“These two Joplin photographs with the Southern Comfort bottle have a mystery about them. They were shot in 1968 backstage at San Francisco’s Winterland — both taken with the same camera and lens, but different rolls. I did not number my rolls in order that night, and to this day I do not know which was taken first. When I showed Janis the picture of her lying back with the bottle in her hand, she said, ‘Jim, this is how it is sometimes. Lousy.’ Some people said I shouldn’t have published the picture of her lying back with the bottle in her hand, but I’ll defend it to the death. It’s an honest picture, and Janis liked it. Janis was a great subject to photograph, because she was not afraid of the camera and came alive onstage — that was her world. She was very real and a still a little girl when she died, a very famous little girl.”
—Jim Marshall
