Long Lost Pics of Beat Generation Icons Coming to Palm Beach Photographic Centre

South Florida wasn’t exactly ground zero for the Beat Generation during the rowdy collection of authors’ and poets’ heyday, but according to a recent announcement from Palm Beach Photographic Centre (PBPC) in West Palm, it will soon be one of the best places around to explore their lives.

Announced Monday, August 21, BEATITUDE: The Beat Attitude, featuring photographs by Joey Tranchina, is kicking off the non-profit PBPC’s 35^th anniversary from October–January 6.

This upcoming exhibition of more than 70 images and commanding enlargements includes images of the iconic culture-defining poets, activists, and artists of the Beat Generation, including Allen Ginsberg, Diane di Prima, Amiri Baraka, Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure, and others.

Snapped by Tranchina, a little know artist and activist, in the 1960s and ‘70s, the images were stored away for nearly 50 years before being discovered by his son in 2018 and later shared with critic and art historian Dr. Anthony Bannon and art consultant and producer Dolores Lusitana, who will discuss the exhibition at a special presentation at the Palm Beach Central Library on October 21.

“Tranchina’s work must be the most extensive pictorial assembly of Beat related artists and thinkers depicted by a single photographer,” says Dr. Bannon, the author of 49 books and emeritus director (1996-2012) of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. “The photographs, rendered in dramatic black and white, include masterful representations of the heroes recognized in their time by Nobel and Pulitzer awards, Academy and Obie prizes for film and theater, and appointments by both the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and the American Society of Arts and Letters. Here are the poets laureate named by states and nations and the recipients of the highest praise granted internationally through university doctorates.”

“These were the international thought leaders,” adds Lusitana, who organized the archive for exhibition and publication and served as the artist’s project director. “Joey Tranchina cast a wide net in his own appreciation and participation in the global change of culture. Time has supported his selections, including Nobel Prize winning Czeslaw Milosz; the great Russian poets whose readings came to fill a sports stadium, namely Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky; and Margaret Atwood, an early contributor to Beat publications in Canada.”

A book of Joey Tranchina’s photographs, also titled BEATITUDE: The Beat Attitude — with an essay by Bannon and introduction by American Book Award winning poet Ed Sanders — is forthcoming internationally from Steidl Verlag.

“The Palm Beach Photographic Centre’s 35 years of service in Florida – and the nation – is nicely summarized by BEATITUDE, for ours has definitely been a Beat Attitude, always ready for change, proceeding with a vision to participate in a spirit of excellence and achievement,” says NeJame. “This show is a perfect way to begin our 35th anniversary celebration—and in conjunction with this exhibition we will be presenting a series of lectures, conversations, and special guests, who participated in the Beat revolution.

For more information about Joey Tranchina and his work, visit transparent-press.com.

The Palm Beach Photographic Centre is located at 415 Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. Call 561-253-2600 or visit workshop.org.