Michael Weinstein’s career as a photographer began in 1978 after he graduated from the University of Michigan with an English degree. After moving back to Chicago, Michael worked as a printer at the Ross-Ehlert Photo Lab in the black and white film department.

Simultaneously, the music scene in Chicago was bursting at the seams. It was an extremely exciting time, and provided a rare opportunity to document Chicago’s thriving music scene.

Weinstein spent his days printing at the lab, and on most nights he would photograph shows and venues all over the Chicago area. On weekends, Michael would develop his film at a place known as The Darkroom - a communal darkroom space dedicated to working with both amateurs and professionals. The Darkroom was an inspirational home base for Weinstein as a young photographer, and was a primary influence on his career. In the basement of The Darkroom was the office of Photo Reserve, an agency that specialized in Rock and Roll photography. Photo Reserve covered most of the music venues in and out of the city and provided Weinstein with access to almost every musical event in the area. As a result, Michael’s Rock and Roll photos began to appear in local Chicago publications, as well as major national music magazines like Rolling Stone and Esquire.

Michael has been a full time photographer ever since. He has photographed people on assignment for almost every national magazine and has photographed in the fashion industry for numerous retailers. For the past 25 years, Weinstein has developed his namesake, MW Studio, into one of NYC’s top boutique Real Estate and architectural photography studios.

After spending the past few years archiving all of his music photography from the special period of the late 70s and early 80s, Weinstein premieres this treasure trove of photos featuring Rock and Roll’s biggest stars. After sitting in storage for over 40 years, this collection is a time capsule from an exciting and inspiring musical era of the past.