Biographical Information
Born Nov. 6, 1946 Denver, CO USA. I’ve been a resident of Northern California most of my life, living at times in Washington, DC, and Seattle, WA. I graduated with a BA in history from the University of California—Berkeley 1968. I was a journalist and news photographer for some 20 years before becoming a newspaper publisher in the northern region of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve been a college instructor in history, anthropology and journalism. For the past decade I have worked in the field of social services, providing support to parents and children in the treatment and prevention of child abuse. I have lived for the past 30 years in Sonoma County, CA (one hour north of the Golden Gate Bridge). Twice married and divorced. Father of three grown children.
Bill and Son, Gabe, in Paris
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Cheryl: If you had to choose, which writer and photographer would you consider a mentor?
Bill: So many writers, so little time. For character development—John Updike or Alice Munro. For originality and language—James Joyce. For style—Lawrence Durell. For history—Theodore Zeldin or Peter Farb
Photographer—Diane Arbus, for her willingness to examine everything closely and to reduce as much as possible the distance between viewer and subject.
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Cheryl: What book(s) are you reading now?
Bill: I usually have a few going at once. Right at the moment: Barbara Hannah “Active Imagination,” Liz Greene “Astrology of Fate,” Dante “The Divine Comedy,” Onno van der Art “Rituals in Psychotherapy: Transition and Continuity,” Marie-Louise Von Franz “ On Dreams and Death,” Norman O. Brown “Love’s Body” I frequently re-read favorite books.
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Cheryl: What are your current projects?
Bill: I started a novel about six months ago that uses the Sabian Symbols of astrology (created by Elsie Wheeler and Marc Edmund Jones) to tell a story based on the growth of the free beach movement along the Santa Cruz coast of California between 1958 and 2008. I’m about 43,000 words into it. In photography, I make photos I characterize as “Comfortable Uncertainties” that capture koan-like contradictions in the course of everyday experience.
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Cheryl: Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.
Bill: First and foremost, it is my dear sweetheart Eleanor who encouraged my first efforts to create a Counterculture Tarot and who, at every step of the way, has given me invaluable support. Other assistance has come from “The Spiral,” a group of ten wonderful people with whom I’ve done what can only be described as “personal work” during the past three years. Led by a brilliant therapist, we have joined together to explore the roots of our emotional, spiritual, and creative lives through art, study, and group process.
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Cheryl: What does your family think of your writing and photography?
Bill: My immediate family has been very supportive of this project, especially my sister who remembers when many of the Counterculture Tarot images were made.
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Cheryl: What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Bill: I have a day job I love: I coordinate programs and teach classes for an agency that treats and prevents child abuse. We work with 5,000 families a year and I do a lot of intervention helping at-risk parents, and especially fathers, develop positive parenting skills and stronger parenting confidence. When I’m not doing this, I write. My average is about 2,000 words a week. Most of this writing is now given to the draft of my novel, but I also write poetry and a great deal of narrative non-fiction. I write early in the morning and in the evenings. I have a writing desk and quiet place to work.
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Cheryl: What would you say is your interesting writing or photographic quirk?
Bill: Quirk? That’s a good question. I write all my drafts in italic and only convert them to a regular typeface when I’m happy with them. I also read everything I write aloud to myself as a test of its resonance and clarity. I also write while listening to music and frequently repeat one particular cut or song infinitely during the writing process.
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Cheryl: When did you write your first book and how old were you?
Bill: As a journalist I wrote thousands of pages of narrative, but they were in the form of newspaper articles. My first “real” book is Journeying the Sixties: A Counterculture Tarot, but it is a big book. The unedited manuscript runs to 130,000 words.
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Cheryl: Do you recall how your interest in writing and photography originated?
Bill: During the emotional early years of adolescence writing was the most accessible way I had to tinker with feelings of love and mortality, to share my soul with a beloved, to explore my puzzling, expanding world or argue my case. My father gave me a camera and taught me photography when I was 13—the whole process, from tripping the shutter to processing film and making silver gelatin prints. In my senior year in high school I was editor of the school paper, one of only five high school dailies in the country. I spent the next 25 years hopping in and out of newsrooms, lens and pen in hand.
Bill at his wedding in 1969
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Cheryl: What do you like to do when you're not writing, other than take pictures?
Bill: I have always loved outdoor destinations and three years ago discovered the joys of backpacking in the wilderness. Nearby is the stunning granite wilderness of the Sierras and Yosemite National Park, which I explore each summer. North of me is a 60-mile stretch of beaches and volcanic Pacific coastline accessible only on foot. It is called the Lost Coast. Streams pour down from the coastal mountains into stunning gulches filled with rocks and driftwood. It is thorough wilderness and needs to be approached carefully since half the coastline is inaccessible at high tide. It is now my favorite destination. I pack my tent and bag, a few nights of food, my notebook and a couple of pens and I’m very much at home there. It, like Yosemite, is bear country, so I have to be careful. But fear is not unwelcome to me. My novel is about nothing if not fear—ego fear, survival fear, cosmic God fear…Last summer I came face to face with a large bear that charged me, but I held my ground—not from any territorial imperative but because I was too terrified to do anything else. I realize this might sound as if I go out and look for fear-inspiring experiences. I don’t. But there is a calming thrill attached to adventure in much the way that serenity is attached to prayer. In no other place than the wilderness do I feel both ephemeral and eternal.
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Cheryl: The Counterculture Tarot is a unique blend of iconic 60's photography and social commentary, what made you realize that Tarot was the perfect voice or complement to your photographic depiction of a pivotal period in time?
Bill: For many of us the Tarot speaks a language of rich archetypal symbolism. As I’ve examined Tarot cards for many years and in a variety of spreads I’ve been impressed with several Tarot qualities. But the one that came to mind when I imagined the Counterculture Tarot was how Tarot cards serve as “silos of experience” and how no experience ever ends. As I set about creating a deck from my vintage photographs I saw immediately how this quality could become a tool for retelling history. And I quickly found all kinds of supporting arguments for such a view: from Sixties critic and historian Theodore Roszak (who calls the Tarot a “circle that gets somewhere”) to historians Hayden White and Theodore Zeldin whose writings take a decidedly non-chronological approach to history-telling. In a flash I saw how each of my cards might become a signpost along the way toward recasting an important era in terms of its experiences and not its anniversaries. Some of us lived the Sixties as political activists, some as communards, some as feminists, some as lovers, some as priestesses, some as hermits, some as hanged men (and women), some as wands, some as swords, etc. …in this spirit it was not hard to use the Tarot’s honored imagery to create nodal points of coalescence for the events and experiences of the Counterculture. What was hard was to assemble the vast landscape of the Sixties and all that happened under the Tarot’s template in a way that would connect archetype with artifact, persona with player, actual events with Tarot qualities. Thus, the unedited work is 130,000 words and features a 23-page bibliography of references to both Tarot and historic resources. The website’s edited version of the essays does not include “reversals” that I’ve written for each card. And with each essay I’ve diligently identified, using numerous Tarot citations, the qualities of each card and matched these, using numerous historic citations, to real events. In so doing I may have stumbled on a new way to use the Tarot—as well as a new kind of photographic Tarot (there are so few). And these are ideas I hope to explore further with future Tarot contributions.
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Cheryl: How did you come up with the title?
Bill: I needed a title that had never been used. Journeying the Sixties also conveys the sense of a Fool’s Journey through the Tarot.
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Cheryl: Who designed the format for the Tarot deck and book? Did you utilize an image program?
Bill: A wonderful designer I’ve worked with before took my concept and developed the card frame and typefaces. Simple but compelling. I created a website structure that would allow easy access throughout the site and make the cards easy to approach. It is gratifying to see that website visitors visit on average more than 20 pages. So I think this concept is working.
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Cheryl: What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Bill: Finishing it. I began the writing in a fever of exhilaration and, as I explored each card theme, I opened myself both to a renewal of my own past experiences in the Counterculture as well as new understandings of Tarot truths. Each card’s essay took about a week to produce and as I grew closer to the last card of the last suit I simply did not want this experience to end. Revisiting essays and editing my writing has kept me connected to it. But it doesn’t surprise me that my latest book involves interpreting each of the Sabian symbols. There are 360 of them and it has taken nearly eight months and 43,000 words just to complete sixty. It will be awhile before I have to worry about finishing this work. The process of writing is invigorating and fills me with joy. It combines an inescapable patience for problem-solving with delicious bursts of inspiration.
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Cheryl: How difficult was the process of choosing an image that captured the essence of both the generation and the Tarot?
Bill: Searching through thousands of old photographs and negatives made the process time-consuming. Often, I’d have Tarot cards nearby, or I would read at least a half-dozen authors on card interpretation. Paul Huson’s writings were especially helpful in this task. But when an image appeared, I knew it was “it.” Only a few that I chose this way disappointed me once I’d enlarged them and created cards. Then I would search again through the images…something would always come up.
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Cheryl: What do you see as the influences on your writing and photography?
Bill: My photography has always been influenced by street photographers—the frequently anonymous explorers of human experience who seek to draw back the public subject’s private veil. I quickly developed my own technique in the Sixties, focusing often on people and experiences rather than celebrities. Judicious use of telephoto lenses and high speed black and white films made these photos possible. My style has been to crop tightly, both with the lens and the enlarger. I seek a feeling of experiential intimacy with the subject and I’m happy that, after nearly a half century, that style still seems to resonate in this work.
Bag Lady, Street Photography (c) William Cook Haigwood creator of The Countererculture Tarot
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Cheryl: Have you ever had a formal showing of your photographic images? Tell us about it.
Bill: My first ever gallery show opened in Berkeley, California, on February 7th—the same day I unveiled my website. According to the gallery owner, it has been quite a hit. You would expect a community like Berkeley to be interested in the heritage of the Sixties. I mounted more than a hundred images (including the cards) for the show. It looks great, but I’ve since learned more about how to mount a show like this. If I reach a point where it seems appropriate to sell prints, I will do more fine art presentations.
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Cheryl: What books have most influenced your life ?
Bill: James Joyce’s “Ulysses” has been a lifelong adventure for me. I’ve read it three times. Doris Lessing’s “Golden Notebook” is also a critical masterpiece. It introduced me in the Sixties to a feminine perspective on experience I had no idea existed. It was a revelation and changed my way of thinking both about women and about literature. “The Rainbow” by D.H. Lawrence and “The Mayor of Casterbridge” by Thomas Hardy have been influential to my understanding of how stories are told. My favorite American novel is “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Arthur Marwick’s “The Sixties” is the best history of the era ever written. All of Shakespeare’s tragedies are rich with qualities of experience readily found spread throughout the Tarot. Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” gave life to the Counterculture Fool. “Adolescence: A Farewell to Childhood” is a resource I’ve used in my work as a parent educator but psychologist Louise Kaplan’s descriptions of this crucial human passage are a rare poetry. There are many writers in many fields, too many to mention here. But I should mention that Marie-Louise Von Franz is by far the best interpreter of Jungian psychological principles I’ve ever read.
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Cheryl: How has your environment/upbringing coloured your writing and your photographic point of view?
Bill: My father was an amateur photographer and I grew up around photography, learning its processes at an early age. As well, I was surrounded by books and magazines that featured photographs and as a child visited Edward Steichen’s staggering The Family of Man exhibit in Washington DC. It was a stunning achievement and a post-World War II expression of hopeful multi-culturism that interested me in photographing people. Journalism and anthropology have also greatly influenced me. Working as a journalist forced me to tell real stories every day. An avocational and academic interest in anthropology forced me to draw larger social and evolutionary meanings from what I saw happening. Spending my adolescence in the San Francisco Bay Area immersed me in the Counterculture just as it was being born and brought me into my role as an eyewitness and participant.
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Cheryl: Do you see writing and photography as a career?
Bill: They were for quite awhile as I worked as a journalist. But about 20 years ago my photography turned toward other subjects more personally investigative. It remains to be seen, even at my age, if writing and photography become what my musician friends call a “paying gig.” At some level, it doesn’t matter. I have all I could ever want in life at this moment: dear friends and a small, very close family, a wonderful sweetheart, loving kindness and good health, and a compelling vocation helping families and children. Creative outlets are icing on the cake—but I do cherish what I’ve been able to accomplish with the Counterculture Tarot.
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Cheryl: What kind of camera(s) and film did you use when you photographed the images which are now part of The Counterculture Tarot?
Bill: This was way before digital: Tri-X roll film was my moveable type. I’d buy it in 100-foot rolls and spool smaller rolls for the camera. I calculated that each frame cost three cents, so it would cost about a dollar a roll to take photos. Our 35mm cameras, while they had light meters, did not have motor drives or autofocus so we’d learn how to manually focus and advance the film quickly to catch what was happening. It took practice and good shots might be as much luck as skill. But eventually styles emerged. Mine was what I described above: a tight focus that probed subjects up close but without intruding.
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Cheryl: It is obvious that you captured these pictures in the first person and that you were very much part of the 60's scene, did you realize at the time that you were capturing history? Where were you and what was your life like in those days?
Bill: Yes, I did it all. I wasn’t present for everything during the era, but I certainly lived the part. The Sixties, or long Sixties as they are sometimes called (because they drifted well into the 70s), produced enormous changes and I have written about most of them. I lived in Berkeley and Seattle and a few places in between during those 12-15 years. Looking back, I think at the time all of us thought our lives would always be as exciting as they were then. But it turned out to be a special time—and of limited duration for most of us. Disco arrived in 1977 and that is as good a way as any to mark the end of the Counterculture of the Sixties. Other Counterculture forms have followed: Punk was certainly a novel resource of fashion and attitude, but its negativity has more the feel of the bad boy Beats than Flower Power. Like many other hips, I went “straight” after 1978— and ended up living a remarkably conventional life for a long while. That ended with a divorce a number of years ago. Reconnecting with the Counterculture has been akin to finding my roots once again. It’s almost as if everything between then and now was something of a sleep walk. This project has awakened me and if it arouses others, I would consider that a success.
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Cheryl: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest work?
Bill: I can’t say I would. I might have tried to write less—this would be easier to publish if the unedited manuscript weren’t so long. I’m still editing it. The website version is certainly accessible, but a little lightweight and it does not include my card “reversals.”
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Cheryl: What genre are you most comfortable writing or photographing?
Bill: Non-fiction narrative is my métier. But I’ve wanted for many years to write a novel and I was seized with inspiration, much in the same way I was driven to create the Counterculture Tarot. So, even though the odds are long, I’m going to keep writing this new book even as I seek to make wider contributions to contemporary Tarot.
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Cheryl: Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
Bill: As far as the Counterculture is concerned, I hope this new take on a very well considered historic period helps to make the experience of the Sixties more accessible to readers. As well, I’ve included a lot of vintage photography that has been previously unpublished. I hope, also, that I’ve done a credible job fitting this history under a Tarot template in a way that aligns these historic experiences with the classic qualities of Tarot cards. Importantly, I hope I’ve created a memorable and well-regarded photographic Tarot deck. There aren’t many and there could be more. To take this one step further, it is also my hope that readers consider new ways of seeing—and using—the Tarot, not only to divine a future but also to take a return trip into the past. I’d like to promote the idea that languishing in boxes of old family photos may be the images of other, deeply personal photographic Tarots—ones that, if assembled and considered, might shed powerful light on the emotional, psychological, and generational histories of persons, families, and cultures.
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Cheryl: Do you have any advice for other writers and photographers?
Bill: Having read so much advice given by others, it seems odd to be asked for some myself. This is a modest achievement for me and the attention I’ve recently received is very rewarding. But writers and photographers should be wary of working for extrensic rewards. Writing and photography are processes of disclosure and since much of this disclosure is personal, any insights and discoveries first belong to the author. Interest from a broader audience is possible, but not ever assured or even always welcome. So do the work you enjoy—and meet your own standards for success. I suppose, like Kafka, that if given the choice I’d rather be buried with my unpublished books and photos than to never have produced them.
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Cheryl: Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Bill: Some of the comments I’ve received from readers of this work are truly moving. Having stated the above “advice,” I still have to admit that it is thrilling to make contact with appreciative readers. The Tarot community, in particular, seems interested in my concepts and ideas. I look forward to engaging more readers. And any reader who contacts me will receive a prompt response. I really value feedback.
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Cheryl: Tell us your latest news
Bill: The Counterculture Tarot website continues to attract a great deal of interest. And I continue to seek a publisher. Among those who have looked at the Counterculture Tarot there seems to be a significant amount of desire to see it in print. I’m working on this and ever more hopeful this can happen—hopefully sooner than later.
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Please visit Bill's website at http://counterculturecreations.com, to view images from this amazing deck, please visit, http://www.counterculturecreations.com/tarotcardindex.html
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