I stumbled across a lovely little exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last week of Barry Feinstein shots from Bob Dylan’s 1966 European Tour.
Feinstein had taken the classic cover portrait for Dylan’s 1964 ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ so he was invited to be Dylan’s official photographer for his first electric European tour.
He had complete access to Dylan & his band photographing dozens of shows, but it’s his ‘behind the scenes’ shots that are by far the most interesting. Here we see a private glimpse of Dylan finding his way through the rock star tour routine of hotel rooms, sound checks and travel, emerging as more than the niche folk artist a lot of his original fans wanted him to remain.
Feinstein photographs Dylan surrounded by raggedy kids in Liverpool, striding like a Pied Piper along Edinburgh’s Princess Street, buying boots in Carnaby Street, taking a train from Dublin to Belfast and standing on the quayside wearing shades in the rain waiting for the for the River Severn Ferry.
An American music symbol set apart in a post-war Britain that looks like another country, bereft and grey.
Dylan has always been different things to different people; folk and rock; star and recluse. In these shots somehow Feinstein captures the enigma, frames it for posterity, for us to take our own meaning. We stare at the icon we know photographed in places we know, but in reality we don’t know either, the moments have passed. But great photographs like this embrace their time and place and make something more from it. Times maybe a-changing but the photos don’t.
http://www.barryfeinsteinphotography.com/index.htm
Post by Tim Kerr (Director & Picture Editor of PA Photocall)
