Bob Dylan at home with his son, June 1968

For America, 1968 was a convulsive year: riots, assassinations, Vietnam and the election in November of Richard Nixon. For Bob Dylan, 1968 was a year of withdrawal and rural domesticity. Elliott Landy had taken photographs for the Band’s debut album that Dylan had liked.

Here, two-year-old Jesse, mouth full of sandwich, is looking more comfortable with the camera than his dad, who, with glasses off and cigarettes at the side of the table, is without two of the props that were in so many photographs of him two long years before. This is perhaps as close to the real Bob as you’re going to get.Jesse is now a video director, activist and campaigner.
 Bob Dylan will be 75 this month and releases his 37th studio album, Fallen Angels, this weekend. Landy moved to Woodstock shortly after this photo session. He’s still there.