BostonAreaBobFan wrote:
Me, too. I always think of therev. She told me a story about talking with Danny about Bob's shoes during this shoot. I'll PM her to stop by and tell everyone about it here. Bob's like a girl; he's got a million pair of shoes. Atta boy!
Boston pm'd me awhile ago and asked me to tell the story about talking to Danny Clinch about his first photo shoot with Bob. Sorry it took awhile to get to it.
For many years there was a wonderful gallery in Washington D.C. called The Govinda Gallery that hosted a lot of interesting photographic exhibits, many featuring Bob (who the gallery owner loved) and various other rock stars. I think Elliot Landy and Daniel Kramer both had shows at the gallery in past years. On a warm day in either 2001 or 2002, I was walking by the gallery and the door was open. There was no show announcement outside but it looked like the gallery was hanging a show so I walked inside to have a look around. The upcoming show being hung was the work of Danny Clinch. At that time, Danny Clinch already had a substantial body of work but was not yet as famous as he is now, he didn't even have a collected edition of most of his portrait photography published yet. I walked around the front room which had some excellent work hanging - it was very impressive. There was a huge print of his "THUG LIFE" portrait of Tupac Shakur and portraits of Willie Nelson, Run DMC, Johnny Cash, B.B. King and dozens of other people.
I walked into the second exhibition room which was empty except for a young man sitting on the floor flipping through photographs on the floor - which turned out to be Danny Clinch. There were a few photos hanging on the wall in the room already but he was laying out pictures trying to decide what to hang in the rest of the room. On the wall hanging above him were a couple of photos of Bob I recognized from the L&T insert booklet! Included were several photos I dearly loved like the color "Clasificado" photo of Bob reading a newspaper. I asked Clinch if he had time to tell me anything about his photography and he was extremely friendly and generous in his time talking to me about his work. I was especially interested in the "Love and Theft" photos and he told me about doing that shoot with Bob.
Someone had contacted him about taking some photos of Dylan in L.A. I don't think he knew at the time they might wind up being used with an album release, Dylan's people were just trying to get some new photos of Bob from a photographer who hadn't worked with Dylan before. Clinch said he was nervous about meeting and working with Dylan, he had no idea what to expect. He indicated quite a few rock stars were prima donnas.
On the appointed day, he met up with Dylan somewhere for the shoot (one of the locations was a hotel in Los Angeles, others wound up being photographed at other spots). Hesaid Dylan had brought a lot of clothes with him - he had brought a wardrobe to work with. Clinch described Bob as a "clothes horse" and said he had brought some very beautiful, stylish clothing with him, and many pairs of shoes. This is what I'm remembering from this years ago, so bear with me. Clinch was very pleased working with Bob because Bob basically let Clinch set up any photos he wanted, and Bob happily went along with whatever Clinch suggested. He said Bob was really easy to work with and a nice person with a great sense of humor.
As time went on, occasionally Bob would have an idea about something and Clinch said he became aware that Bob had a great eye as far as knowing how the photos were going to look and thinking of some detail that would add to the shot so he was pleased when Bob had some ideas - it was all to the good. Clinch thought Bob was one of the nicest and most cooperative people he had ever worked with, which was not the norm for people that famous. He only had very positive things to say to me about Dylan.
As he photographed Dylan, Bob changed clothes a lot and Clinch was interested in how well-dressed and fashionable Bob was. Bob obviously thought a great deal about his appearance - his expensive wardrobe, how he looked photographed from certain angles. Dylan was very aware of the impression he made. Clinch said Dylan was also relatively relaxed and very funny, which made him a great person to photograph. Clinch had hung a few of the Dylan photos and was looking at some others on the floor and asked me which ones I liked, as he was trying to pick out a few more to hang for the show. I said my favorite was the photo of Bob shot from behind looking out a window (which is in this thread). I thought it was a beautiful photograph and said if I ever had money to buy one of Clinch's prints, I'd want that one. He said he was surprised because ordinarily when people buy a print of someone famous, they only want a photograph that clearly shows the person's face and i said "I'd know that was Bob anywhere." I said a few things to him about why I loved that photo so much and he decided to hang it in the show. He also showed me some other photos of Bob that probably are circulating now but I don't think most people had seen them at that time. I liked them all, I thought he had done a tremendous job photographing Bob. I think Clinch told me he was surprised when some of the photos were selected for the L&T insert booklet. Anyway, Bob changed clothes, and shoes, a lot during the period Clinch took the photographs. They went through a lot of wardrobe changes. He said that a lot of Bob's shoes were from Prada. I took a close look at the "Classificado" photo and asked Clinch if he had noticed there was still what looked like a price tag on the bottom of the shoe and Clinch said he'd never noticed the tag before.
When they finished the shoot, all the different outfits Bob had worn were scattered around. As Bob changed his shoes, he would take a pair off and toss them onto a pile. By the end of the day, there was a large pile of Bob's shoes. They finished and then Bob laughed and said to Clinch, pointing to the pile of shoes "Don't you wanna take a photo of the shoes?" Clinch thought that was pretty funny and took a photo of the heap of shoes. He told me later when he got to that photo and looked at it, it was actually a really great photo and he thought Bob had realized the pile of shoes would make a good subject. Clinch quite liked the photo. It was more evidence of Bob having a very good visual sense. Clinch had a print of the shoe photograph with him and showed it to me and it WAS a really good photograph. Even if you didn't know they were Dylan's shoes, it was still an interesting and beautifully composed photograph. He didn't hang that one and I don't know if it's ever been published. Clinch had a book of his older photos he signed and gave to me - it didn't include most of his rock portraits but it was a very nice book and he was a sweet guy to spend time talking to me and telling me about his photos, including some of the ones of other musicians in the show. He told me his favorite photo in the show was a large portrait of Willie Nelson, which was probably the best portrait anyone has ever taken of Nelson. The next time I heard of Clinch was when he directed a beautiful video of Springsteen a couple of years later. I think it was for the "Devils and Dust" album and it was shot in a room with green paint that was peeling off the walls. It was a gorgeous piece of work. I appreciated Clinch taking the time to talk to me that day in the gallery. Clinch was a really nice guy and I'm happy he's had so much success. Looking at all his photos on his website, he's a tremendous talent. I hope someday that photo of Bob's shoes will see the light of day.
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Nothing like some good pictures of Bob to end your day! 
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