Barry Feinstein – a very rare signed 30×40 photograph

Back in May 1966, a much younger Bob Dylan was in Liverpool, a stop on his world tour, performing his incendiary set at the city’s Odeon Theatre. On Saturday 14 May 1966 with some time to kill before the performance, he was exploring the streets with Barry Feinstein, the official photographer on the European leg of the tour. Dylan, as lean as a string bean, and resplendent in corduroy jacket and diamond patterned shirt, looked every inch the pied piper. So when Bob and Barry came across a bunch of kids playing on the street, it made complete sense to get a picture. The resulting photograph of Bob on the steps with the children is an enduring classic, and one of Barry’s most important and best loved photographs. It was even the subject of a BBC documentary put together by Chris Hockenhull, who tracked down most of the kids in the photograph in 2006. 

Barry passed away in 2011, and since then we have worked with his estate, offering posthumous estate stamped limited edition photographs from his archives. You can view a selection here. Back in 2008, while Barry was still alive, we hosted an exhibition of his signed work at the gallery, coinciding with the publication of his Bob Dylan book Real Moments. Until that point Barry had not offered collectors the chance to own his work in sizes larger than 20 x 24 inches, but for the 2008 exhibition, for the first time, he scaled up a number of pieces to a  30 x 40 inch paper size. 

We acquired one signed and numbered example of the classic Liverpool Kids on 30 x 40 inch paper from Barry at the time of the 2008 exhibition. The photograph was made from the original negative in the darkroom, and is a beautiful analogue example of this classic image. It has been in the gallery collection since we acquired it back in 2008. 

There are only two examples on 30 x 40 inch paper of this classic image that Barry ever signed.

We have one, the other is in a private collection. It is time to let one go to a new home.