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.
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Between 1978 and 1982 Dire Straits became instantly huge in Italy, let alone worldwide. I shot the band many times and they allowed me to stay with them at Power Station studios in New York while recording the Making Movies album. I got to shoot Mark while he was actually recording his guitar parts on Telegraph Road. We got on very well and he wasnt bothered by my noisy presence in the studio with him.
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Nick Cave in the 90s at the time of Henrys Dream. He remained speechless for the whole shoot and was only worried by his swelling right hand which had been stung by a bee.
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1996 was the year when Patti Smith made her big comeback with Gone Again after a long and painful period of personal losses. She was adorable in the company of her bandmates, her kids and longtime friends Tom Verlaine and Michael Stipe. She accepted to be photographed and was very appreciative of our photographs.
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This is one of my signature photographs. Peter Gabriel in full Shock The Monkey make-up in a hotel gents in Sanremo where he was due to perform that song at the famous music festival. A bunch of images from this shoot later appeared on tour programs and on the remastered edition of Peter's 4th album.
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Meeting Robert Wyatt was one of the most moving experiences ever. While in Milano to promote his Wrong Movements book, he suddenly started crying as he heard some Soft Machine music playing in the background. He appeared as a very fragile and desperate man. As we wandered in the park with his wife Alfie we saw this huge leafless tree. As I positioned him and his wheelchair near the tree, I thought I'd shoot him as one with the old tree to get an idea of solitary but fierce strength.
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The Eighties, oh my. Siouxsie was on tour with a band that featured none other than Robert Smith. Audiences got wild every time the concert lights (barely nonexistent) would briefly hit him. On the day of the shoot Robert was nowhere to be found, so I let Siouxsie stick to her reptile and sensuous Theda Bara routine.
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The Police during the Reggatta De Blanc tour. The set was improvised in their hotel, the shoot was very quick as they were restless and very self-conscious of their quickly growing superstardom. They used several of these photos for the 1981 official calendar.
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TOM WAITS, cafe, Paris, 1992 Guido Harari recalls: This photograph comes from the same sitting in Paris as the photograph of Tom running with a cape on. Again, this was 1992 and Tom was promoting his Bone Machine album in a café in the beautiful Place des Vosges. He insisted I shoot him while he was having brunch. He couldnt care less about his face dismorphing while he was munching away. I love that crazy and inquisitive Van Gogh look in his eyes. Time seems suspended for a fraction of time: what next?"
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TOM WAITS in the kitchen, Santa Rosa, California, 1999 Guido Harari recalls: “In 1999 Tom was promoting a new record, “Mule Variations”, but wouldn’t move from his headquarters in California. So he had press and photographers flown in from all over the world to Santa Rosa. The tiny Chinese restaurant seemed like his natural hangout and he didn’t seem inclined to even go outside the door to be photographed. Suddenly he grabbed the owner’s apron in a frenzy and dragged me in the kitchen, where he proceeded to fool around with pots and pans, pretending he was some kind of demented chef. My motor drive was smoking from action and this shot captures the zaniness of it all.”
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Guido Harari recalls: This is one of my favorite photographs. It was taken in Place des Vosges, in Paris, in 1992, while Tom was promoting his Bone Machine album. I had already used my time as granted by his record company and was having a coffee chatting with a French photographer friend. When his time came to shoot Tom, my friend invited me to attend the sitting. This was still the age of analogue photography and, once he finished his roll of film, he had to stop and reload his camera. Restless and provocative as ever, Tom tore down the photographers backdrop and, using it as a cape, he started running up and down this courtyard. The guy was so shocked that he couldn't capture this unexpected moment of madness, but I did instead. I started running with Tom, chasing and teasing him all along and managed to get this shot within a couple of rolls of film. Tom loved the shot. I don't know about the other guy!
