By Chris Murray

Govinda Gallery celebrates Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday this past weekend. Dylan, America’s greatest songwriter, has been an extraordinary subject for photographers. I had the good fortune to present exhibitions for so many creative photographers who had documented Dylan with their images. Most of the photographers we featured had their first exhibitions at Govinda Gallery. 

Ted Russell took the earliest professional photographs of Bob Dylan. It was my great pleasure to edit a book of Ted’s photos, Bob Dylan NYC 1961-1964 (Rizzoli, 2015). I first exhibited Ted’s photos of Dylan in 2016 at Photo Museum Ireland, Ireland’s national photo gallery. Then, I exhibited Russell’s photographs at Cuba’s national photo gallery, Fototeca de Cuba, during the spring of 2017. A group of Cuban musicians performed Dylan’s songs at the opening, and the American Ambassador to Cuba attended the exhibition that evening as well. Most recently, Russell’s photographs were featured at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2023. All of these exhibitions were great celebrations of Dylan and his work. 

Daniel Kramer’s photographs of Bob Dylan are perhaps the most well-known by any photographer. I had the great pleasure of presenting Daniel’s first exhibition during the spring of 1999 at Govinda Gallery. I was then invited by The Experience Museum Project in Seattle (now known as the Museum of Pop Culture), to organize with Chris Bruce “Artist to Icon,” the first show in their changing exhibition’s gallery at Paul Allen’s extraordinary music museum. I then presented Kramer’s Dylan photos at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis in 2005, and then again at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. 

In 1996, we featured Rolling Stone magazine’s first chief photographer, Baron Wolman. I love this photograph of Bob Dylan during his gospel music period. Bob’s gospel albums are among my favorite of his recordings. And Baron Wolman was a true gentleman, and a great photographer.

In 2002, I exhibited Jim Marshall’s photographs. His photo of Dylan with Allen Ginsburg is an extraordinary image. Dylan influenced Ginsburg, and Ginsburg influenced Dylan.

It was a great honor to have the first exhibition for Barry Feinstein at Govinda Gallery. Barry and Dylan were good friends, and they drove across the country together in a station wagon. Barry’s photo of Dylan is on the cover of his seminal album The Times They are A-Changin’.

I also edited a book of Barry’s photos of George Harrison, George Harrison: Be Here Now (Rizzoli, 2020), which included many photos of Dylan at the Madison Square Garden Concert for Bangladesh. I particularly love the photo below because Bob is traveling through Ireland. 

It was a great pleasure to discover Dick Waterman in Oxford, Mississippi, where he was living after he retired. Dick had managed Bonnie Raitt for twenty years, and also established Avalon Productions, the first blues management agency. Dick’s first exhibition was at Govinda Gallery in 2003: “Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive.” I also edited a book of the same name of Dick’s photographs published by Thunders Mouth Press. 

My first exhibition for Bob Gruen was in 1995, thirty years after he had photographed Dylan when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival.

It was a great pleasure to present Linda McCartney’s first exhibition, “Portraits of an Era,” at Govinda Gallery in 1993. It was also a launch for her book by the same name. Linda was a pleasure to work with and we had made plans for a second exhibition before her untimely passing. We love Linda.

In 2005, Govinda Gallery had the first exhibition of Ken Regan’s photographs “Photographs of Bob Dylan and The Rolling Thunder Revue.” That exhibition also celebrated the publication of The Rolling Thunder Logbook by Sam Sheppard (Dacapo Press). I also edited Knockout: The Art of Boxing, by Ken Regan and Chris Murray (Insight Editions), featuring Ken’s photographs of boxers. Muhammad Ali had spent a few amazing days at Govinda Gallery when I launched his best friend Howard L. Bingham‘s book Muhammad Ali: A Thirty-Year Journey. Dylan and Ali are two of my favorite artists! 

It was a great pleasure to have Annie Leibovitz‘s first exhibition at Govinda Gallery in November of 1984. She had just left Rolling Stone magazine, and the exhibition was also a launch for her first book Annie Leibovitz: Photographs (Pantheon/Rolling Stone Press, 1983). Annie had two more exhibitions at Govinda Gallery in 1987 and 1992. Annie’s work inspired me to champion significant photographs of musical artists. 

One of my favorite photos of Dylan was taken by Mark Seliger in 1995. I first showed Mark’s photographs in 1999 in his exhibition “Physiognomy.” I also showed Mark’s photographs in the exhibition “In My Stairwell” in 2005, which was a launch for his book of the same name, published by Rizzoli. 

Govinda Gallery also hosted Danny Clinch’s first exhibition “Photographs.” Danny is a great guy, and a great photographer.

I hope you enjoyed this photographic celebration of Bob Dylan at Govinda Gallery.