Rock Star Portraits

Known for his ability to cajole soulful, unguarded portraits out of performers, Danny Clinch is responsible for capturing some of the most memorable photographs of musicians. He snapped a shot of Willie Nelson fixing one of his braids while riding in his tour bus, he shot Patti Smith during a record-shopping excursion, he took that classic shot of a shirtless Tupac Shakur showing off his tattoos and his low-slung jeans. The following images are from the 2014 monograph Danny Clinch: Still Moving—a compendium of more than 200 Clinch photographs. One of his subjects, Bruce Springsteen, wrote the foreword to the collection in which he praises Clinch for his innate ability to make his models feel at ease during their shoots. As Springsteen puts it, “When Danny pulls up my drive and saunters in… It’s like a reunion with someone you’ve spent a thousand nights talking music, dreaming your glory dreams, except that he’s brought his camera, too.”