“I didn’t know about the eclipse—but I did know about the Pyramid being levitated.”

By the time Adrian Boot traveled to the Pyramids of Giza in 1978 to photograph the Grateful Dead, his creative legacy was already something to behold. Psychedelic improvisational jam music and the culture surrounding it, however, were not really on his radar. We recently sat down with the acclaimed UK photographer to discuss his artistic journey—and where “levitating pyramids” fit into it all.

Boot’s early career saw him pivot from teaching physics at a school in Jamaica, to instead devotedly capturing the vibrant island country on black and white film with what he describes as a “beaten up old Pentax”. Eventually he built his own darkroom in Kingston, made basic developers and fixers using materials borrowed from the school’s science lab, and helped publish the groundbreaking book on urban Jamaica, “Babylon on a Thin Wire”, with writer Michael Thomas—now in its third edition.

In the years leading up to his run-in with the Dead, Boot’s repertoire would flourish, with freelance work in the UK shooting everyone from punk pioneers like The Clash, The Ramones, and Patti Smith, to various music royalty like Abba, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin. His work for Island Records would see him return to Jamaica to shoot reggae heavyweights like Peter Tosh, Toots & the Maytals, Lee Perry, Burning Spear, and the legend Bob Marley himself.

With sharp focus on the punk and reggae worlds, it made sense that when Boot was sent to Egypt in 1978 by Melody Maker (a prominent UK music magazine) he wasn’t particularly familiar with the Grateful Dead or their “far-out” goals there. He was, however, familiar with Ken Kesey, having read his work and having read Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, in which, of course, Mr. Kesey plays a central role. For Boot, arriving at the Pyramids of Giza and being greeted by Kesey, Jerry Garcia, Mountain Girl, and the lot “felt like [he] had been transported, in real life, into the book.”

Boot’s two-week stint shooting the Dead would prove to be just as bizarre and story-like as one might expect, considering the colorful cast of characters. “It was a bit of a weird gig, really. You got to remember I went over there while London was in the midst of a depression—there was punk, and everyone was spitting at each other, and it was all very grim. I got on this plane and landed in Egypt, and it was like time travel. I was suddenly back in the late 60s. It was all love and peace and lots of LSD and so on and so forth . . . It was quite a strange transition.”

The otherworldly nature of this trip is immediately apparent in Boot’s photos: the stunning majesty of the Sphinx and the Pyramids juxtaposed against production trucks and guitar rigs, nomadic Bedouins and Egyptian locals mingling with California hippies, camels and horses outnumbering human attendees against the backdrop of a full lunar eclipse, and an elaborate echo chamber constructed within the bowels of Cheops—which, in conjunction with the eclipse, was meant to help the ancient gods levitate the Pyramid during the final show of the run.

We can see in this series that Boot is more interested in painting a picture of an entire vibe than he is worried about making musicians pose for the camera. His relative unfamiliarity with the band allows him a particular freedom from the trappings of a typical music magazine press shoot, and results in a quintessential display of his powers as a photographer. Some quasi-traditional portraits are certainly in the mix, but even they tend to transcend rigidity, instead casually conveying a sense of presence and grand adventure. Take the arms-crossed portrait of Jerry Garcia for example, his hair flowing in the wind while a 4,500 year old pyramid and an infinite desert stretch behind him. It effortlessly reads as equal parts “epic album cover” as it does an intimate and impromptu travel moment.

In one photo we see drummer Mickey Hart donned in common white Egyptian robes, standing with a pigtailed and western-dressed Garcia amongst a group of locals. Immediately we’re given a wonderful visual blend of cultural styles, but beyond that it seems we can practically hear the conversation happening thanks to Boot’s ability to not be simply behind-the-scenes, but instead find his way inside of the scenes.

Similar mingling is seen in another photo, where San Francisco tie-dye meets traditional tunic, and as viewers we can feel the sun beginning to set just outside of the frame. The heat, the breeze, the atmosphere and energy are felt viscerally through Boot’s lens; the contemplation and reflection so easy to read on the faces of Garcia, Mountain Girl, and manager Richard Loren with his pipe.

Throughout the series we are shown time and again that Boot is just as much a travel, nature, and culture photographer as he is a music and press one. He displays perpetual curiosity and a deep respect for the environment around him – and the unusual circumstances of the assignment that brought him to Egypt. One does not have to be aware of the Grateful Dead to be fascinated by the composite image of their concert beneath the lunar eclipse, a pyramid and Sphinx looming impressively behind them, the show happening in the blink of an eye compared to the lifespan of these ancient marvels. Someone who’s never heard of Jerry Garcia can still be completely entranced by the image of him in all-black streetclothes walking side by side through the Saraha with a man in robes leading a camel. The photos aren’t exclusively for Dead fans or even music fans – they’re for anyone who’s curious and adventurous by nature.

A few of these images have already become things of legend in both the music and photography worlds. To now be unveiling never-before-seen photos from the 1978 Egypt trip, in the year 2025, is an especially delightful treat and privilege. No other band had done something like this before, and no other photographer had the unique disposition of Boot’s—equally detached from the Grateful Dead scene yet notedly immersed in the art of the assignment at hand: capturing the magic and mischief of this strange and wondrous moment in music history. Lightning in a bottle, as they say, as surely such a feat could not really be pulled off with the regulations and restrictions of modern times.

Usually a student of “fly-on-the-wall” photography, Boot did find himself a little more involved during his time with the Dead, becoming closer with Garcia and getting to know Ken Kesey quite well (though whether Boot chose to partake in the party favors remains a mystery). After the final show, the entire entourage rode camels an hour out into the desert to an after-party in the village of Saqqara. While saying his final goodbyes to the band and crew that night, Boot had one final conversation with Garcia: “As I’m leaving, I went up to Jerry and thanked him, said it was all great and so on, and I said, ‘But I didn’t see the Pyramids levitate,’ to which Jerry replied, ‘Well then you weren’t paying attention.’”

PRE-ORDER: Retro Photo Archive – Volume One, Issue 1: Grateful Dead in Egypt

A 74-page zine featuring Adrian Boot’s rarely seen photographs of the Grateful Dead’s legendary 1978 trip to Egypt. This first issue in our new series offers an exciting look at the band’s historic performances and adventures at the foot of the Great Pyramids.