DAYS OF HOPE AND DREAMS: An Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen - Hardcover

Often informal and always intimate, Days of Hope and Dreams reveals early, unpublished images of Bruce Springsteen that only a friend and confidant could capture. Born and raised in a working-class environment in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Springsteen has for over three decades been one of music's most influential songwriters and performers. Also born and raised in a working-class New Jersey home, photographer Frank Stefanko crossed paths with Springsteen by way of an introduction by a mutual friend, musician Patti Smith. Their meeting spurred a photographic collaboration that lasted from 1978 to 1982 and produced cover photos for Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River. Now, for the first time, 88 images from Frank Stefanko's archive of several thousand photos are seeing the light of day. Days of Hope and Dreams presents an unforgettable selection of the photographer's most candid and personal images from his time with Springsteen, accompanied by his behind-the-scenes recollections of their work and friendship.

Frank Stefanko is a fine art photographer whose work graces the album covers of Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River as well as the cover of Southside Johnny’s Hearts of Stone album. Frank’s photographs also appear on Bruce Springsteen’s albums, Live 75/85, Greatest Hits, Tracks, and The Essential Bruce Springsteen. Mr. Stefanko is the author of the books Days of Hopes and Dreams/an Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen published by Billboard Book’s division of Watson-Guptill, and Patti Smith, American Artist, published by Insight Editions. Frank’s work also appears in Bruce Springsteen’s book Songs, Patti Smith’s book Complete, and Dave Marsh’s book Born to Run. In addition, five of Mr. Stefanko’s Springsteen photographs are exhibited in the traveling museum show titled Bruce Springsteen, Troubadour of the Highway. The show has had unprecedented attendance at The Frederick Weisman Museum in Minneapolis, The Cranbrook Museum near Detroit, the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and The Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey. Frank’s portfolio includes vintage and contemporary photographs of Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith, as well as other rock artists from the sixties and seventies including The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Bette Midler, Johnny Winters and more. Most of Frank’s work is still done in black and white silver gelatin fine art prints. Living in New Jersey, Mr. Stefanko has been making photographs for over fifty years. Self taught as a boy, Frank excelled in art and photography in high school and college.