There’s a tortured simplicity to the cover of Bruce Springsteen’sDarkness on the Edge of Town.
Standing there is not Bruce Springsteen, the joyful guitar-wielding rock star fromBorn to Runthree years prior.
Instead, you see a man as a man.
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This fable is told repeatedly through the eyes of nameless characters.
To the observer, these people are extras in their own story.
But they have their own lives, textured with love, joy, destruction, and disappointment.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Bruce looks like Bruce, but doesn’tfeellike Bruce.
Its rawness cuts you like a knife because it details a universal experience.
But how was Frank able to encapsulate this in its hazy roughness?
Bruce went backstage to see one of Patti’s shows in New York.
They were talking about photography and Patti suggested, “You should have my friend Frank photograph you.”
And we started working in 1978 for the album cover forDarkness on the Edge of Town.
Did you listen to the album before planning any concepts?No, I didn’t.
He had just called me and said, “Let’s get together and do some photos.”
He said, “No, I’ll come down to your house.
What should I bring?”
And I said, “Well bring some changes of clothes and whatever else you want.”
Bruce came in, sat in the living room, and we looked at some of my photographs.
I found out that we both have a lot in common.
We both had Italian mothers and non-Italian fathers.
We felt very comfortable with each other.
When we started shooting in the house, it went well.
He was able to open up to me and we kind of trusted each other.
And of course these songs [had] much more mature characters than the first three albums.
Did Bruce have anything in particular that he wanted to embody?
There were a lot more personal shots that showed more of him as a person.
But there are two photographs from that same shooting session.
It shows him leaning against his 1960 Corvette in my neighborhood.
I often wondered why that was the most popular.
One day, it suddenly hit me.
Why do you think the cover ofDarknessbecame so iconic?There were many ideas [for the cover].
I did a gallery show with my friend Danny Clinch back in 2012 in Sweden.
And a young man came up to me.
He said, “Frank, I have to tell you what this album cover means to me.”
He was there with his wife and children.
I didn’t know what to do.
I took it home and I played it over and over again.
Bruce and your picture saved me.
I now knew what to do.
I knew that life goes on and there are things out there."
I just felt like I was part of something great.
