Peter Byrne has produced a special issue of Swans on the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Peter was also instrumental in having Art Shay, the preeminent American
photojournalist of the past 60-plus years, contribute his recollection
of these fateful days with the likes of Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg,
William S. Burroughs, William Styron, Norman Mailer, etc., and
generously allow us to publish some of his famous photographs. A
retrospective of Shay's work was exhibited in Paris last month. Karen
Moller went to its opening and sent us a report as well as pictures.
Peter Byrne uses his literary brush to paint the historical tableau of
the political machine in Chicago, the means used by Mayor Daley to
orchestrate the police riots, and what happened at the Convention.
Click to read the Art Shay piece, in which he describes some of his work:
My best shot showed the wounded Genet, the indignant Ginsberg and
Burroughs, and in one frame, Styron retching in the background. I
wouldn't see Mailer for two days, and then in Grant Park, working the
vasty crowd (including a revived Genet, Burroughs and Styron) waiting
to speak. The police formed a single forward wall a few yards away to
contain the audience. My wide angle picture of these chubby, hostile
men with thick blue thighs made up the wrap-around cover of the best
book that would be done on the police riot.
Art Shay writes for Swans about taking this shot of the conductor George Szell:
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