Guido Harari is one of the most renowned Italian photographers and still one of the best kept secrets on the international scene
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From the mid-Seventies, until he died, Ive often done tour photography in Europe for Bill Graham, the legendary rock entrepreneur, particularly for Santana. We were both Dylanites and when he launched a European tour of Dylan with Carlos Santana in 1984, he called me again. This portrait was taken in Sirmione, near Verona, in Italy on the eve of the first date of the tour. The nice thing was that lots of my photos ended up on the official tour program and on Dylans Real Live album cover.
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This is Marley when his Uprising tour hit Italy and he played to a record-breaking 100,000 people in Milano's Stadio Meazza. He was as sweet and quiet as ever, followed everywhere by his colorful tribe of friends, musicians, wife and kids. I never realized until recently that his famous dreadlocks do not show in this photo, making it even more intimate.
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This is the morning after a wild gig at Hammersmith Odeon on the Rastaman Vibration tour. Besides taking pictures, I did interview Marley for the Italian press and had a really hard time getting through his thick Jamaican patois. However I was mesmerized by the man and his traveling family, as well as the heavy smell of Jamaican cuisine and ganja.
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Guido Harari shares the background to this beautiful photograph: "In 1989, Crosby was clean and on the go with his second solo album, Oh Yes I Can. I always had been attracted by his face and this was my chance in a lifetime to capture his newfound serenity. He and Graham Nash, a true expert in photography, fell in love with this image and a few years later it appeared on Crosby's Thousand Roads album cover. Twenty-five years later Crosby agreed to co-sign a very limited edition of 15 fine art prints, which makes this image even more special to me." Note that a regular version is available, signed by Guido Harari alone, in a range of sizes, here. Archival limited edition pigment print on 16 x 23 inch paper, signed and numbered on the front by Guido Harari and David Crosby. Image size 11 x 21 inches approximately. Edition of 15.
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I knew David very well, but I had never had a real opportunity to shoot Fripp. This was in a hotel room in Milano in between press interviews. Fripp surprised everybody in the room, including David, when he started recollecting the quite infamous anecdote about Agnetha of ABBA. Yes, the one you hear in the movie Priscilla. I'll say no more.
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Zappa has always been one of my heroes and in 1982 I set out to put him on the cover of the prestigious Uomo Vogue magazine. No mean feat as 1982 was the year that Armani and Italian fashion exploded worldwide and FZ was not exactly what youd expect on Vogue. He lay down on dozens of music parts for orchestra that he was very proud of (at the time no orchestra had ever played any of his music, with the exception maybe of Pierre Boulez). The title of the one hes holding says it all: Zappa The Perfect Stranger.
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Jeff Buckley was quite impressed when I told him I did photograph his father Tim back in 1974. What a remarkable and unique talent he and his father had in common and how ominous this photo is now knowing we would soon lose him. This was shot during the rehearsals in a club in Milano, on the eve of his first ever Italian concert.
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Another hero of mine and a true original, John Martyn agreed to be photographed in his backyard, somewhere in London. He was nervous and distraught as he was going through the motions of separation from his wife Beverly. By the way, is that a spliff?
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At the end of an unheard-of full day of shooting, Joni showed me the huge living room in her Bel Air house. She had just been shot by Herb Ritts for an all star Gap campaign and she hadnt resisted painting over the posters. So I asked her to dress up exactly like in Ritts photo and proceeded to shoot her from above. She stopped me, grabbed a few brushes and started doing wild things with them. Years later she laughed, saying her husband had noticed she had her jeans fly open!
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Two of my favourite artists of all time and longtime friends too. I wanted to shoot them together with the most intimate and direct approach. This photo was taken during their only tour together in 2002. It was shot in a corridor backstage, after the concert, at 1.30am, when I had lost any hope this would ever happen. Another one of my favorite images.
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As serious and quiet as you may expect him to be, Leonard Cohen has a great sense of humour and lots of self-irony. We did several great shoots and there was very rarely any need for me to direct me as he'd always come up with funny ideas. He knew I wouldnt go just for straight or formal poses. This is one of my favorites.
