Bethel Woods honors famed Woodstock photographer

BETHEL, NY— Picture it: Woodstock, 1969. On the site of Max Yasgur’s farm, you’ve come to experience three days of peace, love and music. There’s just one problem—they’ve run out of food.

That’s where Lisa Law steps in. 

Lisa, along with members of the Hog Farm commune, had been asked by Woodstock organizers to help with the event. Lisa decided to take action, recognizing that there was going to be a problem if the festival couldn’t supply food.

“I looked around and I saw what was needed, I just went ahead and did it,” Lisa said. “All these people were showing up. It would have been a real mess if they were hungry.”

To honor Lisa, the Free Kitchen and the Hog Farm Commune, The museum at Bethel Woods opened a new exhibit entitled “The Free Kitchen: Selections from the Lisa Law Collection.” The exhibit features artifacts from the Woodstock festival, some donated by Lisa, as well as her photographs. The items in the exhibit will enter the Museum at Bethel Woods’ permanent collection. On July 23, as part of their 20 year anniversary celebration, Bethel Woods held an opening reception for the Artist Wing of The Pavillion. Lisa Law and Pilar Law were both in Attendance.

Feed the people

Lisa is a photographer and filmmaker who captured the essence of the 60’s counterculture. Her photographs span from an early career Bob Dylan to California’s Anti-war demonstrations and from Timothy Leary to Coretta Scott King. Lisa was also involved with the Hog Farm commune led by Hugh Romney, more widely known as Wavy Gravy. The Hog Farm made up the security force for Woodstock, being humorously dubbed the “Please Force” in reference to the way they kept the peace by telling attendants “Please don’t do that, please do this instead.” 

Once at Woodstock, they became more than just security. They set up a free stage, a “trip tent” for people experiencing bad drug trips, a medical tent and a kitchen. The kitchen's initial purpose was to feed members of the commune, but it soon became apparent that more people would need to be fed.

After realizing there was a need at the festival, Lisa went to John Morris, the production coordinator for Woodstock, and asked for money. Morris funded Lisa Law’s effort to feed the more than 400,000 people in attendance.

“When I talked to John, I said ‘give me $3,000 or these people starve to death,’” Lisa said. “He gave me the money, the $3,000, and then I said, ‘I need more.’ He said, "Give her what she wants.’”

When Lisa Law later interviewed Morris, she asked him about this moment.

“I said, ‘At what point did you decide to feed everybody?’ And he said, ‘I didn't. You did,’” Lisa said.

Upon her return, the Hog Farm began making and distributing food. Mixing food in trash pails and distributing it from the kitchen as well as a flat bed truck next to the main stage. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Lisa Law’s Legacy

The story of Lisa Law’s and the Hog Farms efforts to feed everyone brings to mind the parable of loaves and fishes, a miracle made manifest. It is a fitting analogy, as according to Lisa divine inspiration caused her to act.

“I think God told me to do it,” Lisa said. 

However, Lisa’s actions were not just limited to those three days in 1969. Her photographs of the iconic 1969 Woodstock festival and the Hog Farm Commune, which have been displayed in the Smithsonian, carry on the memory of the event and the people that made it happen. Many people have come up to her to tell her stories of Woodstock. At the reception, people approached her to tell how Woodstock affected their lives.

“It's nice to think that my parents have a place in history that I really didn't realize they had,” said Pilar Law, Lisa’s daughter, who was present at Woodstock.

Neil V. Hitch, the Senior Curator of the Museum at Bethel Woods, said that Lisa’s actions with the free kitchen are symbolic of the larger ethos of Woodstock, an ethos of community and cooperation.

“I think sometimes today we think of Woodstock as a person because largely we look at someone like Lisa Law and we say Lisa Law did this, but in 1969 at Woodstock, I don't think people were thinking I am doing this. I think everyone was doing what they could,” Hitch said. “There was never an intention in 1969 that I'm doing this because I'm going to have an exhibit, or I'm doing this because I want to be important, [it was] I'm doing this because this what needs to be done, and that was it."

"We look back and we say it's kind of an amazing thing that happens where people just choose to care for one another, and 57 years we are still looking back at that as being a seminal moment of Woodstock," he said.

Julia Fell, Bethel Woods Curator of Exhibits, organized the exhibit. She credits the exhibit to the museum’s relationship with Lisa, and says she's excited by how the exhibit gets to highlight an underdiscussed aspect of Woodstock, that being the free kitchen.

“The exhibit has been sort of the next step in a relationship that we've had with Lisa for quite a long time now,” Fell said. “It's been really rewarding to get to continue working with Lisa and to continue to highlight how important her contributions to Woodstock and to Woodstock's legacy have been."

Hitch also noted that the donation by Lisa includes an agreement that the museum can use her photos in perpetuity in any format, future proofing the collection and keeping the legacy of Woodstock alive into the distant future.

“At the 100th anniversary of Woodstock, someone is going to look for a collection, an archive that talks about what happened at Woodstock,” Hitch said. “What they're going to find at the Museum at Bethel Woods is the Lisa Law collection, and they're going to find the photographs that represent what happened to Woodstock." 

Hitch guided Lisa throughout the exhibit, showing her the ways the museum has displayed her artifacts. Lisa said she was “honored” that Hitch turned her “into a real celebrity” by recognizing her work.

“Look what he's done for me; framing all these, printing all these pictures, framing all this stuff,” she said. “He recognizes what I did, and not a lot of people recognize what I did. They don't…I owe this day to this man. I love this man.”

Pilar Law also felt “honored” to be able to see her mother’s work on display for the public.

“It's an interesting experience to see things that have been in my life and my home displayed in a museum,” she said. “I've worked with my mom for over 25 years on her archive, so a lot of this photography is very familiar to me, and I enjoy seeing it displayed so that other people can have their experience of her work.”

Fell, in talking about keeping the memory of Woodstock alive, highlighted the museums oral history initiative, which collects the stories of Woodstock organizers, attendees, volunteers and others who made up the fabric of the event.

“Aside from the exhibits that we put on for the public to come visit, we also have a long-running oral history initiative. So I've been able to connect with not only the people who made Woodstock happen, [but we’ve also] done over 1,500 oral histories, primarily with Woodstock attendees,” Fell said. “So that's been also really rewarding to get to experience Woodstock through other people's stories and other people's perspectives.”

Fell also expressed her deep gratitude for Lisa's contributions to Woodstock, the counterculture movement, and the work of the museum.

“What Lisa has contributed to preserving the history of Woodstock and the legacy of Woodstock in the 60s and the counterculture is so significant, and her partnership with us here at the museum and her contributions to our museum collection are really really important and should not be understated,” Fell said. 

The Museum at Bethel Woods is open April 1 through December 31 daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information visit its website at www.bethelwoodscenter.org/bethel-woods-museum.