An Undersung and Unruly Woodstock in Pictures, 30 Years On

Nestled between the instantly legendary festival in 1969 and the violence of the 1999 incarnation, Woodstock 1994 — a 25th anniversary celebration of the original — can be easy to overlook.

That installment, in Saugerties, N.Y., was supposed to be a slightly more grown-up (or, depending who you ask, commercial) version. But, as in 1969, attendees saw severe traffic jams, fences that could not contain the crowd and rainy weather that turned the festival grounds into a muddy slog.

Then, five years later, fires, rioting and reports of sexual assault at the 1999 festival made national headlines, and gave “Woodstock” a whole new meaning.

Now, for the 30th anniversary of ’94, a photography exhibition places the middle child of the festivals at center stage. The show, at the Opus 40 gallery in Saugerties, opens on Friday and runs for three weeks. It features work from Albert Watson, Henry Diltz, Cheryl Dunn and Danny Clinch, who remember the festival as messy yet rewarding.

That the show is taking place at all is thanks to Watson, who is known for black-and-white portraits of luminaries including Steve Jobs. The show was put together by Tyler Harte, a Manhattan property manager who moonlights as an organizer of concerts and skateboard events — and manages the building where Watson’s photography studio is. Harte realized that the anniversary was coming up and contacted Watson about potentially doing something with his 1994 photography, resulting in the show that Harte co-curated with China Jorrin, the Opus 40 gallery director.

Woodstock 1994 was a memorable challenge for Watson, he said. He was invited to set up a makeshift portrait studio in a tent at the festival behind the stage, quickly shooting exhausted musicians right after their sets and at one point hastily covering the camera with a plastic bag as rain fell.

He said that when he looks back at his career, which has included famous portraits of the filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and what he called a “ridiculous amount of Vogue covers,” Woodstock stands out.

“It was enjoyable, with a lot of pressure,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to say it was a perfect situation, but I look back and I’m glad I did it.”

Diltz, who was invited by the Woodstock producer Michael Lang to shoot all three Woodstock festivals, is also participating in another remembrance this year: a slide show survey of his work from 1969 and 1994 on Saturday at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock. He said that he mostly remembered ’94 for the stark difference in organization from the original: Where the first Woodstock had a muddy alfalfa field and a can-do attitude, the 1994 edition had walkie-talkies, golf carts and vendors selling water bottles.

“I mean, welcome to the modern day,” he said.

Unlike the other photographers in the show, Dunn hadn’t been hired to document the festival: She just showed up with some friends and started taking pictures. She was shooting from the audience, so her work focused on the crowd.

A big regret, she said, was that she hadn’t taken her camera into the pit with her when the Red Hot Chili Peppers played. She remembers that while crowdsurfing, she looked down the length of her body to see her feet in front of her and the band’s lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, right there — an image she wishes she had captured.

Woodstock ’94 was the first music festival photography experience for Dunn, now also a documentary filmmaker. In 2016 she published “Festivals Are Good,” a collection of her live music photography. A favorite photo of hers in the Opus 40 show is one of a young couple covered in mud, sharing pretzels, which to her looks like an Italian Renaissance painting.

“That festival really set me on shooting American music festivals for the next 25 years,” she said. “That was the most incredible experience for me, on a million levels.”

Clinch, a photographer who has taken the pictures for the last several Bruce Springsteen album covers, accompanied the band Blind Melon to the festival. At one point, the frontman Shannon Hoon nodded toward Clinch to play the harmonica for a song, something Hoon had done at other shows too.

Clinch said that looking back at his photos now is emotional, because they were taken a little over a year before Hoon died of a drug overdose at 28. One of Clinch’s favorite shots from the festival, and one that is in the show, is of Hoon onstage with a massive, rippling crowd so large that it forms a horizon with the tree line, without a patch of earth in sight.

“It’s always interesting when you get an assignment, you shoot the photos, you see them a week later and you’re like, ‘Oh this is great, here’s a couple of good photos,’” Clinch said. “And then when you revisit them 20 or 30 years later, they just take on a whole new meaning.”

Photos of Woodstock ’94 With Albert Watson, Henry Diltz, Cheryl Dunn and Danny Clinch

At Opus 40, Saugerties, N.Y.; Aug. 16-Sept. 6