Hi All! Thanks to JMDLers info, I went to Henry Diltz's slide show and exhibit last Thursday in Portland. Henry's just as everyone has described him - down to earth, friendly, funny and a wonderful photographer. His photos are just so natural - they "feel" so comfortable and warm. The subjects' personalities really seem to come through unguarded - he seems to capture their true essense. His photos seem to give off warm fuzzies! ;-) He told terrific little stories throughout the slideshow - to many for me to remember all the details, but one of things he passed on that fits into a recent thread is that he just did the sessions a couple of weeks ago with Graham Nash for Graham's new album. Henry said Graham is using only musicians he's never worked with before, I think he mentioned from Nashville, in hopes of coming up with something more fresh from what he or his listeners have become accustomed. Interesting. Going through the exhibit again after the slide show, I wanted to ask Henry a question, because, frankly, I kinda wanted to meet him. ;-) And besides, it wasn't at all crowded - I bet there weren't ten people milling around there when Lawyer Dave and I spoke with him. I couldn't think of a Joni question I didn't already know the answer to, so I asked about the Sweet Baby James cover instead. The SBJ cover was hanging right above another shot of James sitting on the running board of an old pickup, out in a wooded area, wearing the same clothes as the SBJ cover, but the truck license plate was from California. So he told the story of how James came out to meet with his then manager Peter Asher, and so they went out to the boonies later that day and shot what turned out to be the SBJ cover. BTW, Henry prefers the black and white SBJ shot (on display) over the color shot they used because he feels the color one is just so dull and grainy. But anyway, that one surprised me - I always sensed SBJ was taken on the East Coast, not California. Henry says he does one reel during his slide show presentation, but he has 5 or 6 reels of these. Whether or not he only shows the same reel each time, I don't know - I should have asked. But good news! This West Coast tour is just the first stage of his exhibit. He said sometime after the first of the year it will be going to the other cities planned. No dates yet, but here's the cities: Baltimore Boston Chicago Cleveland Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Las Vegas Miami Minneapolis-St. Paul Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Washington D.C. Hope more will be able to catch it in a city near you! Oh, and one more thing. I hadn't seen or heard any local advertisement about Henry's exhibit beforehand, but while we were there a news crew came in and interviewed Henry. In talking with him only a few minutes later, he said that was the fourth news crew that interviewed him that night. So watching the news at 11:30, Henry's was the last piece for the night. They had Joni playing on the sound for the piece while showing about a dozen of his shots and ended it with the TV screen completely filled with that famous beautiful black and white close up of Joni. Nice way to end an evening! ;-) Penny NP: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. All in one Place. http://shopping.yahoo.com/
