cover image I and Eye: Pictures of My Generation

I and Eye: Pictures of My Generation

Peter Simon. Bulfinch Press, $45 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-8212-2645-2

Nudists, rural communes, urban wanderers, antiwar rallies, meditation, Rastas and the Jefferson Airplane: all made big news in the 1960s and early 1970s, and all turn up in I and Eye: Pictures of My Generation, a visually enticing memoir from photographer Peter Simon (Reggae Bloodlines; Playing in the Band). Simon (brother of singer Carly) documents with text and color photos his own youth and coming of age, his role in the free (nude) beach movement, his time with guru Ram Dass and (most affectingly) his trips to Jamaica. Later chapters cover key segments of Simon's later adult life, among them the 1979 No Nukes rock festival, the beauty of Martha's Vineyard and the ups and downs of the New York Mets. (Oct.)