# "Jim Fuller: Capturing Bruce Springsteen's Spirit in the Light Through Legendary Concert Photography."

An episode of [Music Saved Me Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1703080557), 12 Dec 2025, 15 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/038eec94-1ba4-451d-8945-b08f00e9f877/5576398c-0190-45c7-b3ef-b3af00d45450/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=dfceda02-3624-42c7-b522-b25700f0584c

Legendary rock photographer Jim Fuller joins host Buzz Knight on Takin’ A Walk to discuss his stunning new Bruce Springsteen photography book “Spirit in the Light,” a definitive collection of iconic concert images spanning decades of The Boss’s legendary performances. Fuller shares behind-the-scenes stories of photographing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, revealing the intimate moments and explosive energy that defined Springsteen’s most memorable shows. In this compelling conversation, Jim Fuller discusses the creative process behind “Spirit in the Light,” explaining how he captured Bruce Springsteen’s raw authenticity and connection with audiences through his lens. From backstage access to front-row perspectives, Fuller details his journey as a rock and roll photographer documenting one of music’s most iconic performers. The veteran photographer reflects on specific images featured in “Spirit in the Light,” sharing the stories behind Springsteen’s most powerful stage moments and what makes The Boss such a compelling photographic subject. Fuller also explores the evolution of concert photography, the challenges of capturing live performance energy in still images, and his relationship with Bruce Springsteen over the years. He discusses the curation process for “Spirit in the Light,” selecting the photographs that best represent Springsteen’s spirit, passion, and legendary stage presence. Music photographers, Bruce Springsteen fans, and photography enthusiasts will appreciate Fuller’s insights into rock photography’s golden era and the technical artistry required to document live music history. This episode of Takin’ A Walk offers an intimate look at Bruce Springsteen through Jim Fuller’s photographic eye, celebrating “Spirit in the Light” as both an artistic achievement and a testament to one of rock’s greatest performers. Fuller’s stories reveal the dedication, timing, and artistry required to create timeless rock and roll photography that captures music’s transformative power. Takin’ A Walk: In-depth music interviews exploring the stories and music history behind the songs. Check out our other shows Music Saved Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman Comedy Saved Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman Takin A Walk Nashville hosted by Sarah Harralson Part of IHeartpodcasts Support the show: https://musicsavedme.net/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Taking a Walk.
[0:01] Speaker 2: I'm Buzznight and welcome to the Taken a Walk Podcast. Now,
[0:04] Speaker 2: if you are a fan of the Taken a Walk Podcast,
[0:08] Speaker 2: we asked that you spread the good word.
[0:10] Speaker 1: Tell all your.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Friends about it, and you can find us certainly on
[0:14] Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts,
[0:18] Speaker 2: follow us, share it, leave your reviews.
[0:22] Speaker 1: We love if you could spread the good word.
[0:24] Speaker 2: Well, today, I'm honored to have a topic here Bruce
[0:30] Speaker 2: Springsteen that is near and dear to my heart. And
[0:34] Speaker 2: I've got the author of this beautiful photography book called
[0:37] Speaker 2: Spirit in the Light, James Fuller. Welcome to the Taking
[0:41] Speaker 2: a Walk Podcast. It's a beautiful book. Oh my god,
[0:44] Speaker 2: I love it.
[0:45] Speaker 3: Oh thank you, Thank you, Buzz. It's great to be here.
[0:48] Speaker 3: And it was a labor of love or something that
[0:51] Speaker 3: sat in a box for fifty years and now has
[0:55] Speaker 3: come out into the light.
[0:56] Speaker 1: Nice Spirit in the Light.
[0:58] Speaker 2: It covers nineteen seventy three to nineteen seventy five, right.
[1:04] Speaker 3: Right, just a brief two year period when Bruce was
[1:09] Speaker 3: between his second album and Born to Run.
[1:12] Speaker 1: Pretty rich period for Bruce Springsteen fans.
[1:15] Speaker 2: So we're gonna talk to James Fuller about spirit in
[1:18] Speaker 2: the light.
[1:19] Speaker 1: After we take this quick break and we'll be right
[1:22] Speaker 1: back Taking a Walk.
[1:26] Speaker 2: James Fuller, Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
[1:30] Speaker 3: Thanks man, it's great to be here.
[1:32] Speaker 2: And I'm not going to let you escape our opening question.
[1:35] Speaker 2: And I have a feeling I know what the answer is, James.
[1:38] Speaker 2: If you could take a walk with someone, who would
[1:40] Speaker 2: you take a walk with and where would you take
[1:42] Speaker 2: that walk?
[1:43] Speaker 3: Wow?
[1:44] Speaker 4: I wasn't prepared for this, but actually actually not Bruce Okay, yeah,
[1:52] Speaker 4: actually probably someone like Clarence Clements and to get his
[1:58] Speaker 4: side of the story of what thing were like, sort
[2:01] Speaker 4: of behind the scenes, because there's a lot of information
[2:04] Speaker 4: about Bruce out there, lots of interviews, lots of you know,
[2:07] Speaker 4: I sort of feel like I know where he's coming from.
[2:10] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's good.
[2:11] Speaker 2: And Clarence the big man, Oh my god, I mean
[2:15] Speaker 2: I love that. Jake Clemens is certainly now still you know,
[2:20] Speaker 2: carrying the torch for Clarence.
[2:22] Speaker 1: But boy, don't we miss Clarence every day?
[2:26] Speaker 3: Right, big shoes to fill. But yeah, he played an
[2:28] Speaker 3: important role.
[2:30] Speaker 1: So James, what is your line of work?
[2:33] Speaker 2: I know you're not, by nature a full time photographer,
[2:36] Speaker 2: is that correct?
[2:38] Speaker 3: True. I was a teacher for many years. I'm retired now,
[2:42] Speaker 3: and teaching is all about words, and I taught middle
[2:45] Speaker 3: school most of the years, and students were like in
[2:48] Speaker 3: my face all the time, and I loved it, just
[2:51] Speaker 3: loved the job. But summers were really a nice time
[2:53] Speaker 3: to get away and do something different. Allowed me to
[2:56] Speaker 3: work on things without words, without people, photography. So I
[3:03] Speaker 3: was a photographer early on and gradually moved along from
[3:07] Speaker 3: taking pictures of Bruce to doing large format landscape photographs,
[3:12] Speaker 3: cloth over the head, that whole kind of thing.
[3:15] Speaker 2: So do you recall the first time that you personally
[3:19] Speaker 2: connected with Springsteen's music.
[3:23] Speaker 3: Yeah, my ear was to the ground. I was always,
[3:26] Speaker 3: you know, going to concerts and trying to look for
[3:29] Speaker 3: the next big thing. I was up at a small
[3:32] Speaker 3: college in upstate New York, Hobart College, and freshman fall
[3:36] Speaker 3: concert was supposed to be John Sebastian. He got sick
[3:39] Speaker 3: at the last second, and then posters went up around
[3:42] Speaker 3: campus and they advertised an unknown recording artist named Bruce Springsteen.
[3:49] Speaker 3: I'd heard of just a little bit about him. So
[3:51] Speaker 3: I got the theater half an hour early, and I
[3:55] Speaker 3: got front row seats because there wasn't much demand at
[3:58] Speaker 3: the time. The place eventually filled up and within a
[4:04] Speaker 3: few minutes of Bruce taking a stage, I knew this
[4:07] Speaker 3: was it, this was the next big thing.
[4:10] Speaker 1: Did you have camera in tow at that moment?
[4:13] Speaker 3: I did. I almost always had my camera in tow
[4:15] Speaker 3: back then, my thirty five millimeter Canon FTV. So I
[4:20] Speaker 3: took a role of film that night developed him. And
[4:23] Speaker 3: you know, the lighting back in the early days and
[4:26] Speaker 3: Brus's whole performance was a little bit the lighting was
[4:30] Speaker 3: weak and had basic stage lighting in one spotlight. It
[4:34] Speaker 3: was fun to see through the years how he increased
[4:39] Speaker 3: the lighting and did different things with lighting, and how
[4:41] Speaker 3: he responded to that because they brought in a lighting
[4:45] Speaker 3: director to make more dramatic lighting, using fills and things
[4:49] Speaker 3: like that. Suddenly he was being more dramatic and I think,
[4:53] Speaker 3: you know, encouraged by.
[4:54] Speaker 2: That, and as we understand, over time, ticulously fanatical about
[5:03] Speaker 2: the details, whether it be the lighting, the staging, the
[5:07] Speaker 2: whole sound.
[5:09] Speaker 1: From every aspect of a venue.
[5:12] Speaker 2: As you sort of reflect on this from seeing that
[5:15] Speaker 2: first show to the way it's become what do you
[5:19] Speaker 2: think of Bruce and that you know, just fixation for excellence.
[5:27] Speaker 3: Yeah, I just went to the Archives celebration, the Springsteen
[5:31] Speaker 3: Archives celebration of the fiftieth anniversary Born to Run, and
[5:34] Speaker 3: they showed a film of the making of jungle Land,
[5:38] Speaker 3: and you think that boy, that'd be fun to watch,
[5:41] Speaker 3: but it wasn't because he was so relentless in his
[5:45] Speaker 3: quests for excellence. And the thing I remember most about
[5:49] Speaker 3: is I'm saying again again again to the band members
[5:54] Speaker 3: to try different things and keep going. So there are
[5:57] Speaker 3: actually two sides to Bruce, the stage foreman side where
[6:01] Speaker 3: he's you know, all out fun and just a joyous
[6:07] Speaker 3: and moving experience. But then you can see from those
[6:10] Speaker 3: films how hard he worked to get the sound right
[6:14] Speaker 3: for each thing.
[6:17] Speaker 2: So we've had a few photographers of rock on the
[6:23] Speaker 2: taking a walk. We had a couple of visits with
[6:29] Speaker 2: our dear friend, the great Henry Dilts, who's an amazing
[6:32] Speaker 2: photographer without question.
[6:36] Speaker 1: Elliott Landy as well.
[6:37] Speaker 2: I don't know if you're familiar with Elliott, but but
[6:39] Speaker 2: had Elliott on and Lynn Goldsmith actually too at her on.
[6:44] Speaker 2: So when you think about your style and what people
[6:49] Speaker 2: can look forward to seeing in your beautiful book Spirit
[6:52] Speaker 2: in the Light, how would you define your style.
[6:55] Speaker 3: Well, I think I was in the right place at
[6:57] Speaker 3: the right time that he was pretty much unknown these
[7:02] Speaker 3: years that I photographed him, and so I could get
[7:04] Speaker 3: quite close, usually front row. At one point the manager,
[7:09] Speaker 3: Mike Apell even sent me up on stage with I
[7:12] Speaker 3: was taking pictures up there behind all the equipment and
[7:15] Speaker 3: all the wires and all that going on, and then
[7:18] Speaker 3: suddenly I was grabbed by two roadies and thrown off stage.
[7:24] Speaker 3: They said to me, Bruce doesn't want anybody on stage
[7:26] Speaker 3: when he's up there. But you know, Bruce is uh,
[7:30] Speaker 3: you know, his quest for excellence really put pressure on me.
[7:33] Speaker 3: When I was thinking about bringing out this book. I
[7:35] Speaker 3: didn't want to do something that was less than the
[7:38] Speaker 3: best I could do, and so I spent a lot
[7:41] Speaker 3: of time and a lot of money getting everything done
[7:44] Speaker 3: just right. So I felt a little bit like Bruce
[7:46] Speaker 3: in that, you know, I wanted it to be as
[7:48] Speaker 3: good as it could possibly be. So I had the
[7:51] Speaker 3: negatives on drum scan by Mark Doyle Akellor and and
[7:57] Speaker 3: then I had a designer brought into it an elegant
[8:00] Speaker 3: look and went to a printer a duo tone printing
[8:05] Speaker 3: which really makes the prince pop. So I did as
[8:09] Speaker 3: best I could.
[8:11] Speaker 1: You certainly did.
[8:12] Speaker 2: Now did you have to be in contact or were
[8:14] Speaker 2: you in contact with you know, John Landau or the
[8:17] Speaker 2: you know, the Springsteen organization.
[8:19] Speaker 3: No, you know they you know they're they're not all
[8:22] Speaker 3: that accessible. You know. Everything I did, I was in
[8:27] Speaker 3: a public performance, so it's sort of fair game, and
[8:31] Speaker 3: I just wanted to do the best I could with
[8:34] Speaker 3: it and honor this period of time because I feel
[8:36] Speaker 3: like this period of time has been a little bit neglected.
[8:39] Speaker 3: There's no recording of the East Street Band when they
[8:42] Speaker 3: had David Sanchez, incredible piano player, and it just had
[8:47] Speaker 3: a little different feel to it, and thinking back in
[8:51] Speaker 3: those days, I wanted to try to preserve some of
[8:53] Speaker 3: that visually, at least hoping that someday that maybe one
[8:57] Speaker 3: of those conc tapes come out.
[9:01] Speaker 2: But you aren't curious to see what what Bruce would
[9:05] Speaker 2: think of it.
[9:06] Speaker 3: Uh, Well, I've had a friend who has a connection
[9:10] Speaker 3: and sent it to him and I'm just waiting waiting
[9:14] Speaker 3: for the word. So hopefully someday I'll hear from him.
[9:17] Speaker 2: Oh boy, I mean, he's he's gotta you know, love
[9:21] Speaker 2: it being you know as he is, and artists often
[9:25] Speaker 2: are not always you know, so respectful of the historical
[9:29] Speaker 2: aspect of things, you know, artists like Bruce or you know,
[9:32] Speaker 2: re releasing things or unearthing things.
[9:35] Speaker 1: So I have to think this would this would speak
[9:38] Speaker 1: to him.
[9:39] Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I would hope. So I hope, you know,
[9:42] Speaker 3: bring back some some fond memories when you know, he
[9:46] Speaker 3: was really working to make himself known and the record
[9:50] Speaker 3: company was threatening to drop him, and so every show
[9:54] Speaker 3: seemed to be like his life depended on it. And
[9:58] Speaker 3: he's continued that spear through all the years since.
[10:02] Speaker 2: It's kind of like it's the last show, right, like
[10:05] Speaker 2: like you know, I'm going to play it like like
[10:07] Speaker 2: this is it, you know, even though it's not it
[10:09] Speaker 2: that that mentality which you have to admire. Now, was
[10:12] Speaker 2: this just taken from the Hobart show The Spirit and
[10:16] Speaker 2: the Light or where it was a series of shows obviously?
[10:19] Speaker 3: Well? Yeah, interesting because he came as a total unknown
[10:22] Speaker 3: and by then and I they gave him three encres
[10:24] Speaker 3: at a time when encores were not standard, and and
[10:28] Speaker 3: they brought him back a little more than a year later,
[10:32] Speaker 3: and those shows you can see the improvements in the
[10:35] Speaker 3: lighting and the photographs really start to pop and Brice
[10:39] Speaker 3: gets much more dramatic, more hand gestures, plays off Clarence
[10:44] Speaker 3: Clemens more. It's just becomes a much more polished and
[10:50] Speaker 3: exciting act. And then he came back one more time
[10:53] Speaker 3: for this is a small theater in upstate New York
[10:57] Speaker 3: for the second show with the Born to Run tour.
[10:59] Speaker 3: He was supposed to rehearse there for a week to
[11:02] Speaker 3: get this show ready to go, so there was some
[11:05] Speaker 3: connection to that theater that he seemed to like. So
[11:08] Speaker 3: he did you know, the recording of the album took
[11:11] Speaker 3: longer than they thought, but so I had to cancel
[11:14] Speaker 3: the rehearsals, but he honored coming back for one the
[11:17] Speaker 3: third show there, and just within two years.
[11:22] Speaker 2: Now, I saw him for the first time at Ohio
[11:26] Speaker 2: U in Athens on the Born to Run tour and
[11:32] Speaker 2: it was unbelievable. The memories are incredible of it. And
[11:37] Speaker 2: one memory that sticks out for seeing him on that
[11:41] Speaker 2: show and that tour was the crowd stood up pretty
[11:47] Speaker 2: much the entire show, as I recall, it was that
[11:51] Speaker 2: true at the Hobart show.
[11:54] Speaker 3: Well, the first show, I would say, you know, wasn't
[11:57] Speaker 3: an enthusiastic audience at first, but you got feel and
[12:01] Speaker 3: when he started out with New York City Serenade, just
[12:03] Speaker 3: Bruce only acoustic guitar and David Sanchez's long piano introduction.
[12:09] Speaker 3: Suddenly you could just feel it in the room that
[12:11] Speaker 3: people suddenly sat up and said, whoa, this is something
[12:15] Speaker 3: really exciting has happened here. And by the end he's
[12:18] Speaker 3: finishing with twist and shout and the crowd has stormed
[12:21] Speaker 3: the stage for a total unknown.
[12:26] Speaker 2: Now did you say earlier that you had been sitting
[12:28] Speaker 2: on these and done nothing with this work for fifty years.
[12:33] Speaker 3: Well, my brother was always encouraging me to get these out,
[12:36] Speaker 3: and he did find Dave marsh but out a concert book,
[12:40] Speaker 3: and I submitted a few of them, and surprisingly he
[12:43] Speaker 3: used them. But I was never really happy with how
[12:46] Speaker 3: the reproductions in that book, and so I sat sort
[12:52] Speaker 3: of kept in the back of my mind that maybe
[12:54] Speaker 3: I should do something because I felt my photographs told
[12:57] Speaker 3: a story of the evolution of Springsteen days, that he
[13:01] Speaker 3: went from just a sort of a street punk to
[13:05] Speaker 3: a dramatic performer to just the very edge of total stardom.
[13:11] Speaker 3: I knew I had something, something in the box, and
[13:14] Speaker 3: I didn't realize I had so many good ones because
[13:16] Speaker 3: I just printed a few when I first did them,
[13:20] Speaker 3: and so when I went back just two years ago
[13:22] Speaker 3: and started printing all these old negatives, I realized I'd
[13:26] Speaker 3: enough for a book that could could be important historically.
[13:31] Speaker 1: It's a piece of music history, no doubt. It's it's
[13:34] Speaker 1: absolutely beautiful.
[13:35] Speaker 2: So tell our listeners how they can find your book,
[13:38] Speaker 2: Spirit in the Light.
[13:39] Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I've chosen not to go with the big
[13:42] Speaker 3: box route and all that. I can't find an Amazon,
[13:45] Speaker 3: but I do have a website in e commerce website
[13:49] Speaker 3: it's called Spirit in thelightbook dot com, and you can
[13:53] Speaker 3: go there and order it and I'll hand package it
[13:56] Speaker 3: and send it to you.
[13:57] Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic. Well, it's an honor having the book.
[14:02] Speaker 1: It's an honor speaking to you and hearing your story.
[14:05] Speaker 2: James Fuller, congratulations on it, and thanks for being on
[14:09] Speaker 2: Taking a Walk.
[14:10] Speaker 3: Thanks buys, it's been a fun walk. Thank you.
[14:15] Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
[14:17] Speaker 2: Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
[14:21] Speaker 2: and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
[14:25] Speaker 2: a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
[14:29] Speaker 2: and wherever you get your podcasts.

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