1967.09.08 Lagoon Patio Gardens, Farmington, Utah. 📷 Mikel Covey

Jim Morrison, The Doors, "The American Poet", New York, 1966. This is the iconic "American Poet" photograph taken by Brodsky for the band's first album in 1966. Brodsky captured a young Jim Morrison shortly before The Doors became famous.

July 1967. Photo by Paul Ferrara.

Photographer Bobby Klein talks about this photo shoot: “We arrived in Venice in the morning and walked along the canals. This bridge has been preserved in its original form in Venice, which was designed in the early 1900s. On the way there, in my car, the guys heard ”Break On Through" on the radio for the first time," and everyone was delighted. They understood what it was like to have a hit. " January-February 1967, Venice Beach, California. © Bobby Klein.

I received an Aztec wall


of vision


& dissolved my room in


sweet derision


Closed my eyes, prepared to god


A gentle wind inform’d me so


And bathed my skin in ether glow

On February 22, 1967, The Doors' performed at the Valley Music Theater in Woodland Hills, California George Washington's Birthday Bash. This event takes place as a fundraiser & awareness concert for teenagers and the public following the Sunset Strip riots. The doors played first.  🔻February 22, 1967, Woodland Hills, California, photo by Jean Trindl

The first day the band arrived in the studio, Botnick recalls, “they had pretty much the first two albums ready to go. The thought that Paul had was that we were to be invisible – to allow them to capture the magic of The Doors as you went to hear them.” He adds: “They were totally different than anything else I was recording. I was recording the Beach Boys, The Turtles, The Ventures… and The Doors were totally different, it was the beginning of that era of American sixties music.”.   1966.11  First photo session group ©Joel Brodsky

"Cheetah, Santa Monica,  California,  April 9, 1967. © Chuck Boyd

"Everybody was waiting for us. 'Break On Through' was out and people were turning onto the album. It was our first really large crowd. Over two thousand."-Robbie Krieger.

The Doors appear for two shows with The Jefferson Airplane playing to their largest crowd to date of over 2,000. This new Cheetah patterned itself after the one in NYC and just opened on March 21st sporting a 7,000 sq. ft. dance floor surrounded by stainless steel walls. Riding the upward swing of success their new album is producing, The Doors, for the first time, top billing over the biggest bands from rival San Francisco. Jim is highly delighted tonight and falls off the stage in a wild rage, some 8 feet, for the first time during a performance. This is obviously a big night for the band.

The Endless quest a vigil

of watchtowers and fortresses

against the sea and time.

Have they won? Perhaps.

They still stand and in

their silent rooms still wander

the souls of the dead,

who keep their watch on the living.

Soon enough we shall join them.

Soon enough we shall walk

the walls of time. We shall

miss nothing

except each other.

(Jim Morrison, THE VILLAGE TAPES, WILDERNESS)

🔻January-February 1967, Bronson Caves, Los Angeles, California. Photographer Bobby Klein

16 Magazine Photo Session, New York City, NY, Mid September,1967. 📷 Gloria Stavers

1967.05.29. Grover Cleveland High School, Reseda, CA. Photo by Don Johnson