Bob Dylan c. 1981

Here's a photo of Bob Dylan printed on paper, and it's cool how an anonymous artist captured such a thoughtful mood. I imagine the artist in their darkroom, coaxing this image out of the chemicals, like some kind of alchemy. The tones are soft, almost blurry, giving Dylan a kind of dreamy, timeless quality. I'm thinking about the artist’s decision to focus on Dylan's face in profile, with his hands clasped, and how the blurry background makes him stand out even more. It feels like the artist wants us to really focus on Dylan's expression, to wonder what's going on in his head. He was always such a complicated guy, you know? And here, the artist has really gotten into that ambiguity. It makes you think about all the other portraits out there, all the ways artists have tried to capture a person’s essence on paper or canvas. I think about Alice Neel, how she could just nail someone's personality with a few quick strokes. Anyway, this piece is really making me think about the ongoing conversation between artists across time.