Renowned San Francisco photographer Erik Weber has passed away at the age of 83. Born in Chicago to Tom and Miriam Weber on Feb. 11, 1940, he died in St. Albans, Vermont, on Dec. 4, 2023.
Erik’s body of work spans over six decades, beginning in San Francisco, where he photographed the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s famous bust for obscenity in 1965, in Golden Gate Park. He was also Richard Brautigan’s personal photographer and friend, documenting many years of the writer’s life, which resulted in a book called “Seeing Richard.” Several of Erik’s photos also graced the covers of Brautigan’s books, the most well-known the cover of “Trout Fishing in America.”
In the early 1970s, he traveled extensively in India and Asia for two years, which resulted in his first photographic show called “Portrait of a Traveling Mind.” It remains in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. Over the years Erik also made album covers for artists that include The Steve Miller Band, Santana, and Charles Brown with Bonnie Raitt. When the nightclub Slim’s opened in the late 80s, he became its house photographer, photographing most of the Blues artists that performed there in its early years.
In 1997, after living for 50 years in San Francisco, he moved with his wife, Sally, to Indian Valley near Greenville in Plumas County, in northeastern California. Erik enjoyed its beauty and community for 25 years, and he continued his favorite photographic endeavor of documenting a place and its inhabitants. Those were his happiest years, living in the Lost Sierra with Sally, and animals both domestic and wild. While there he embraced the genre of Western Art and had numerous shows of his work, including an exhibition at The Calgary Stampede.
Erik was a man who truly loved his work. At the time of his death, he was nearing completion of a few projects that the family hopes to complete posthumously. His work can be viewed at Erik Weber Photography.
He is survived by Sally Forsberg-Weber, his wife of 34 years; daughters Selena Weber and Araya Isaacson; granddaughter Penelope Williams; sister Tamara Smith and her husband Gary; sister Korie Angeldonis and her husband Reynaldo; brother Even Weber; niece Morganna Ennis; nephews Dylan Sunderland and his wife Chrissy, Karl Ennis, and Vernon Stokes and his wife Amber. Erik is predeceased by his parents and a sister Avril.
Main Street Artists Gallery in Quincy, where Erik was a member, plans to display his photographs at a memorial exhibit in March.
