96 pages
8.25" x 11.75" page size (210mm x 297mm)
A Note from Larry DiMarzio:
The Guitar Wizards book is a collection of my artist photos taken between 1981 and 1993. I’d like to thank all the artists who have generously allowed me to use their photos: Michael Anthony, Reeves Gabrels, Frank Gambale, Paul Gilbert, Richie Kotzen, Shawn Lane, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Morse, Joe Satriani, Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, and Leslie West. All the profits from Guitar Wizards have been donated to the UCLA Medical Center for Pediatric Kidney Research.
I started taking photographs purely by accident. The company was working on a new catalogue in 1980, and my sales manager suddenly left the company. I had the daunting task of picking up the pieces and overseeing the production of the 28-page project. I had worked on DiMarzio ads, but this was far bigger than anything I had done and I was completely out of my depth.
If that wasn’t scary enough, I had to deliver the catalogue in 3 months, in time for winter NAMM. The advertising agency hired two photographers for the project, and we brainstormed for weeks trying to come up with visuals that matched DiMarzio’s identity.
The final catalog wound up with a little of everything…maybe too many things. There was a New York skyline, a Magritte guitar workbench, guitar bodies in a Zen sand garden, artist photos on a light table and an English beauty posed in my Corvette. The photography took three weeks, and I was there every day. Little did I know that by the time the catalogue was finished, I would be hooked on making photographs. I learned a lot in the process and enjoyed days of turning ideas into images, so much so that I started taking photography classes at The New School that spring.
Forty years later, I’m still taking pictures — everything from the players to pickups and switches. My work has appeared on album and magazine covers, and I take most of the photos for the DiMarzio website.
