For nearly 20 years, photographer Jay Blakesberg captured Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, always searching for what he described as the "peak moments" in the band's famously sprawling shows.

“The Grateful Dead, the most they got as far as being visually rock star-ish on stage was with their body language, so with (Jerry) Garcia it could be just a flourish of his hand up in the air,” Blakesberg said, referencing his shot from a 1993 Las Vegas show of Garcia with his right hand raised and a wry smile on his face, mid-song.

“Those are like these little peak moments that I always look forward to with the Grateful Dead," said Blakesberg. "With Bobby (Weir) it was a little bit easier because you knew during ‘Sugar (Magnolia)’ or ‘Not Fade Away’ or something like that his head would go back, his knee would come up, more intense body language. But even Garcia would lift that leg and raise that arm, or when he was screaming into a microphone he just had that look on his face.”

There are a pair of 1987 photos of Garcia by Blakesberg from the Shoreline Amphitheater with the singer and guitarist throwing a clenched right fist that drive the author's point home.

“With Jerry it was about body language, mouth language, big smiles, lifting that leg, that special look that Jerry had,” said Blakesberg.

These images are among the 139 featured in Blakesberg's new book, "Jerry Garcia: Secret Space of Dreams."

Clocking in at 208 pages the book — launching Tuesday, Oct. 15 — looks at Garcia's life in and out of the Grateful Dead, from the band's Sept. 2, 1978 show at the former Giants Stadium in East Rutherford through the April 1995 shoot of the Jerry Garcia Band's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" music video.

Now based in San Francisco, Blakesberg grew up in Clark, Union County. He first saw Garcia live at Convention Hall on the Asbury Park Boardwalk at a July 1977 Jerry Garcia Band show, following by his first Grateful Dead show: the historic September 1977 show at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown.

Throughout his more than 40 years of shooting musicians, Blakesberg has kept a lesson from his North Jersey youth in mind.

“My little league coach up in Clark, New Jersey once said to me, ‘When you’re out in the field, you need to anticipate the play,’ and that is the greatest piece of information that anybody’s ever given me as a photographer, especially as a live music photographer," Blakesberg said. "Anticipate the play. You can feel it coming, you can feel the energy building, you can feel that moment, that peak coming. So you can either be drinking a beer, off spacing out or you can have your camera up to your eye, waiting for that peak moment.

"Because you know what? In photography, you’re capturing lightning in a bottle in a fraction of a second. These things don’t last. That smile doesn’t last for more than a half a second, that hand up in the air doesn’t last for more than a half a second. So you’re shooting this at a 125th of a second or a 250th of a second in order to capture that magic at that moment.”

In addition to the wilds of the live concert world, Blakesberg also had a number of opportunities to shoot Garcia in a controlled studio setting, starting with a 1991 session alongside lyricist Robert Hunter at the Dead's offices in San Rafael, California, for fan publication "The Golden Road."

On that occasion, Blakesberg was given three minutes with the two titans, in which time he captured a roll and a half of black-and-white film and half a roll of color. The resulting images, some of which are presented in "Secret Space of Dreams" give an intimate look at the longtime cohorts. The shoot also served as a learning experience for Blakesberg.

“After that experience with Garcia, I kind of realized that the best way to get Jerry to sit down and pay attention was to give him an instrument and let him play.” Blakesberg said.

Two years later, Garcia sat, guitar in hand, for 45 minutes during a 1993 shoot for the cover of Acoustic Guitar magazine in the Mill Valley, California, home of Passaic native and mandolin player David Grisman.

The impromptu living room performance was not without its complications, Blakesberg said.

“Garcia started singing the songs that they were working on," Blakesberg said. "And I had to say, ‘Jerry, please do me a favor and don’t sing because your mouth is going to be all wonky and I’m shooting a magazine cover and I can’t have you making a weird face like you’re talking or chewing gum.’ And so I’m the only guy in the world that’s probably ever told Jerry Garcia to stop singing.”

"Jerry Garcia: Secret Space of Dreams" by Jay Blakesberg, out Tuesday, Oct. 15, $60, available via www.rockoutbooks.com.

Blakesberg will deliver his hour-long slideshow and storytelling presentation "Between the Dark and the Light: The Grateful Dead Photography of Jay Blakesberg" followed by a signing of "Jerry Garcia: Secret Space of Dreams" 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20 at Barnes and Noble, 1180 Raritan Road, Clark.

Other area Blakesberg appearances include Friday, Oct. 18 at Utopia Soundstage in Woodstock, New York; Wednesday, Oct. 30 at FTC at the Warehouse in Fairfield, Connecticut; Saturday, Nov. 2 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York; Sunday, Nov. 3 at the Ace Hotel New York in New York City and Monday, Nov. 4 at Bahr Gallery in Oyster Bay, New York.

Are you all about the Grateful Dead? Then make sure you don't miss a single story by our resident Deadhead, features reporter Alex Biese.

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