Troubadours Rockers & Punks

MUSIC PHOTOS BY Richard McCaffrey

Richard McCaffrey

Richard McCaffrey, from Providence, Rhode Island, started his career as a US Army photographer while serving in Hawaii in 1964. He studied photography at the Franklin Institute of Boston, graduating in 1967, Richard worked as a photographer and photo lab technician at Brown University. In 1969 he started a design and photography studio with Raye Santos called “Two Dimensions” in Providence.

In 1971 Richard and Raye co-founded an early alternative newspaper called “The Point,” which covered the local and national counterculture issues of the time. A significant part of the paper was devoted to music, which was when he started his career as a photographer in the music industry. Richard moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 1973. During the 1970s & ’80s, he freelanced for magazines such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Creem Magazine, and many other publications.

Richard was the chief photographer for “BAM, The California Music Magazine” from 1976 to 86 and also worked with Concert promoter Bill Graham, bands, and record companies. In 1979 he co-founded “Eye Gallery,” a non-profit photo gallery, community lab, and studio in the Mission District of San Francisco and was Board Chairman from 1982-84.

Richard moved back to Providence in 1991, where he became the staff photographer for “The Providence Phoenix” until 2014, he now contributes to “GoLocalProv” online news. Richard is represented by Getty Images and his photographs appear in numerous national and international publications, books, television, and film documentaries such as Ken Burns “Country Music” on PBS, "Belushi on Showtime", and “Laurel Canyon” on EPIX.