Cover Stories - "Bob Dylan - Infrared" By Elliott Landy
Rockpopgallery
Cover Story for April 13, 2007
By Michael Goldstein, RockPoP Gallery (www.rockpopgallery.com)
Subject - "Bob Dylan - Infrared", an Elliott Landy photo most-recently
used on the cover of "The Collection, Volume 4 - Nashville Skyline/New
Morning/John Wesley Harding (Reissue), released in 2005 on Sony
records.
This three-disc entry in Sony's "The Collection" series of classic
album compilations delivers fans three of Mr. Dylan's most
experimental and exciting recordings. 1967's John Wesley Harding
(which introduced "All Along The Watchtower" and introduced us to
Dylan's "country side"); 1969's Nashville Skyline (which featured the
timeless "Lay Lady Lay" and a host of Dylan-penned country classics,
including a duet with Johnny Cash called "Girl From The North Country"
as well as another great Landy cover shot); and 1970's New Morning,
which included Dylan standards such as "If Not For You" and "One More
Weekend". Sony, it seems, did not want to include music from Dylan's
Self Portrait album, which was released earlier in 1970 and confused/
frustrated the heck out of critics and fans alike (although it did
include a striking album cover painted by Dylan himself).
In Elliott's own words (from his book "Woodstock Vision") - "Everyone
liked the Big Pink photographs I'd shot for The Band, and shortly
afterward Al Aronowitz, a writer and friend of Dylan's, asked me to
photograph Bob for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post."
"I rented a little VW bug and drove up from the city to Bob's house in
Woodstock. This was during the height of his fame, when he had been
seen publicly only once in a couple of years, and many people thought
he had died in a motorcycle accident." Aronowitz introduced us. Bob
told me how much he liked the Band photos, grabbed his guitar, sat on
an old tire, and began playing while I took pictures. It occurred to
me that millions of people would be thrilled to be ten feet away from
Bob Dylan while he was playing, but he was so casual, it seemed normal
to me."
"He suggested some other things. 'This is what I do up here, 'take a
picture,' he said while putting the garbage cans away. He sat on the
step of his equipment van and then in front of an old British cab he
had. After a while he asked to use the camera. For some of the
pictures I used infrared color film, which made the leaves bright
red."
"Although he was comfortable with me, he was nervous in front of the
camera, and his uneasiness made it difficult for me. I was never the
kind of photographer to talk people into feeling good, I let them be
the way they were and photographed it. Usually it worked out, because
I flowed with whatever mood they were in, without resistance until
things lightened up."
"He asked me to come back with the pictures when they were ready,
which I did the following week. He liked the photos, and we started to
hang out a bit. He was very happy, in love with his lovely and
gracious wife, Sara, and his family. He was hiding from the world,
savoring the magical experience of having young children. That's why I
didn't publish the pictures for many years. He cherished his privacy
and didn't want any media attention on his family."
"I was very impressed with Bob. He was a very special person. He
intuitively understood what was going on in a situation. There was a
feeling you got when you were with him that was exciting. I believe it
was the flow of creative energy surrounding him that sort of spilled
over onto you. Over the years I've seen him walk into rooms, even in
the presence of other very famous people, and suddenly everyone's
attention becomes totally focused on him. It's difficult to have this
type of charisma: people always want a piece of you."
Shot at his Byrdcliff home in Woodstock, NY, 1968
***
Elliott Landy Bio
Elliott Landy, born in 1942, began photographing the anti-Vietnam war
movement and the underground music culture in New York City in 1967.
He photographed many of the underground rock and roll superstars, both
backstage and onstage, from 1967 to 69. His images of Bob Dylan and
The Band, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Joan Baez, Van
Morrison, Richie Havens, and many others documented the music scene
during that classic rock and roll period which culminated with the
1969 Woodstock Festival, of which he was the official photographer.
After that, Elliott moved on to other inspirations and art forms,
photographing his own children and travels, creating impressionist
flower photographs and doing motion and kaleidoscopic photography in
both still and film formats.
His photographs have been published worldwide for many years in all
print mediums including covers of Rolling Stone, Life, the Saturday
Evening Post, etc. and album covers, calendars, photographic book
collections, etc. He has published "Woodstock Vision, The Spirit of A
Generation", in book and CD-ROM format, and authored the book
"Woodstock 69, The First Festival".
***
About "Cover Stories"
Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at"the
making of" the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the
most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and
promote your all-time-favorite recordings.
Every Friday, we'll meet the artists, designers and photographers who
produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what
processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the
musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. - all of the things
that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.
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fellow fans about what role these works of art - and the music they
covered - played in your lives.
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