Photographer James Shive Donates Image To The “friends Of Bruce Springsteen Special Collection

Feb. 7, 2012 - PRLog -- James Shive, a well-known rock photographer, has donated the 2012 winning photograph, a prestigious honor, to the “Friends of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection,” housed at Monmouth University, in West Long Branch, NJ. Shive’s vintage photograph, an image of Bruce Springsteen and the late Clarence “Big Man” Clemons who was saxophonist for Springsteen’s E Street Band, was used to help raise funds during the Collection’s annual membership drive and raffled on February 1. The non-profit “Friends Collection” is affiliated with “Backstreets Magazine,” the world's largest community of Springsteen fans both in print and online, to which Shive has been a contributing photographer since the 1980s.

Having documented some of rock and roll’s most illustrious concerts, Shive over the years has earned a noted reputation as the “go-to photographer” for his vast collection of rare early images of New Jersey-born Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, including appearances by Springsteen together with Clemons before their meteoric rise to international stardom. Among his Springsteen collection are concert photographs taken as early as 1974 at Kean College in New Jersey and the now-infamous string of six sold-out shows at the Palladium Theater in New York City in 1976.

In August 2011, Shive’s photograph of Springsteen and Clemons, the same as donated to the “Friends Collection,” was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine in a full-page opening memorial to Clemons who passed away in June. In October 2011, Shive’s images were also featured in a welcoming video as well as behind a live musical performance at the “Classic Rock and Roll Party, A Tribute to Clarence Clemons, Benefiting Homesafe,” an organization for which Clemons was a spokesperson and host of many events in previous years. A Springsteen image of Shive is also currently featured on the cover of the recent best-selling rock book, “The Light in Darkness.”

Labeled “The Best Live Rock Photos Never Seen,” Shive launched his web site, www.ShiveArchive.com, in May 2011, offering for the first time to the general public his extensive compilation of classic, vintage rock and roll photography. The archive spans nearly 15 years of pictorial rock and roll history ranging from 1974 up through 1987 and catalogues more than 3,000 original, never-before-seen images. Noted for a photographic style that captured “portrait style images” of performers taken during live concerts where he was a “pit” photographer, Shive’s vast archive includes both black-and-white and color images that have been digitally restored and saved from original film negatives and slides, noting exact dates and locations of each performance. Among some of the artist prints included in the collection are Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Blondie, The Ramones, Linda Ronstadt, Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, Dan Fogelberg, Warren Zevon, and many more.

Shive has contributed hundreds of photographs to numerous major rock and roll and other periodicals including The New York Times, Cream, Circus, Relix, and more. His photographs also have been included in music documentaries, including on VH1. Shive is currently working on his first book about rock and roll that will feature his photographs along with stories from “in front of the stage.”
James Shive is also an established architecture photographer. In addition to rock and roll, many of his other images can be seen on www.JamesShive.com and on www.TandemStock.com that is owned and operated by his son, Ian Shive, a world -renowned nature photographer and 2011 recipient of the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography.
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To view Shive’s rock and roll web site, go to: www.ShiveArchive.com. It is also a featured Facebook page, and can be found under Shive Archive.
The Friends of Springsteen Collection web site is: http://friendsofthespringsteencollection.nexxtblog.com
James Shive is available for interviews upon request.