All photographs at musium.net were shot by rock photographer Kirk Koster. Kirk Koster was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1956. Growing up Kirk enjoyed studying photography in high school and later at the University of Iowa and checking out the vibrant mid-west tour scene, which eventually led to Kirk picking up his Minolta and using his local knowledge and connections to shoot what turned out to be some of the most incredible photographs of the greatest musical artists of our time as their tours meandered through the mid-west.

Kirk Koster captured the zeitgeist of the 70’s music scene as experienced by mid-western music fans and the 70’s rockers who went on to become icons. Through his camera eye Kirk Koster has immortalized these incredible artists and unforgettable performances.  Utilizing negative space, depth of field, 70’s stagecraft and concert lighting as the backdrop Kirk captured lightning with his camera eye. Like the artists of that era, Kirk’s photography preserved a sense of mystery. As Kirk put it “too much 'in focus’, in some photos answers too many questions.”

These brilliant early performances of Kiss, Rush, Fleetwood Mac, Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead, Rory Gallagher, Little Feat, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey and many other iconic artists who were in their infancy as they were just breaking out and, some might say, at the height of their powers, were memorialized and preserved by Kirk Koster. 

From the first shows he shot of Foghat, Eric Clapton in 1975 or Rush in 1974, Koster documented the vibrant mid-west concert circuit in the 1970’s, Kirk Koster amassed an archive of hundreds of artists and thousands of photographs documenting one of the most important eras in music and creating some of the most unbelievable immortal images of what is believed by many to be the greatest era of music. 

Amazing songs, incredible artists, and performances. Unforgettable, never before scene, photographs.