Berkeley Journalism teams with Jim Marshall Estate and Leica Camera USA to raise funds for Jim Marshall Fellowship

Bob Dylan & Len Chandler at the Newport Folk Festival 1964. Len was a classically trained musician with an MA from Columbia University and in the early 60s got involved in the Civil Rights Movement. One of his songs, “Keep on Keepin’ On” was used in a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964.

Berkeley Journalism is joining forces with the Jim Marshall Estate and Leica Gallery in Los Angeles to raise money for the School’s Jim Marshall Fellowship in Photography.

Marshall’s prints are available for purchase in a flash sale running through Oct. 21. Marshall was a renowned photographer of 20th century music, and the sale, titled “You Never Know Where the Music Will Take You,” is in partnership with Leica USA, SmugMug, and Flickr. 

Each of the five available photos captures the civil rights movements of 1963 and 1964: from voting rights to voter suppression, to how singers like Bob Dylan articulated and advanced important social justice issues to a wider audience through music. 

“We are showing a different side of Jim’s photography that is so timely right now and to offer collectors a chance to buy a photograph of Jim’s at a price that is affordable to everyone,” said Amelia Davis, owner of Jim Marshall LLC. “Jim may have gone to the Newport Folk Festival, for example, to photograph a concert, but he always ended up staying and capturing the history that was happening in the audience as well,” Davis said.

The prints are 8-by-10 archival pigment prints, are stamped on the back, and have a letter of provenance. The price is $250 per print plus $20 shipping and handling.

“One of the main reasons we did this was to support the Jim Marshall Fellowship at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism,” said Davis. “This program supports a new generation of photojournalists using photography to tell a story.”

“What a great opportunity to own a beautiful Jim Marshall print, shot by the defining father of music photography, and at the same time, doing good by helping to support a photo student at UC Berkeley’s Journalism School through the scholarship program named after him,” Prof. Ken Light said. “Thank you Leica and the Jim Marshall Estate.”

On August 28, 1963 James Forman, Executive Secretary of SNCC, Cordell Reagon, leader of the Freedom Singers, & Joan Baez speaking in Touro Park in Newport, RI at a rally in support for the March on Washington happening the next month.

Interested buyers should call Leica Gallery LA at (424) 777-0341 to purchase prints. A portion of the proceeds go to the fellowship. 

(Watch Amelia Davis and Alastair Jolly of SmugMug/Flickr discuss the photographs and their place in history as part of #LeicaConversations here.) 

About the Jim Marshall Fellowship
While photography was once a specialized art relegated only to highly skilled photojournalists, it is now an indispensable skill practiced in some form by nearly all our graduate students. The annual Jim Marshall Fellowship in Photography, established in 2015, is a $10,000 award given to a promising student as they earn an advanced degree in journalism at UC Berkeley.

Jim Marshall (1936-2010) was among the most renowned and prolific photographers of the 20th century, and his work is recognized as the premier visual chronicle of the world of late 20th century popular music. Jim was the only photographer ever honored with a Recording Academy Trustees Award, a GRAMMY given to non-musicians for his unrivaled photographic record of music history from the 1950s through the early 2000s. In addition, his fellow photographers honored him with a Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Photography in 2004. 

Marshall’s exceptional work was not confined to the music scene. His remarkable documentary photography captured street life in San Francisco and New York, the despair of a Kentucky coal mining town, Mississippi civil rights demonstrations, and Johnny Cash’s groundbreaking live concerts for prison reform at Folsom and San Quentin.

Since Marshall died in 2010, his heir, long-time assistant and photographer Amelia Davis has worked to preserve and advance his legacy. Through the Center for Photography at Berkeley Journalism, she helped launch a campaign to raise funds for the study of visual arts in Marshall’s name at UC Berkeley.