Portraits of Bruce Springsteen by Frank Stefanko on display in Bologna

In Bologna, at the ONO contemporary art gallery, the exhibition Bruce Springsteen. Further up the Road. The photography of Frank Stefanko, a retrospective exhibition that, through the photographs of Frank Stefanko, traces the early years of the career of Bruce Springsteen, one of the iconic American rock songwriters and musicians.

Stefanko and Springsteen met thanks to Patti Smith, who had worked together with the Boss on the very famous Because the Night and had been friends with Stefanko since her college days, when she had already become the subject of Stefanko’s photographs, who was among the first to immortalize her early in her career. It was Patti herself who advised Bruce to meet with the photographer, who was still working part time in meat processing at the time. Right from the start, Springsteen and Stefanko created a strong working relationship that would last over the years. Indeed, there were many things they had in common: not only their passion for music, of course, but also their social backgrounds. In fact, they both came from New Jersey, from working-class families, sons of Italian mothers, and thus shared a cultural background that allowed them to strike up an immediate friendship and let their values permeate their common work.

In his autobiography Springsteen recalls, “Frank’s photographs were raw. His talent is to strip you of your celebrity, your artifice, and get to you. His pictures were full of simplicity and street poetry. They were enchanting and true, but they were not perfect. Frank was looking for your true essence and naturally sensed the conflicts I was coming to terms with. His photos captured the people I was writing about in my songs and showed me that part of me that was still like them. We had other options for the album cover, but they didn’t have the same ’hunger’ as Frank’s photos.”

Springsteen, who prior to Darkness on the Edge of Town had already released three studio albums, including Born to Run, was thus evidently impressed by Stefanko’s talent for photography, but nonetheless he wanted to retain total control over the making of the album, including the artwork. It was therefore his personal choice of the photograph that became the cover of the new album, precisely one of those taken in the bedroom.

The exhibition, consisting of thirty works, is produced in collaboration with Wall of Sound Gallery and is accompanied by the publication of the same name (400 pages, ed. Wall of Sound). On the occasion of the exhibition opening, Guido Harari, photographer and curator, will present the book together with Cristina Arrigoni (author of The Sound of Hands just published by Wall of Sound) and American singer-songwriter Willie Nile, whose paths have crossed on several occasions with that of Springsteen and Stefanko. A book signing will follow.

A New Jersey native, Frank Stefanko has been photographing for more than 50 years. Self-taught as a boy, inspired by film noir and the great masters of photography such as Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz and Diane Arbus, he excelled in art and photography both in high school and college. His photographs were used on the covers of Bruce Springsteen’s albums Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River, as well as for Southside Johnny’s Hearts of Stone, and Patti Smith’s The Arista Years 1975/2000 box set. Stefanko is also the author of the book Days of Dreams and Hope. An Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen of which a second edition was recently printed, and he is also the author of Patti Smith / American Artist, a volume that includes a series of magnificent images of a young emerging artist, Miss Patti Smith, between 1970 and 1980.

The exhibition is free admission. More info can be found on the ONO website.

Portraits of Bruce Springsteen by Frank Stefanko on display in Bologna

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