2015
foil stamped clothbound hardcover
156 pages
72 image plates
9.5" x 8" (24cmX20.7cm)
SUN
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Roger Steffens started making photographs while serving in the Psychological Operations division in Vietnam, a time in which he began a journalistic record of his surroundings marked by an increasingly psychedelic lens. Spanning 40 years of Steffens’ life and culled from over 40,000 chrome photographs, The Family Acid presents his often transcendent vision and life as a psychedelic pioneer on the order of Timothy Leary and Hunter S Thompson beginning with his work in Vietnam and moving through his ever revolving circle of friends and characters made up of rastas, beatniks, musicians, artists, gonzo journalists, his family, and himself. The portraits, scenes, and freewheeling experimentation with the medium of photography coalesce into a body of work that both parallels and defines the countercultural ethos of Steffens’ generation. With texts by Kate and Devon Steffens