As a photographer, Geoff Whitman had one goal. “I wanted to get one cool photo that I could put on my wall,” he says. “But now, I get to do a book with these guys!”
“These guys” would refer to Pearl Jam. By day, Whitman is the executive vice president at Lloyd Cellars, a California-based wine brand known for its expressive Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc sourced from vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, Carneros and Clarksburg. But at night, on weekends and whenever (or wherever) the grunge icons are playing, he’s the band’s official tour photographer. And after decades of seeing shows as a fan and slowly cultivating their trust, he’s now the published author of Pearl Jam React/Respond, a photo book from the group’s 2024-2025 Dark Matter world tour.
A 25-year-plus veteran in the wine world, Whitman has worked with bigwigs like Robert Mondavi and was a brand co-owner and winemaker on a project called Spellbound, among many other stops. But he’s also acted, played music and, most importantly, taken his camera everywhere. “I love wine, but it also pays the bills,” he says during a recent Zoom call. “The other side of me was auditioning for things, but I always had a camera with me. Photography was an interest of mine, certainly tougher to make a career.”
Whitman’s photography interest actually started in college. “I saw an exhibition of Robert Frank’s photography, which changed my life,” he says. “High contrast, black and white, showing the human condition.” Around that time, he became equally obsessed with a little band called Pearl Jam. “I became a fan right out of the gate in 1991, before they were really big,” he adds. “But I only started asking to shoot shows around 2006. I wasn’t known to management or anybody. I got to meet a couple of the guys at that first show I saw but then probably didn’t talk to them again until 2009. I was just going to shows as a super fan. It’s a whole tribe.” From there, he reintroduced himself to the band’s HQ through a wine event he did in Chicago. “One of the band guys came, and we got to know each other.”
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For the California pop-punk trio, “I Used to Go to This Bar” is about accepting your local watering hole, warts and allEven then — and with the blessing of famed photographer and Pearl Jam friend, Danny Clinch — it took time for Whitman to move up to his current and official position with the band (which has a budding photographer of its own). He’d travel to shows by himself, scheduling wine distributor meetings along the way. After shooting Eddie Vedder for some solo shows in 2021, he was able to get a photo pass to shoot a subsequent band tour. “And in 2024, they just asked me, ‘Do you want to do this for real?’” he says.
Whitman certainly understands that his unusual schedule could be a hindrance to most companies. It probably helps that the owners of Lloyd Cellars (Rob and Bonnie Lloyd) are huge music fans and longtime friends of the photographer. Currently, the wine brand is attempting to build Lloyd Cellars as its flagship product and another brand called Prescription. “Rob makes what he would call big, slutty Chardonnays,” Whitman says. “And the Pinot Noir is great, too — dark, inky, unctuous and juicy.”
Immersed in two disparate worlds, you shouldn’t expect any sort of official crossover for Lloyd Cellars and Pearl Jam. “One sure way to get taken off the tour bus would be to try to leverage where I work,” he says. That said, there are a lot of similarities between music, photography and wine.
“I think they’re all about creativity,” he adds. “You’re trying to create something for a broad audience, and a lot of that is created out of what you love.”
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