Roger Steffens is many things: father, veteran, actor, writer, broadcaster, and an expert on all things reggae. He first picked up a camera during the Vietnam War, but not as a photographer — as a witness. “My grandfather and mother had a keen sense of history,” he said. “They both instilled that sense in me that there were things going on around us that would be looked back upon as historic.” Steffens went on to take some 400,000 images during the height of 1970s counterculture, capturing his growing family, spectacular strangers, and the celebrities he came across. “The kids never knew who was going to be knocking on the door,” he said. “I’d say ‘Come out and meet Burning Spear,’ and they'd say ‘Dad I gotta do my math.’” Steffens let the images linger until his children Kate and Devon started scanning his archive and sharing their family memories on Instagram with the moniker “The Family Acid,” (Steffens met his wife, Mary, during an acid trip in Mendocino's pygmy forest). A selection of the images will be on view at New York City’s Benrubi Gallery beginning July 7 — Steffens’s first exhibition — and he has shared some with The Atlantic below. The captions were provided by the gallery.
A Family Album on Acid
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Read moreSunny Silver Man, January 1979 #
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Read moreThe Haunted Mansion, April 1978 #
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Read moreVatican II, May 1972 #
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Read moreMother Mary, June 1975 #
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Read moreHeavenly Triangulation, August 1978 #
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Read moreJoan Didion in Berkely, August 1972 #
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Read moreMary, Queen of the Cactus, April 1986 #
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Read moreLeft: A Spliff a Day, June 1976 Right: The Redwood Alien, December 1973 #
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Read moreWayside Cottage, Mincing Lane, October 1971 #
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Read moreStonehenge Unbound, October 1971 #
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Read moreMirage Lake at the Foot of the Shadow Mountains, March 1976 #
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Read moreDavenport, California, August 1977 #
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Read moreBurned on the Fourth of July, April 1975 #
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Read moreNear Death in the Afternoon, Ronda, Spain, March 1971 #
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Read moreTongue Tied by the Renaissance Queen, February 1974 #
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Read moreDrive in High Style, August 1977 #
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Read moreEscape of the Auras, July 1979 #
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Read moreBoonville Truck Shop, November 1970 #
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Read moreBrother John, August 1975 #
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