Photographer Ken Regan offers a private glimpse of public figures in his new book...

A smoking Bob Dylan during his Rolling Thunder Revue, 1975.

Jim Morrison and The Doors at the Westbury Music Fair, January 1970.

People magazine cover shoot with Madonna, February 1985.

Bruce Springsteen on location for the “Streets of Philadelphia” video, December 1993.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr in Central Park, February 1964.

Rolling Thunder Revue tour, fall 1975 - Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg
at the grave of writer Jack Kerouac.

Janis Joplin at the Fillmore East, March 1968.

Keith Richards with his first daughter, Theodora Dupree Richards, in 1985.

Stones Tour Party, 1972 - Mick Jagger at Michael Butler’s house.

Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore East, March 1968.

Keith Richards cooking breakfast in Montauk, 1975.

Text & Captions by Jakob Schiller/WIRED magazine

Ken Regan tells the story like this. It’s 1974, he’s on assignment for Time magazine and is photographing Bob Dylan in Chicago. It’s the first time he’s photographed Dylan (who is notoriously private) and doesn’t want to screw it up.

While standing in one of the stage wings he turns his camera on the audience.

“In the second row was this woman, she’s probably in her sixties, gray hair, surrounded by all these teenagers,” says Regan. “And she was standing up and she was clapping and she was cheering and it was such a good photograph because of the contrast between her and all the kids.”

The same woman is in the audience the next night so Regan mentions it to his friend Bill Graham, the famous music promoter, who originally got him in the door with Dylan. Graham immediately tells Regan he can never use the photos. Turns out the older woman is Dylan’s mom, and Graham knows Dylan doesn’t want those photos published.

Time magazine runs three pages of photos but Regan never lets on about Dylan’s mom.

Fast forward to 1975. It’s 2 a.m. and Regan gets a call from Bob Dylan and his promoters. They’re excitedly putting together a plan for Dylan’s upcoming Rolling Thunder tour. Dylan had found out about the photos of his mom and knows he can trust Regan. He wants Regan on the tour and tells him he’ll have full and unprecedented access.

Regan ends up following the entire tour and comes back with 13,750 frames, including several of the most intimate and personal photos ever made of Dylan.

“I’m saying to myself this is like a dream, having this access to Bob Dylan which no one has really had before,” Regan says. “He kind of came out of his reclusive shell on the whole tour.”

The story is just one of many Regan can recount after more than five decades of photographing the world’s most famous rock musicians. He’s got photos of, and anecdotes about, everyone from the Rolling Stones to Madonna and for the first time has published them all in one place — his aptly titled music anthology, All Access.

The book, which is nearly 300 pages long, is an exhaustive look at one of the world’s most important recent cultural movements and provides proof of what happens when you spend years developing relationships with people who are notorious for hiding their personal lives.

[Read the rest here.]

Ken Regan was born and grew up in the Bronx. He studied journalism at Columbia and attended New York University's Film School. His early photography career began in the sports arena where he covered the World Series, Super Bowls, the Olympics, heavyweight championship fights, Hockey, Basketball, Tennis, Auto Racing and other professional sports for Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, and Newsweek.

In the 70s, Ken founded Camera 5, his own photo agency which represented 15 photographers who covered riots and demonstrations in the United States and wars in Vietnam and later in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia. Photo essays about gold mining in Brazil, the Columbo family's involvement in the Mafia, poverty in Harlem, Vietnam Veterans, and a scientist on the Amazon are among his favorite assignments. He has also toured with some of the most renowned musicians in Rock'n'Roll history. In 1975, he did back to back tours with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. He covered the Band's Last Waltz, and George Harrison's benefit for Bangladesh amongst many other Rock festivals and events. He worked closely with renowned concert promoter Bill Graham and was the main photographer for his biggest events such as Amnesty International, Live Aid and others.

By the late Eighties, Ken had over 200 magazine covers to his credit, as well as numerous awards from the Missouri School of Journalism and World Press Photo to the New York Newspaper Guild.

Consumed with a passion for images, Ken continues his tireless pursuit of hard news, sports, and human interest stories for Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Paris Match, Time, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, People, U.S. News and World Report, Good Housekeeping, and the Ladies Home Journal.

[Source: SNAP Galleries]