BOB DYLAN

The Neverending Tour
by Paolo Brillo

Bob Dylan, London 2013

BOB DYLAN: No Such Thing As Forever

Images from 30 Years of The Never Ending Tour 1989-2019 by Paolo Brillo

For 30 years Italian photographer Paolo Brillo has been shooting images of Bob Dylan performing on his Never Ending Tour. He works under difficult conditions.

Regular members of Dylan’s audience will know that he is practically allergic to being photographed in concert. Any individual caught trying to snap a picture with a phone or any other device risks being hauled out of their seat and possibly ejected from the gig by a team of eagle-eyed look-outs. Many deserve their fate for disturbing the maestro, but I doubt he has ever seen Paolo Brillo.

Paolo has perfected the art of being invisible during a concert, and he has precise timing. Technically superb, his extraordinary photographs reveal the enigmatic Dylan lost in music, just as Paolo is lost in his visual meditation. In this way musician and photographer are on the same page and probably at their happiest.

Rockarchive are proud to offer Paolo's wonderful images in a collection of fine art prints, a selection of which are shown in this online exhibition. Paolo’s book ‘Bob Dylan: No Such Thing As Forever’ is available through Red Planet Books

"Bob Dylan is the greatest American songwriter of the 20th Century. I began listening to Dylan’s music at the age of fifteen. Initially I was inspired by his music, and then I was fascinated by his incredible lyrics. Dylan has managed to blend music and literature together in a way that no other artist has been able to do and he understood immediately what music and literature could do to the human soul and mind" Paolo Brillo

Bob Dylan, Milan, June 1989

Bob Dylan, Merano, July 1992

Bob Dylan, Rome, June 2015

Bob Dylan, London, November 2013

Bob Dylan, Padova, June 2010

Bob Dylan, Bolzano, October 2003

"In my personal experience Bob Dylan is certainly the most difficult artist to photograph, first because often the intensity of the light during his concerts is low second because the controls are really tough. It’s known, he doesn’t like photographers but I try to do all I can to respect him and respect the audience during the concert. I know Dylan's concert setlist by heart and I know exactly when to shoot, I mean the moment when the light is the best; this allows me to limit the shots and the risk of being seen by security by concentrating the shooting only during a couple of songs. After I’ve been to more than 70 Dylan shows I know how his security is organized and how it moves and I pay the utmost attention to what happens in the hall to understand if It’s the right moment to shoot or not." Paolo Brillo

Bob Dylan, Saltzburg, July 2012

Bob Dylan, London, November 2013

Bob Dylan, Glasgow, October 2011

Bob Dylan, New York, December 2014

Bob Dylan, London, October 2015

"It would take too many pages to explain why Bob Dylan is so special to me and that's why I summarize it all in one word, he is genius! What does “genius” mean? Listen to his last album “Rough and Rowdy Ways”! When many in the world of music had counted Bob Dylan down and out, he has been able to deliver an album of such quality and depth that vaults him both to the top of the charts and the critically acclaimed list" Paolo Brillo

Bob Dylan, Stadhalle Furth, March 1995

Bob Dylan, London, April 2017

Bob Dylan, Stadhalle Furth, March 1995

Bob Dylan, Verona, April 2018

Bob Dylan, London, November 2011

"The first time I photographed Dylan was in 1984 at his first concert at the Arena di Verona. I was 23 at the time and Infidels, the record produced by Mark Knopfler, had just come out. Since then I have seen and photographed him several times, especially in the last decade. I had been dreaming of the idea of publishing a book dedicated to Bob Dylan for several years" Paolo Brillo

Bob Dylan, Innsbruck, November 2011

Bob Dylan, Wien, June 2014

Bob Dylan, Rome, June 2015

Bob Dylan, Trento, June 2008

Bob Dylan, Verona, July 1998

Bob Dylan, New York, December 2014

Bob Dylan, Bad Mergentheim, July 2012

Bob Dylan, Lucca, July 2015

JILL FURMANOVSKY, PHOTOGRAPHER
ROCKARCHIVE FOUNDER

Paolo Brillo is a man with a mission: to take the best live pictures of the world's greatest musicians while they are truly lost in music. What makes Paolo different to press photographers, who are herded in the pit for three warm up songs and then shooed out, or those fans with their horrible phone cameras disturbing everyone, is that Paolo is invisible and serious about his art.

Being a pretty good guitarist himself, he has an extra affinity with musicians. He concentrates on artists who have inspired him the most, Bob Dylan in particular, but also Neil Young, Iggy Pop, Pink Floyd members, Leonard Cohen, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Van Morrison, Tom Petty, John Mayall, Willie Nelson, Richard Thompson, Paul McCartney, Nick Cave, Emmylou Harris, Rickie Lee Jones, and a bunch of younger musicians like Kaiser Chiefs, Liam Gallagher, or Anna Calvi.... (etc)

Technically superb and full of emotion as they nail The Moment over and over again, Paolo's images are also of vital historical interest and almost unique. In essence he is capturing the end of the rock and roll era. Some of his images will be the only or last remaining record of the worlds greatest rock/jazz and pop musicians, many of whom are playing with a maturity and fragile beauty that only age can bring.

I consider him to be one of the best live photographers in the world.

PAOLO BRILLO FINE ART PRINTS

We hope you have enjoyed Paolo Brillo's wonderful Bob Dylan photographs taken over 30 years of the Never Ending Tour. Images in this exhibition and from Paolo's book 'Bob Dylan: No Such Thing As Forever' are available from Rockarchive as fine art prints. For more details shop our collection below or email us at info@rockarchive.com