I've been sitting on over 50 years of negatives, digital files, and one-of-a-kind stories, mostly in notebooks, file cabinets and on hard drives ... and in my head, showing them a few at a time to whoever wandered onto the shivearchive.com website or may have followed me on Facebook. Every so often somebody would look at an image and ask a question about the photo, the date, the location, the type of film I used or the song, so a memory is triggered in my head and I share the story, usually on Facebook.

Those conversations were always the best part.

The Contact Sheet is my attempt to have more of them.

My stories from the pit. Before the barriers went up, before the passes and the paperwork. To be able to shoot the entire show, the days of being able to walk in with a camera or be given access to photograph the entire concert.

You'll get a monthly or whenever I get around to it newsletter with some photographs and stories. Whatever is on my mind. Sometimes a new print freshly scanned from the negatives. Sometimes the story of what I was doing the day I took it. Sometimes both.
Once in a while a memory of my day... like the mild summer morning I slipped a cassette into the car and "Racing in the Streets" was the very first song that played, and my head filled with a hundred memories of the neighborhood in New Jersey I used to drive through, and my wife who gave me the cassette player as a birthday gift....more of this story is below

That's what you'll get in here. Personal. Not perfect. Honest about what happens when a shot works, honest about the ones that got away, and I may even share some of those not so perfect images too. sometimes those not so perfect images are better at telling a story.

I'm writing for the people who were there — and the ones who wish they had been. Collectors, fans who wore out the same record 200 times, people who read the music magazines cover to cover in high school and dreamed of standing where I got to stand. If any of that is you, welcome.

Every print you'll see in these letters is one you can actually own. Signed, numbered, capped editions and open editions, never mass-produced. Because these frames aren't sitting in some publisher's warehouse waiting for the next commemorative coffee table book. They're mine, and if you want one, we can talk.

Talk soon. — James

The image above from 1974 Bruce & Clarence print is one of the rarest — view it in The 1974 Collection.

So many people do not realize that I shot so much more than Bruce Springsteen, so I wanted to use this newsletter to share some of these images and stories.
This photograph of the one, the only Debbie Harry of the infamous punk band Blondie was taken by James Shive on a rainy night at the legendary and now defunct Palladium Theater, New York City, 1978. The image captures Harry at the height of her beauty ~ strong, sensual, and unmistakably iconic. With long, sexy legs and that cool, effortless Blondie allure, Harry embodies the very spirit of punk rock at its peak, a moment in time that's gone forever but burns on in this image. Shive's rare ability to shoot live concerts with the intimacy and clarity of a studio portrait gives this photograph its striking power and timelessness. If you were there, then you remember why this period was so special in music's evolution. Preserved in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Shive's work is revered for a reason—and this image, available only in large print sizes, is a standout piece for any serious collector.
Blondie Photographed 1978

Shot by James Shive on New Year’s Eve 1981 at Nassau Coliseum, this B & W image of Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons hits with pure rock-and-roll power—capturing the chemistry, brotherhood, and unstoppable energy that would define their 30-year partnership. Taken before Born in the U.S.A. and before the many twists in Bruce’s life and band, this photograph freezes the E Street Band at its raw, iconic core. With over nine dozen sold in signed limited editions, it remains one of the most sought-after Springsteen collector pieces. Now being offered in a new large format Giclee Print and with Shive’s archive tightly controlled and never mass-produced, this is the Springsteen gift fans dream of—The River Collection

A rare view of an artist from backstage ...There was not control of the lighting, you were at the mercy of the lighting folks at the sound board and the sometimes a spotlight. Often times, the low red cans shining down from the rafters were the only dim rays on your subject. You could adjust your exposure, change a lens and hope for a clear path between you and the artist … but there were always obstructions, monitors, mic stands or wires, lots of wires. Sometimes the only way to capture an artist was to move, move to the left or right and when the appropriate access was granted to you, move backstage. A few keys from the piano and a small glimpse of the harmonica are the only clues to know this is the back view of the Piano Man, Billy Joel. Photographed 1975

It was a mild Summer morning & my wife had given me a new cassette player/FM radio for my Birthday a few weeks earlier. Now you know the story is old because I’m talking about a cassette player, I would drive into the nearest location I could find to have it installed in my car. This place happened to be on Randolph Street in Freehold, NJ not far from Bruce's Hometown. I waited the hour or so as they did their work and then jumped into the car for the ride home. I popped a cassette into the new sound system and the first some that just happened to play was “Racing in The Streets” So appropriate as I drove down the street where Bruce had grown up and has written about in his book and spoken about on Broadway. Well today on this mild Summer morning, so many thousands of miles away from that place & time, I plugged my phone into the car and what song came on….
It filled my head with a million memories of that place I lived and my wife’s special gift she gave me almost 40 years ago. Summer is here and the time is right…..Racing in the Streets Print