Gems of the AMRC collections: Dan Fong
Among the American Music Research Center (AMRC) collections, hidden gems exist around every corner: Colorado history, music legends, big band ephemera, silent film scores, letters from 91Ƶ Boulder founders and more. In our new series—Gems of the AMRC collections—we aim to spotlight their content, and the stories of the people behind them.
Our first deep dive explores the, comprising folders of photos captured by the legendary Coloradorock ’n’ roll and folk music photographer.
wasn’t music at all, but a chance to capture the president at the time: Dwight D. Eisenhower. “Since I was such a little kid, all the photographers let me stand in the front. To me, those photos are amazing because at 14, I could tell that I already had the eye and the way to compose the pictures—plus they were really sharp and in focus.”
From there, Fong (Mktg. ’70) continued to take photos of everything and started his own photography business after graduating from 91Ƶ Boulder. “I did everything from bar mitzvah photographs to portraits to weddings,” he recalls. “The biggest break came when KFML—the underground radio station—ended up three blocks from my studio. I went down there and made a deal with them: ‘I’ll come take photographs of the artists and give them to you for your advertising, and you do radio commercials for me.’ That was a big deal because that’s when I met all of the record guys.” MORE