Springsteen: Liberty Hall
Photographs by Nicki Germaine
It’s always a treat to bring something new to the rock ‘n’ roll collectors market—it’s one of the main reasons we exist as a gallery—but that treat is extra sweet when the work is both remarkable and has never been seen before.
This is an exciting moment. Nicki Germaine’s superb new book—Springsteen: Liberty Hall— is printed, bound and in stock as you read this very sentence. That’s right—we have copies ready to ship right away.
It is an outstanding work of art. Nicki’s self-published hardcover book contains a treasure trove of previously unseen photographs from her 1974 sessions with Bruce Springsteen and his band at Liberty Hall, Houston.
In stock and shipping now
Springsteen: Liberty Hall by Nicki Germaine features an incredible archive of previously unpublished photographs taken by Nicki over fours days in March 1974 at Liberty Hall, Houston.
This beautiful large-format hardcover book measures 10 x 13 inches and contains 168 pages of photographs and personal recollections from Nicki, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Santelli and Garry Tallent. Bruce loved the photographs so much that he agreed to write the foreword to the book.
Most of the photographs have never been published before. They are breathtaking.
Books are in stock and ready to ship, and we are delighted to be able to offer a special package consisting of the book plus a separate colour photograph of Bruce and the band, signed by Nicki, which is suitable for framing. If you just want the book by itself then don’t worry— you can order that too.
Scroll down, enjoy, and read all about it.
The book and removable blue ‘obi-strip’.
“Nicki caught us in all our wide-eyed glory at the exotic places (virtually everywhere) that our talents would take us. These are photos from “before.” It wouldn’t last much longer, but here it is. Enjoy these wonderful photographs. Thanks Nicki.”
—BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Buy Springsteen: Liberty Hall
The book + signed 8×10 inch photograph
In stock and shipping now
Nicki has selected a colour photograph of Bruce and the band taken on the steps of Liberty Hall to offer as a signed 8×10 inch photograph to accompany the book. You can see it in the image alongside, to the right of the book cover artwork.
This photograph is signed personally by Nicki, and is suitable for framing.
The paper size is 8×10 inches, and the image size is approximately 6 x 8.5 inches.
Nicki’s signature will be on the front of the photograph in the white border under the image.
If you would like to purchase the book and photograph, please use the link alongside.
Nicki signs each 8×10 inch photograph personally
An example of a signed photograph, showing the position of the signature
More about Liberty Hall
Springsteen: Liberty Hall is a treasure trove of previously unpublished photographs by Nicki Germaine taken over four nights at Liberty Hall in Houston Texas, in March 1974.
- First edition hardcover book, 10.1 x 13.1 inches
- 168 pages, 95 black & white and colour photographs, most previously unpublished
- Foreword by Bruce Springsteen
- 4,000 word essay by Bob Santelli
- Additional essay by Garry Tallent
Those are the raw facts and figures—but there are stories to tell about this book.
This has been a deeply personal project for Nicki Germaine. Encouraged by her partner Garry Tallent to bring these photographs to the attention of the world after they sat in storage for almost fifty years (the photographs—not Garry and Nicki), Nicki has pulled out all the stops, turning her archive of photographs from those four days in March 1974 into a physical object which will be treasured by Bruce fans the world over.
Springsteen: Liberty Hall is a work of art, where the photographs have space to breathe. It really is a beautiful job.
I’m going to give you one example to illustrate the extra yards that Nicki put in on this project. The usual approach to reproducing a black & white photograph on the pages of a book is to scan the original negative, and then clean up the resulting digital file using photo-editing software, giving a clean image file ready for printing.
Nicki wasn’t content to follow this standard route—she believed she could get a better result. So she went one step further. As a collector/appreciator of fine art photography, Nicki has always loved the analogue process of darkroom printing, and the silver gelatin prints that came from it. To best reproduce the impact of these beautiful handmade photographs in the book, Nicki first arranged for master printer Chuck Kelton to make five physical prints for every single black & white image that appears in the book. Each silver gelatin print was made traditionally by hand in the darkroom, and Chuck introduced subtle variations in tone in each of the five variants of the same image. Nicki then selected the single best example from that beauty parade of five prints to be the ‘master’ version of the image that would appear in the book. The physical ‘master’ print was then scanned to arrive at the final version for printing—adding an analogue element to the process that would not otherwise have been present. Think about that for a minute. She went through that process for each and every black & white photograph that appears in the book. As a result, not only was the scan a beautiful representation of the underlying analogue film image, but also the book printers in Italy had that physical ‘master’ print to be able to compare to the pages that came off the printing press—ensuring that the book matched up to Nicki’s vision.
“Years later Springsteen would remember Liberty Hall enough to namecheck the venue in his song “This Hard Land.” He would also recall that the shows occurred when he and the band were “moving out of the minor leagues and into the majors. Liberty Hall and the shows that followed marked the beginning of a real turning point,” Springsteen recalled. “It started to feel different.” Nicki Germaine’s striking photographs artfully captured that “turning point.”
—BOB SANTELLI
“From the first picture I felt like I was breaking into Tutankhamen’s tomb and finding the treasure.”
—MAX WEINBERG
Why do we love these photographs so much?
We’re with Max. These until-now buried gems are as fresh and exciting as the day they were taken—and then left dormant for almost fifty years. Nicki’s intimate portraits reveal a band at work, rest and play. She was more than a fly on the wall. She was right there in the soup, somehow granted immediate ‘insider’ status.
I’ve got to tell you, I’ve seen many photographs of Clarence over the years, but Nicki’s portrait of him backstage with his sax has to be the finest portrait I have ever seen. Simply beautiful. Don’t just take my word for it – here it is alongside. This is just one of a host of previously unpublished photographs that just blew me away when Nicki shared them with me for the first time.
This book is a must for any Bruce fan, and the timing couldn’t be better – just in time for Christmas.
“Nicki’s photos show the band’s various moods of the time. Our fatigue, our hope, the promise of a real shot. I personally love these pictures because they show so much of what each of us was going through at such an early stage in our careers. This is a very accurate document of a pivotal time in the story of Bruce Springsteen and his band. These pictures have been locked away for all these years, and I am so happy that Nicki has chosen to share them these forty-eight-plus years later.”
—GARRY TALLENT
Extracts from Springsteen: Liberty Hall
Take a look at this small selection of photographs of the cover, interiors, and double-page spreads from Springsteen: Liberty Hall in the slideshow below.
Anything else?
Here are Nicki and Bruce, checking out an advance copy of the book. Photo courtesy Garry Tallent.
A word on shipping
UK mainland delivery is already included in the price on our website for the book and book+print combo.
For all overseas shipments we use a fully trackable service with DHL. Overseas shipping is expensive. We can’t do anything about that sadly—and we have set overseas shipping to simply recover what we are charged by the shipper.
We would love you to buy from us wherever you are in the world, but if you are ordering this book from outside the UK, please be aware that shipping will represent a chunky proportion of the final cost.
Questions?
If you have any questions at all about Springsteen: Liberty Hall please just ask – we are here to help.