Legendary rock photographer Jim Marshall’s photos on display at the J-School

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These circa-1967 images have never been displayed in public, though the public — welcome to the free show in North Gate Hall through May — will immediately recognize Marshall’s style and subjects.

Marshall’s work has appeared on more than 500 album covers. His portraits of artists like The Grateful Dead, The Who, and Janis Joplin made him a legend in rock ‘n’ roll — last year, Marshall became the first photographer ever honored with a posthumous Grammy award — but this exhibit zooms out from these musicians to show their milieu on the streets of San Francisco. In “The Haight: Love, Rock & Revolution,” men in business suits join meditation circles and women in gauzy tops spin ecstatically through Golden Gate Park. Joplin basks in the sun, and the flowers tucked behind Timothy Leary’s ears look as bright as his smile. It’s clear that Marshall and his subjects were at ease with one another as he immersed himself in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, just a few blocks from where he was born in 1936.

The Marshall exhibit “gives viewers of his photos a close-up look at the pioneers of San Francisco rock,” says curator Ken Light, the Reva and David Logan Chair in Photojournalism at UC Berkeley. “His images are playful, emotional and real, making a viewer feel as if they are right next to Jim and feeling the music and love of this period.”

Marshall went on to become one of the world’s preeminent photographers of musicians, expanding his portfolio for decades as private collectors and museums picked up his work. His access to artists was “exceptional,” Light says, bringing viewers close to the musicians and events that defined the era.

“I think that people, young and old, are drawn to the ’60s and the legends of rock ‘n’ roll,” Light says. And students of photography are drawn to Marshall’s compositions.

“The images in the show teach photographers to be conscious of history and witnessing one’s time, as well as taking photos that are full of energy and give a sense of time and place,” Light says.

Since Marshall died in 2010, his heirs have worked to preserve and advance his legacy. With the Center for Photography at the UC Berkeley J-School, they have found one way: the Jim Marshall Fellowships in Photography. The exhibit opening this week coincides with the kickoff of a fundraising campaign that aims to put as much as $1 million toward the study of visual arts in Marshall’s name.

At the opening reception, at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 6, Marshall’s friend and longtime music journalist Joel Selvin will join Marshall’s assistant Amelia Davis in conversation about his work. The public is also invited to enjoy a psychedelic light show and, while they last, free Fillmore-style posters.

“The Haight: Love, Rock & Revolution” continues through May at the Reva and David Logan Gallery of Documentary Photography. The gallery in North Gate Hall, near Hearst and Euclid avenues in Berkeley, has become a regular venue for distinguished photojournalists and their work since the Center for Photography was founded at the J-School in 1996.