Jim Morrison Pictured By Oscar Abolafia, August 14, 1967

Jim and Thor (Ray's brother's doberman) hunt abalone with Ray, Dorothy and Ray's mother. At that time, Jim was living in Ray and Dorothy's house, where he was given the master bedroom. Photo courtesy of Ray Manzarek, 1965.

Wonderful & magic winter ❤️

1067.07. Photo by Paul Ferrara

That was a great summer. I was hanging out at the film school and I was hanging out with friends in Venice. Ray had a house there, so I’d go and watch them rehearse sometimes because we were still hanging around that summer...A few years later, after we became friends, I told Jim about my first impression of him at that first show, and I said, “I thought you were terrible that night”. I remember he gave me a look that seemed to suggest that he didn’t like the word “terrible” [laughs]...

But then I told him he had improved tremendously and he was like a Frank Sinatra crooner who could also sing rock, and I asked him, “What changed?” He just said, “I just kept practicing and I kept practicing, practicing, practicing”. And obviously he had been doing something to improve. If you listen to their first demo and then their first album, there is such a difference and you can hear it. But they rehearsed a lot and they played a lot, too. I guess you can’t really help but improve if there’s the will and the talent, right?"-Frank Lisciandro

1966.08-09 Ray's Beach House Session ©Bill Harvey

Asbury Park Convention Hall New Jersey, September 2nd 1967. 📷 Gloria Stavers

1967.09.08 Lagoon Patio Gardens, Farmington, Utah. 📷 Mikel Covey

The Doors 1967.09.09 Village Theatre,New York, NY. 📷Nathan Farb

Jim Morrison with model Donna Mitchell, VOGUE magazine session, New York, September 1967. Photo by Alexis Waldeck.  

Bobby Klein: "Jim was irreverent and mischievous. One time we were shooting outside and he suddenly disappeared. He came back with this cheeky smile and I took his picture. Only later, when I got the photos developed, did I realise what he had been doing: he’d hidden behind a tree, got himself aroused and, through his trousers, was pointing his erection right at my camera."

January-February 1967, Venice Beach, California. © Bobby Klein.

Jim Morrison, Jule 28th-30th, 1967, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 📷 Paul Ferrara