New book of pictures from photographer who got up close and personal to the legendary musician.

The photographer and filmmaker Mr Jerry Schatzberg’s career reads like a roll call of a New York celebrity in the late 1960s. Born in the Bronx in 1927, Mr Schatzberg was discovered and trained by the Russian-born designer and photographer Mr Alexey Brodovitch. Mr Schatzberg quickly became known for his portraits in Vogue, Esquire and Life magazines of stars such as  Mr Andy Warhol, Ms Edie Sedgwick, Ms Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, and, on one occasion, Mr Fidel Castro. He is also credited as being one of the first photographers to bring street photography into the realm of fashion. Models in stiff, po-faced poses were still the norm when he began working, but, being a New Yorker, he preferred the gritty reality of the streets. His films – equally gritty depictions of life on the margins of society – were overlooked by the American establishment, but better-appreciated in Europe – he was awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his 1973 film Scarecrow – and they provided early roles for the likes of Mr Gene Hackman, Mr Al Pacino and Ms Faye Dunaway.

Some of his most intriguing work, though, might be his photographs of Mr Bob Dylan, not least because of Mr Dylan’s famously reticent attitude to journalists and photographers. Dylan By Schatzberg revisits Mr Schatzberg’s work for the musician’s seminal 1966 album Blonde On Blonde both through now-iconic photographs – as in the legendary album cover – as well as previously unseen snapshots. Studio portraits, footage of stage and street performances, and recording studio outtakes are reproduced alongside interviews, offering a complete portrait of Mr Dylan between 1965 and 1966, one of the musician’s most creatively productive periods.

The relationship between the photographer and Mr Dylan began serendipitously. Mr Schatzberg was working on an assignment in his studio while his friends, the journalist Mr Al Aronowitz, (whose 1965 interview for the New York Herald Tribune, “A Night With Bob Dylan”, is reproduced in the monograph), and radio DJ Mr Scott Ross, both discussed Dylan. Having recently become aware of his music, Mr Schatzberg added that he’d love to photograph the musician. The following day, Mr Dylan’s wife Sara – who happened to be an old friend of Mr Schatzberg’s – called to invite him to the studio, where Mr Dylan was then recording Highway 61 Revisited. They quickly hit it off, establishing a collaborative process that was emphasised by Mr Dylan’s decision to include a self-portrait of Mr Schatzberg in the album artwork. Over the next year, they would work together on a total of nine photo shoots, prompting The New York Times to call him Mr Dylan’s “unofficial portraitist”.

It’s testament to Mr Schatzberg’s skill that even when Mr Dylan is playing with props – in one picture the pair wear top hats and masks, and in several Mr Dylan holds framed paintings – the photographs never feel contrived. His knack for candid photo-taking coupled with his relaxed approach – not to mention the easy relationship between photographer and artist – is what makes these images special.

**Dylan By Schatzberg (ACC Art Books) is out now **