Captain Dave is a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order, very delicately tractable on the surface but beneath that, he’s a slamming, thumping, battering ram, very mystical but rational and sensitive when it comes to the hot irons of art forms. An explosive musician, deft guitar player, innately recognizes the genius in other people and puts it into play without being manipulative. With him, there’s mercifully no reality to yesterday. He is incredibly gracious and soulful, can command the ship and steer the course, dragger, trawler or man of war, Captain Dave.” – Bob Dylan
Foreword by Dave Stewart
When I first met Ana María Vélez I noticed she was incredibly attentive to details in everything she did, whether it was her guitar playing, her specific singing style, dance, movement and in conversation. Ana told me later she was a photographer and actually came to the UK by winning a photographic contest in her home country Colombia.
Over the years I got to know and love Ana’s sense of humor along with her lack of fear and ability to tackle anything from opening a Eurythmics show to cooking for 20 people at ten minutes notice! So when I was out filming Bob Dylan by myself in Camden Town only armed with two 8mm cine cameras and Bob in a Top Hat (we also had no security, that’s another story) I decided this should be documented as it was becoming quite surreal. We had been filming for about an hour then we had a 5 minute break and a cup of tea outside a cafe, I seized the opportunity to call the one person I knew I could rely on and would drop everything and get to our location in record time, and she did!
Ana immediately became invisible and started shooting at a short distance aware of the fragility of the situation and the possibility that this could bring even more attention to a crowd that was growing by the minute. I introduced Ana to Bob and he immediately felt comfortable with her gentle way, so now we were three! Ana managed to capture these photographs under crazy conditions and using some other worldly slow motion mind technique managed to remain calm and focused choosing her shots carefully and not firing off like a crazy paparazzi, but feeling the mood and capturing a unique moment in time; two friends experimenting with movie cameras and black and white imagery, Bob wandering between comedic Charlie Chaplin type antics juggling, (he was actually juggling whilst walking over bridges followed by a crowd like a pied piper), to serious set-ups hurriedly staged in my houseboat on the canal or at a table in an unsuspecting restaurant.
Ana Maria somehow managed to keep a low profile and within this guerrilla type filmmaking madness, captured portraits of a man who has influenced the whole world with his words and music. Somewhere in these photographs you will see a brilliant mind underneath that top hat gazing out at that world not missing a single thing that was happening all around him.
I’m very glad I called Ana that day as we share a memory always triggered by her photographs and the film I shot.
Ana, I’m glad you can now share our memory.
Dave Stewart – August 2012, Los Angeles, California