The Prison Concerts: Folsom And San Quentin (Jim Marshall’s Photographs Of Johnny Cash)

Widely known as the godfather of music photography, the late Jim Marshall maintained a 50-year career that resulted in more than 500 album covers, an abundance of magazine covers, and some of the most celebrated images in blues, jazz, country, and rock and roll, including those from Johnny Cash’s notable Folsom and San Quentin prison concerts. Organized by the GRAMMY Museum, The Prison Concerts: Folsom and San Quentin (Jim Marshall’s Photographs of Johnny Cash) showcases these powerful snapshots of a legendary musician by a legendary photographer.

The exhibition is comprised of 25 photographs documenting the two concerts in 1968 and 1969, including candid and performance images that helped solidify Cash’s status as an outlaw king. A staunch advocate for prisoners’ rights, Cash did these concerts to shine a light on the terrible conditions and prisoner abuse that were rampant at the time. Personally requested by Cash himself, Marshall was the only official photographer present at the concerts. He was granted unlimited access to Cash, June Carter, and their entourage.

The Prison Concerts captures the spirit of two artists at the height of their creative powers.