CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/30/2013

NY Times: Brad Elterman's Dog Dance Presents 'A Looser, More Unhinged Los Angeles'

In this weekend's New York Times, Maxwell Williams writes, "If Rodney Bingenheimer was the mayor of the Sunset Strip, the photographer Brad Elterman was its Cecil Stoughton, capturing jaw- and trou-dropping moments of late-1970s excess."

'You could never do that today,' Elterman said, pointing to a photo in his book Dog Dance (out Sept. 30 from Damiani; $35) of the Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones emerging from Elterman's pool in sopping wet skivvies. He flipped to a page of photos of a 15-year-old Matt Dillon. 'And I could never make a picture of an actor of Matt’s status today in my living room. There was no publicist.'

The book portrays a looser, more unhinged Los Angeles. Its title refers to the rock ’n’ roll argot spoken by Kim Fowley, the scene’s resident lothario and manager of the Runaways, whose members (especially Joan Jett) were frequent subjects of Elterman's. This was a time when photographers had more access to stars in candid moments, and Elterman had a knack for being in the right place at the right time, capturing David Bowie outside a recording studio the morning after an all-night session, John Travolta kissing Olivia Newton-John at the premiere of Grease, Bob Dylan meeting Robert De Niro. 'Dude, you never get those shots anymore,' Elterman said.

Elterman quit photography for decades to run a photo agency, but he’s been enjoying a renaissance, shooting for Purple Diary, posting vintage shots on his popular Tumblr account. Lately, he’s begun shooting bands again. 'The first thing I do is tell them stories and show them pictures,' he said. 'And then I have them in the palm of my hand.'"