Fred W. McDarrah,
a Village Voice photographer who chronicled
some of New York's most important cultural and
political events over more than three decades at the
alternative weekly, died Tuesday. He was 81.
McDarrah died in
his sleep at his home in Greenwich Village, a day after
celebrating his 81st birthday and 47th wedding anniversary,
his son Patrick McDarrah said.
''Fred always
knew how to be in the right place when the news was
happening,'' Voice editor in chief Tony Ortega
said Tuesday.
McDarrah was
there when the Stonewall riots erupted in 1969, marking the
beginning of the gay rights movement, and when Robert F.
Kennedy toured a Lower East Side slum.
He captured
images of Beat generation writers Jack Kerouac and Allen
Ginsberg, and photographed Andy Warhol, Norman Mailer, and
Bob Dylan.
One of McDarrah's
best-known images was a close-up of a youthful Dylan,
dressed in a black turtleneck and jacket and giving a
military-style salute.
A retrospective
of McDarrah's work last year, which included candid shots
of Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De
Niro, and Janis Joplin, was hailed by The New York
Times as ''a visual encyclopedia of the era's
cultural scene.''
The Shooting
Gallery in Los Angeles currently is showing some of his
photos in an exhibit of punk and counterculture icons.
McDarrah also
published numerous books of his photography, including
Anarchy, Protest and Rebellion: The Counterculture
That Changed America and Kerouac and
Friends: A Beat Generation Album.
Born in Brooklyn,
McDarrah remained on the Voice's masthead as
consulting picture editor until his death. For decades, he
ran the photo department, helping train dozens of
young photographers at the Voice, including Sylvia
Plachy, the paper said.
Ortega said he
was an enduring presence at the paper, even after his
retirement. ''He was constantly sending suggestions,'' he
said.
In addition to
his son Patrick, he is survived by his wife, Gloria;
another son, Timothy; and three grandchildren. (Ula
Ilnytzky, AP)
