Long time Dylan fans know that it's rare to find a picture of Mr. Zimmerman smiling. Bob is perhaps, the most photographed rock and roll icon in history and I can count on one hand. the number of photos in which he's smiling. Davey Moore's wonderous photo of a smiling Dylan tossing a brick (posted earlier on the thread) was a Dylan photo that I'd never seen in all of my travels in Dylanland. Thanks for posting it Davey, it will go directly into my vast archive of Dylan photos.
There are two particularly memorable photos of a smiling Dylan which I love. Both photos caught him off guard without his usual look of sublime indifference; or his preferred alternative pose in which he scowls while directing a visionary gaze directly at the camera lens.
The first photo is the iconic candid photograph by a journalist who caught a young 22 year old Bob Dylan taking a boyish delight in rolling an old tire he found on an East Village vacant lot. I read an interview with the photographer once and he said that Dylan was so caught up in the joy of tire rolling that he was completely unaware of being photographed:
The second photo is my favorite photo of Dylan and I had a poster of the photograph on the wall of my room during most of my high school years. Photojournalist Daniel Kramer said he caught this shot of a smiling Dylan is at a formal portrait shoot. Stern said he said something that made Dylan laugh, and almost by reflex Dylan raised his right hand to mask his smile as Kramer snapped the picture. The beauty of the picture is that shows a vunerable side of Dylan as he tries unsucessfully, to maintain his image of unsmiling, unflappable coolness.
