Photo printed 2022.

Jerry Schatzberg began his career as a fashion photographer in the 1950s. Influenced by New Wave films from Europe, Schatzberg reinvented the formal conventions of his time. His early work is characterized by a cinematic atmosphere with an emphasis on location, wide shots, and odd angles to convey action, scale, and mood. His rise as a world-class portrait photographer is marked by his intimate and emblematic images of emerging talents, political figures, and thinkers of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Fidel Castro, The Rolling Stones, Andy Warhol, Faye Dunaway, Sharon Tate, Catherine Deneuve, Jimi Hendrix, Ted Kennedy, and many others. He is also the celebrated director of films including The Panic in Needle Park starring Al Pacino and Scarecrow, which won the Golden Palm at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.

He developed a close personal friendship with Dylan when he was a rising star in the 1960s, and was able to truly capture the enigmatic, private musician in his photographs. Schatzberg recalled how this photo was shot on a cold day in the Meatpacking District, and Dylan personally selected the photo for his album Blonde on Blonde.