Skip to main content

Photographer who documented the legendary artist's life for 40 years releases behind the scenes images of 'The Boss'

One of America’s most beloved rockstars, Bruce Springsteen, has been revealed a series of raw, never before seen photos encompassing his life on and off the stage.

For forty years, Bruce entrusted photographer Frank Stefanko to document the quieter moments he spent with the E-Street Band, as well as the illustration of some of his most famed work.

Stefanko kept many of the photos he took to himself throughout the decades – until now.

Bruce Springsteen, one of America's most beloved rockstars, is seen in a starkly raw photoshoot by his revered photographer Frank Stefanko - the above taken in 1978 
 

Bruce Springsteen, one of America's most beloved rockstars, is seen in a starkly raw photoshoot by his revered photographer Frank Stefanko - the above taken in 1978 

Many of the unreleased images are from a photo shoot from Darkness on the Edge of Town, which was released exactly 39 years ago on June 2, 1978
 

Many of the unreleased images are from a photo shoot from Darkness on the Edge of Town, which was released exactly 39 years ago on June 2, 1978

His new book, Bruce Springsteen: Further Down the Road, will feature the previously unreleased photos that he has agreed to share with the DailyMail.com on the anniversary of one of his most famous collaborations with ‘The Boss,’ the release of the album Darkness on the Edge of Town.

The array of photos include black and white images, some with color, some featuring Springsteen looking somber and pensive – while others he laughs jovially.

In many of the dated pictures, Springsteen is featured with the group that has stood by his side through thousands of shows throughout his career, The E Street Band.

Frank Stefanko pridefully reveals that he was one of Bruce's first fans - after hearing his music for the first time on a radio station based in Philadelphia. He told his college friend, a then-budding musician Patti Smith, that she should watch out for Bruce - and predicted he would be famous someday.

It was Patti who later connected Stefanko with Bruce after showing him photos he had taken of her for her own portfolio. Bruce even sent Stefanko a postcard when his first album, 'Greetings from Asbury, NJ' came out, with the inscription: 'To Frank, My biggest fan, Patti says.' 

Many of the photos from this shoot, which took place at Stefanko's New Jersey home have never been seen before by the public - until now 
 

Many of the photos from this shoot, which took place at Stefanko's New Jersey home have never been seen before by the public - until now 

In many of the dated pictures, Springsteen is featured with the group that has stood by his side through thousands of shows throughout his career, The E Street Band
 

In many of the dated pictures, Springsteen is featured with the group that has stood by his side through thousands of shows throughout his career, The E Street Band

Springsteen later chose Stefanko's photos to adorn the cover of his fourth and fifth studio albums, and the cover of the singer/songwriter’s autobiography, Born to Run.

Stefanko’s collection boasts years of intimate moments with the renowned artist, who has won 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 – to name just a few of his recognitions.

Exactly 39 years ago, Darkness on the Edge of Town was released, with one of Stefanko’s trademark sharp photos adorning its front cover.

Although the album didn’t top the charts with the same bravado as his previous project, Born to Run, it was widely revered by music critics as one of the seminal albums of his career.

In a Rolling Stone review, Dave Marsh wrote that the production on Darkness was ‘nothing less than a breakthrough,’ and compared it to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," and Van Morrison's "Astral" in the sense that it ‘changes fundamentally the way we hear rock & roll, the way it’s recorded, the way it’s played’.

Further Up the Road will be released in November 2017, and will accompany a gallery opening at Morrison Gallery in SoHo, New York City 
 
 
 

Further Down the Road will be released in November 2017, and will accompany a gallery opening at Morrison Gallery in SoHo, New York City 

When Stefanko did the photoshoot with Bruce for the album, he said the comfort they felt with eachother was evident in the resulting product.

‘We realized we had a lot in common,’ Stefanko said. ‘We both came from working class families, both our mothers were Italian both our fathers were not Italian. We love the Jersey shore and we love similar music – the kind we grew up with – you know, he could’ve been my brother.

‘It was very, very comfortable. When we shot, I just shot the guy that was standing in front of me. I shot the guy I had just been talking to. I just shot this guy from New Jersey that could’ve been my brother – and it was very comfortable and very easy.’

The photos that came from that shoot, which took place at Stefanko’s home in New Jersey, coincided perfectly with the emerging mature themes of Bruce’s fourth album.

The entirety of Stefanko's chosen photos will be published in his new book Bruce Springsteen: Further Down the Road 
 

The entirety of Stefanko's chosen photos will be published in his new book Bruce Springsteen: Further Down the Road 

‘Bruce kind of knew what he wanted to project and I knew what I wanted to take from the sessions, and without ever hearing any of the music from the album. It turned out that he felt the images that I made of him were the best images that related to the characters that he was writing about in Darkness on the Edge of Town, and ultimately The River as well.’

In Bruce’s autobiography, he praised Stefanko’s work – and his ability to bring forth the themes of the Darkness at the Edge of Town album in a way others couldn’t.

Bruce favored the trademark starkness of Stefanko's photography, and chose one of his pictures to cover his fifth album, The River 
 

Bruce favored the trademark starkness of Stefanko's photography, and chose one of his pictures to cover his fifth album, The River 

"Frank’s photographs were stark,’ Bruce said. ‘His talent was he managed to strip away your celebrity, your artifice, and get to the raw you. His photos had a purity and a street poetry to them. They were lovely and true, but they weren’t slick. Frank looked for your true grit and he naturally intuited the conflicts I was coming to terms with. His pictures captured the people I was writing about in my songs and showed me the part of me that was still one of them. We had other cover options but they didn’t have the hungriness of Frank’s pictures.”

That day in Haddonfield, New Jersey was the beginning of a 40 year friendship between the two, which is documented in Stefanko’s new book – Further Down the Road.

The photos contained within it will be a representation of Bruce’s four decades as an international superstar, but will also come from two private photo sessions that have never been released to the public.

One shoot took place in 2004, just after Bruce had been campaigning with Democratic candidate John Kerry, who had recently lost the race to George W Bush.

‘It was a very rough time,’ Stefanko said.

‘He had worn himself trying to get this done, and he was very disappointed, I think.’

Stefanko, right, is pictured with Springsteen in 2016 - well into their 40 year relationship personally and professionally
 

Stefanko, right, is pictured with Springsteen in 2016 - well into their 40 year relationship personally and professionally

The photos weren’t used for the album Bruce was working on at the time, Devils and Dust, and Stefanko added them to his private collection without much of a second thought.

‘I felt he looked kind of tired and sad. But in retrospect, looking back at them after so many years, as we’re working on the book I pulled all the contact sheets and transparencies and I said, “wow – this isn’t bad when you look at it again.’

‘Sometimes when you look at something over a period of time, it takes on a new persona,’ he said.

In the background, he noted, his wife commented that the photos had ‘marinated’ over time.

For his new book, Stefanko did his most recent shoot with Bruce in April of 2017. The rockstar portrays a different side of himself in the new photos, Stefanko says, and reveals much more of his character.

‘It’s a whole different Bruce Springsteen than I shot 40 years prior in 1978,’ he said.

Of the unique opportunity to experience the ‘real’ Bruce Springsteen, Stefanko says he is incredibly grateful.

He chuckled as he said: ‘Not too many people can say that.’

Further Down the Road, which will be released in November, will be ‘99% Bruce’ – but will also include a brief history on Stefanko’s foray into photography, which began working with the legendary Patti Smith, and closes with some of his landscape portraits – ‘my way of relaxing,’ he says.

‘It’s a nice little box of chocolates,’ Stefanko concluded. 

  • He first shot Bruce at his New Jersey home in 1978, and recently released never before seen photos  
  • Stefanko told DailyMail.com he feels very grateful to have maintained a friendship with the legendary artist for the last 40 years, who has since been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, among other honors
  • The photographer has compiled a book of his unreleased photos, titled Further Down the Road 



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...d.html#ixzz4iu4cpvA5


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...d.html#ixzz4iu4Wg5YA
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

____________________________________

The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

Original Post

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×