Henry Diltz shot pictures at Woodstock and Monterey Pop.  The folk musician & photographer shot Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors.  He described Jim Morrison as quiet, laid-back, and cool – not much like how Val Kilmer portrayed him in the 1991 Doors movie directed by Oliver Stone.

Joel Bernstein‘s photography of Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty makes him one of the few people who are on a par with Diltz in the world of music photography.  Among other remarkable experiences, he was the guitar tech at The Band’s The Last Waltz concert and worked with Prince both in the studio and on tour.

Graham Nash has been in front of  both Diltz and Bernstein’s cameras and is friends with both men.  He described fondly his first meeting with Bernstein at Joni Mitchell’s Carnegie Hall show in 1969 in the early days of his role as her official photographer.  Nash is also a highly acclaimed photographer in his own right.  The night after Nash presented Diltz with the 2015 Lucie award for Achievement in Music photography, these three men gathered at the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca (on October 28, 2015) to display their work and tell some stories.  And man, do they have some stories!  When I spoke with them, they agreed that trying to plan and create photographs is generally a fool’s mission.  They’re all about capturing moments, not manufacturing them…