Bob Dylan and his double in Hedi Slimane’s lens

Bob Dylan was born on May 24th, making him the first decan Gemini. If you believe in such things, it is possible to interpret his entire path under this dual arrangement of the twins. Thus, his career is constantly analyzed in two phases: acoustic and electric; Dylan, the folk hero of the beginning of the era. 60’s, switched to electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. This adoption, a formal dubbing of rock instead of folk, was always frowned upon by its early fans. A lèse-majesté crime, a gesture so iconic that it changed the history of both genres. And made Dylan an absolute and untouchable star capable of all transgressions.

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Sixty years later, we are still there. Dylan still understands himself in two, often opposing times. For example, in the 1970s his songs took a Christian turn, displaying themes that contrasted with the cynical nihilism of his beginnings. Fans are amazed, rock reconnects with turn-of-the-century Christian blues… No one else could transform like this.

Nobel singer

We can give examples of the dual Dylan, right down to how he manages his career; on the one hand recordings, on the other hand tours. Dylan is the only artist who says he is constantly on tour. his Never Ending tour is also a highlight. than his records, in the connection he creates with fans, by being able to see him, hear him, be in front of him. Dylan, the author of CDs, is also the author of a literary work, not very voluminous, but essential. We count the experimental novel tarantula In the 1970s and Annals All his writings, books and song lyrics in the 2000s won him the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nobel singer. so unusual a canonization that here again emphasizes the duality of the character.

The duality, the twins are manifested again. through the details of the guitar, Dylan appears in his absolute complexity.

The one area in which he has not excelled remains cinema, where his experimental film, Reinaldo and Clara, 1978, was such a failure that it was unseen for centuries (if you have a copy or a link, please send it to the editors, poste restante). That said, Todd Haynes reversed the movie curse by making Dylan a genius movie character. I’m not there (What a genius title, mise en abyme so eloquent for Dylan). The singer is played by several actors, including a woman, Cate Blanchett, as if they really are several, referring to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s phrase in their text. Rhizome “Because there were several of us each, there were many people.”

Rock mythology in pictures

So there are many people in Bob Dylan, and that’s the first impression that catches your mind when you look at his paintings, which were shown in early March 2023 in Paris; Hedi Slimane was made for Celine. about the long-term work of the art director, photographing several musicians and artists from different eras and generations. Photographing Dylan is a logical continuation of the portraits of Lou Reed or Jean-Luc Godard, which were taken by Hedi Slimane in recent years. However, something is different. two images of Dylan are visible. One shows him with an acoustic guitar, the other with an electric one. Duality, twinhood is manifested again. through the guitar detail, Dylan finds himself in the utter complexity of being able to be where he wants to be while seemingly not moving; “I am there, I am not there. But I’m there too.”

For someone who hasn’t been photographed since 2012, this return is not only a pleasant surprise, but also an unexpected moment of grace in the ongoing tale of rock mythology. The split Dylan reveals an absolute modernity that can be understood in the details, in the corridors opened between the two images. What Hedi Slimane so subtly appropriated from him is, more or less, genius in two stages, as we say of a waltz.

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