Charles Robert Gatewood
(November 8, 1942 – April 28, 2016) was a San Francisco based photographer,
writer, videographer, artist, and educator. On April 29, 1966, Gatewood
photographed a Bob Dylan press conference and concert. One photograph, "Dylan
With Sunglasses and Cigarette," was syndicated and received worldwide
publication. It was Gatewood's first sale. Other celebrity photos followed
including Martin Luther King, Jr., Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Joan Baez,
Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald.
In 1966, working from an
apartment on Manhattan's Lower East Side and rented part of a photography
studio at 8 East 12th Street, and sold photos to textbooks, magazines, poster
companies, and other editorial markets.
From 1970 to 1974 Gatewood
worked as staff photographer for the Manhattan Tribune. He also photographed on
assignment for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Harper's, Business Week, Time,
and other magazines.
In 1975, Sidetripping, Gatewood's first
photography book, was published, with text by William S. Burroughs. From 1978
to 1987, Gatewood lived near Woodstock, New York, and worked in Manhattan. His
photos from this period include one of social protests, rock festivals, Mardi
Gras in New Orleans, body modification, outlaw bikers, and nature. The
celebrities he captured images of include Larry Clark, Annie Sprinkle, Michael
O'Donoghue, Ira Cohen and Quentin Crisp.
In 1984 the New York State Arts
Council awarded Gatewood a grant to publish Wall Street photographs, and in
1985 the book Wall Street was awarded the Leica Medal of Excellence for
Outstanding Humanistic Photojournalism.
From 1987, Gatewood lived and
worked in San Francisco, California where he produced over thirty documentary
videos about body modification, fetish fashion and other alternative interests.
On April 28, 2016, Gatewood, at
age 73, tossed himself from a balcony and died from the injuries.