Toms River Photographer Talks Springsteen, Craft On '60 Minutes'

Photographers are used to being behind the scenes, capturing images that become iconic representations of a moment in time.

For some, such as Toms River photographer Danny Clinch, those images become inextricably linked between them and the world they capture. How they capture those snapshots is as much a story in itself as the story the photos themselves tell.

Clinch’s images, of rock stars from Bruce Springsteen to Bob Dylan to Faith Hill and Johnny Cash and rapper Tupac Shakur, have given him a legendary status of his own. On Monday night, he will be the photographer capturing the behind-the-scenes moments at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.

In advance of the Grammys, Clinch was profiled on CBS’s news magazine “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, talking about his art, his relationships with some of the subjects, in particular Bruce Springsteen, and about what inspires the Jersey Shore native.

“You’re in a sense part of the history of that moment,” Clinch told Anderson Cooper in the full “60 Minutes” interview below.

Clinch learned his craft from a variety of sources, including as an assistant to famed photographer Annie Lebovitz, and was inspired by his mother, who to this day always has a camera in her hands, he said.

“I always want to be prepared,” he said, producing a camera that he had with him during the interview with Cooper. “You never know who’s going to come to your studio.”

But Clinch doesn’t simply view his subjects through the camera lens; Clinch is a musician himself, and as Cooper says, ”speaks the language.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s hip-hop. It doesn’t matter if it’s jazz. If it hits you right here, it’s good music,” Clinch told Cooper.

For the full interview, with shots of Clinch in Seaside Heights and with his parents, watch below.

More of the interview and of Clinch’s photographs can be found in the “60 Minutes Overtime” video below: