One of the most striking images of Bob Dylan—who celebrates his 80th birthday on May 24, 2021—was only seen by a handful of people until decades later. It’s the now-famous “Infrared” photo taken by renowned music photographer Elliott Landy at Dylan’s home in Woodstock, New York, in the summer of 1968, when the artist was taking time off, at age 27, just to be with his family.
Shortly after the release of his acclaimed 1966 double album, Blonde on Blonde (“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” “I Want You,” “Just Like a Woman”), Dylan crashed his motorcycle in Woodstock. It would be more than a year later before he returned to the recording studio. And after releasing the John Wesley Hardingalbum at the end of ’67, he spent another lengthy period at home.
In the summer of 1968, Landy, himself just 26, got a call from an acquaintance, the music journalist Al Aronowitz, who had been assigned a story on the musician for the Saturday Evening Post. “He calls me and says that Bob has agreed to have his picture on the cover,” recalls Landy. “I had only met Bob once at [his manager] Albert Grossman’s house in Woodstock, but he knew my work.”
At the time, Landy had been photographing such top rock acts as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Doors, mainly at the Fillmore East in New York City. That led to his being asked to shoot The Band, including their debut LP, Music From Big Pink, which had been released that summer.
The photographer was living in New York City. “So I rented a Volkswagen bug and drove up to Woodstock. Al meets me in the middle of town and says, ‘Follow me.’ We drive through country roads lined with trees, and he turns right up a hill.” That zigzag lane was Upper Byrdcliffe Road, where Dylan lived with his wife and young children.
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