models or actresses for the column, the women were still relatively dressed down. In 1971, years before Grier made the gossip pages of Jet or landed her signature roles in Blaxploitation films, she was an up-and-coming actress who posed for the “Beauty of the Week” column at the urging of her team. She later reflected on the image for ESPN’s Andscape blog, complaining about the shoot’s lack of niceties: “I was ashy, no makeup, my hair was all over the place. I didn’t even have polish on my toenails or my fingernails, c’mon.”

But the lack of polish was what gave Jet Beauties of the Week their special charm. By now, we are all too schooled in the art of posing to reproduce the effect. In the age of the smartphone camera, most of us know our good angles. We can blur away our imperfections using an Instagram filter. The raw appeal of Jet’s erstwhile models remains unrivalled. “Black Is Beautiful” captures the quality that made these women most appealing—their confidence that anyone with eyes would want to look at them, au naturel.