Keeping Time: The Photographs of Don Hunstein
Don Hunstein had one cool gig. He was the Columbia Records staff photographer from 1955 to 1986. “In an era,” as New York Times music critic Pareles observes, “when major labels took themselves seriously as libraries of culture,” Columbia signed up an astonishingly diverse array of artists, musicians whom Hunstein put at ease because, as Art Garfunkel notes in his foreword, “he turned out to be one of us.” The results make for an irresistible and thrilling retrospective collection of black-and-white photographs documenting performances and historic recording sessions and capturing unique glimpses into the personalities of original and influential musicians. Here are candid pictures of Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Aretha Franklin, Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein, and Johnny Cash.  Bob Dylan’s first two albums were graced with Hunstein’s photographs. As for Hunstein, he modestly shrugs off the aesthetic, psychological, even metaphorical dimensions of his keenly observant and strongly composed photographs, explaining “I just did my job.” Well said. But these portraits of artists at work are, without question, works of art. --Donna Seaman