July 7, 1977, Ringo Starr’s birthday, Hollywood Hills: “We were very close at the time, and I got to capture a side of him that people rarely see.”

“I shot this photo of Marianne Faithfull one afternoon coming back from Marlon Brando’s house. I wanted to capture the hot California sun on that beautiful English face. We almost didn’t take the photo, because she only had on a white T-shirt underneath her fringed vest. I took my shirt off and gave it to her, and voilà!”

“This shot captures Nancy Andrews being her wild and crazy self. I think it started because we were singing Wayne Newton’s ‘Danke Schoen,’ and all of a sudden she ran and got a red robe and started slicking her hair back, singing, ‘Thank you for walks down lover’s lane … ’ The funny thing is, she wound up looking like Errol Flynn instead.”

John Phillips with his second and third wives: “In those days, everything happened on the bed—it was like Louis XIV, except that it was 1971. I’d gone to visit John Phillips and his girlfriend (soon-to-be wife) Geneviève Waïte (right) in Bel Air, and I wasn’t there long before John’s ex-wife, Michelle (left), arrived. Luckily I had my camera with me. Things were a bit tense, but I asked if she’d do me a favor—‘Mich, would you mind slipping into the bed for a pic?’—and she did! What a good sport.”

“The artist Peter Schlesinger had photographed me in Holmby Hills, at a run-down Mediterranean house. I later brought Pamela Des Barres and Randee St. Nicholas there to do some pictures. The location reminded me of ‘Hotel California.’”

“Sam Shepard was a Scorpio—deeply contemplative, in a world of his own. I used to cut his hair at my apartment on Alfred Street, in West Hollywood, and he would talk to me about the girl he was seeing. I always wondered why he was talking about her when he was hanging out with me.”

“I ran across two highways to get this picture.” Dallas, 1972.

L.A. Confidential

When it comes to Los Angeles in the 60s and 70s, Andee Nathanson was to photography what Eve Babitz was to literature, recording the exploding scene from within. A new book of her photographs illustrates that golden age

By Andee Nathanson

The Yoruba tribes have a word for “cool”: they call it itutu. Someone with a cool head, a metaphysical connection. I looked for that through my photos and in my life—that wisdom, that depth. I searched for it from one part of the world to another, and when it appeared before my lens it was incredibly exciting.

I am often asked how I came to be around the luminaries I photographed. But none of us thought like that. We were just friends sharing ideas.

The times had a huge influence on our work. Chaos was the order of the day back then—chaos and disenchantment. And yet, at the same time, there was a huge burst of creativity. It was as if everyone, through the impermanence and turbulence, was doing some of their best work. Some of the coolest music came out in the late 1960s—“Hey Jude,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud,” “Born to Be Wild,” “Piece of My Heart.” People who would otherwise not know each other came together. A fire was lit under us! There was an extreme polarity between those who seemed to get it and those who quite possibly never would.