DOUGLAS GILBERT

Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylan

In August 1964, twenty-one-year-old photographer Douglas R. Gilbert, on assignment for Look magazine, journeyed to the then-obscure upstate New York hamlet of Woodstock to photograph an up-and-coming folk singer named Bob Dylan. Just twenty-three years old, Dylan had already composed a striking body of work, including "Blowin' in the Wind," "With God on Our Side," "My Back Pages," and many others. Even so, his best-known songs had been hits for other artists, and he himself was still relatively unknown.

All that was about to change. For more than a week, Gilbert photographed a surprisingly open Bob Dylan, smiling and relaxed among friends like musician John Sebastian and poet Allen Ginsberg. Following Dylan from Woodstock to Greenwich Village to the Newport Folk Festival, Gilbert captured Dylan in his many guises, from the budding family man to Village bohemian to spellbinding performer. To Gilbert's dismay, Look magazine deemed Dylan's appearance "too scruffy" for a family magazine, and the images remained unpublished and unseen, until now.

Just a few months after these photographs were taken, Dylan would undergo striking stylistic and personal changes, and render himself inaccessible to media except under very controlled circumstances. Forever Young captures a young Dylan in the last days of his innocence. Rarely have we seen the camera-shy, taciturn singer seeming so comfortable in his own skin.

Featuring veteran music journalist Dave Marsh's insightful text, and with an introductory note by John Sebastian, Forever Young unforgettably captures a pivotal time in Bob Dylan's extraordinary career— when he began transforming not just folk but all of popular music.

Special Edition of 50 books in slipcase made by Hope Bindery with 10 inch silver gelatin print produced at Palm Press, Inc., signed verso by the artist.