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Shelly Rusten

American jazz drummer and percussionist. Born : April 13, 1938 in Boston, Massachusetts. Worked with Patty Waters (pianist). Shelly Rusten is an American photographer who was also active as a jazz drummer. Rusten had played drums in local bands since the mid-1950s. He discovered photography during his military service (1961–63). From 1963 he lived in New York, where he became a member of Burton Greene's trio in 1966 and also accompanied Patty Waters. From 1969 onwards Rusten, who trained as a model with Lisette, made a name for himself as a documentary photographer. In particular, his photos of the people at the Woodstock festival were printed internationally in the print media and were also used in the advertisements for the Woodstock film in 1970. They were later used on the covers of various recordings from this festival, such as Janis Joplin, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone and Jefferson Airplane. Rusten also contributed the cover photos to albums by David Liebman and Johnny Winter. After living in the rural Upper Delaware Valley since 1983, he created a series of photographs of rural life that have been part of the Museum of Modern Art's collection since 1993. Since 2005 he has focused on photographs of people on the streets of New York. Rusten also taught photography at the New School and then at the School of until 1985.