Photographs by Jerry Aronson

Second Story Books is pleased to present photographs by JERRY ARONSON taken between 1967 and 1996. Most of these photographs have never before been published. All are signed by Jerry and are part of limited edition runs of only six prints. Second Story Books and Jerry Aronson guarantee that no further copies of these photos at these sizes will be issued once these editions are sold.

 

 

Jerry started taking still photos in 1960 when, at the age of 15, he photographed President Eisenhower and Governor George Romney in Detroit, Michigan. In high school, he was the top winner of the National Kodak Scholastic Magazine awards. Later he studied under Aaron Siskind and Wynn Bullock at the Institute of Design in Chicago, where he received an MFA.

 

He began teaching photography at South Shore High School in Chicago in 1970 and by 1972 his students were also top winners of the same National Kodak Scholastic awards. He also began freelancing as a photographer for various concert promoters in Chicago. He subsequently moved to Colorado and established the Cherry Creek High School photo department, while continuing to freelance, now for Denver concert promoters. He also became the head photographer for the Rocky Mountain Musical Express. His still photographs cover a broad range of subjects in music and politics.

 

In the period following, he concentrated on filmmaking. His many works include the 1978 Academy Award-nominated film The Divided Trail, which is now part of the collection at the Library of Congress. He then directed the documentary series America's Music: The Roots of Country, released in 1996 for TBS. More recently, Jerry produced the documentary Chasing Ice, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and won a national Emmy for Best Nature Programming in 2014.

 

Jerry’s documentary The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg had its world premiere at Sundance in 1993. The feature-length documentary had a US theatrical run and has since been exhibited at over 100 international film festivals and has also had a world-wide television and DVD release. The Ginsberg film won the prestigious International Documentary Association Award of Excellence in 1994. Jerry then edited a one-hour version for the PBS series “American Masters” which aired in 1997. The project was revised again after Ginsberg’s passing and the final cut was completed for the tribute DVD, which was released in 2007.

 

Jerry has taught in Chicago at Columbia College and at the University of Illinois. In 1973, he was instrumental in creating the highly respected film production program as part of Film Studies at the University of Colorado. In 2006, he won the University of Colorado Award for Teaching, and he retired from the University in 2008.

 

 

 

 

Photos by Jerry Aronson