"When Danny pulls up my drive and saunters in... It's like a reunion with someone you've spent a thousand nights talking music, dreaming your glory dreams, except that he's brought his camera, too." —Bruce Springsteen on Danny Clinch, from the foreword to Danny Clinch: Still Moving.

Danny Clinch is in the trust business. Take two accomplished photographers, give 'em the same equipment, access, and time, and the one who's established the trust of his subject wins every time. Clinch's reputation, his X factor, is rooted in a calm temperament, the self-awareness to know it's about them, not him, and an innate ability to read non-verbal cues. As Springsteen suggests, shooting with Clinch isn't so much a ballet, but a loose, free-flowing conversation — a collaboration. And if you're Springsteen — or Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, or Neil Young — at this point, you're only collaborating with people you trust, people who themselves have something to say. And for folks who don't love the process, Danny Clinch shoots have a habit of not feeling at all like shoots. He's notoriously spontaneous. He'll say, "This'll work." Or maybe just, "Let's go see what's over there?" Watching him work over the years, I've seen it happen again and again: Clinch will get what he needs and the response will be "Man, that didn't feel like a photo shoot. What a great hang. We're done already?"

Danny Clinch's best images, collected in the new 296-page coffee-table retrospective Danny Clinch: Still Moving (Abrams Books, out September 23), represent the work of a real documentarian. He has a way of putting himself, and by extension us, in the right place at the right time. Still Moving very effectively tells the story of modern music history. But from Willie Nelson to Tupac, Tony Bennett to Beyonce, his best photos don't just tell a story, but also tell you something you didn't know about the subject. Mostly the way they look when they're not "performing," when they're relaxed a little, guard at half-mast, or sometimes, all the way down. "Soul" is an overused word, but damned if that's not what Danny Clinch has made a name documenting. And because of it, many of Danny Clinch's pictures have become the images you associate with those musicians when you hear their names. Still Moving is full of those images. We asked Clinch to tell us the stories behind ten of them, which you can see exclusively here:

Bruce Springsteen

"I was hired to go down to Southern Tracks when Bruce was mastering Magic. There's a room there where Bruce would hang out with really nice window light. When we had some time, I pulled him aside and shot some of him with and without his guitar in that spot. I had some where he's looking right at the camera. But sometimes there's power in the moment where somebody looks away or looks down and it ends up being more soulful than somebody gazing into the camera. So while I often pull back and show a lot of atmosphere in my photographs, I thought you somehow saw more here with it close up, Bruce looking down, eyes closed."

Black Keys

"I was shooting for Rolling Stone at Dan's [Auerbach] studio in Akron right before they moved to Nashville. Patrick [Carney] showed up in an MG, a really rad, late-sixties MG. We decided to go into town and maybe get lunch and shoot a little. As we were leaving, Dan and Patrick were going to drive in a different car. I suggested they ride together and we'd ride alongside. I hung out the door of our white minivan and got this. It was a nice way to get a portrait that wasn't the normal, posed kind of thing. This just felt more real."

Grace Potter

"It was in Austin, at the classic blues club Antone's, during SXSW. And I believe it was one of the first times I saw Grace play. And she was incredible. Afterward, she came offstage and sat in the green room to talk to a bunch of friends. I walked by and took this. This was a found moment. I didn't say, 'I found this great spot with Jimmy Reed over your head.'"

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

"Over the years, I've developed a good relationship with Tim — I'd photographed him a few times editorially for magazines and I believe the first shoot we did, he wound up using some of the shots in a greatest-hits CD package. When the Tim and Faith tour was coming up they asked me to come to Nashville to shoot some publicity stuff. The set we created had this warm, cozy vibe. We did a couple of them looking at the camera, but again, I thought the soulful shot was the real, relaxed, loving moment. As a couple, it's always been clear to me that they're best friends, jokesters, really in love. And I think this captures that."

Willie Nelson

"I shot the video for 'You Don't Know Me.' Willie doesn't mind having his photo taken, he just doesn't like doing photo shoots. If you're around with a camera, he doesn't really have a problem with it. But if he has to stand and pose, he doesn't love that process. It's why I suspect I get to photograph him so often. They know I'll hang around and get it without annoying him. At the shoot, we were on the bus and Willie needed to fix his braids a little. I looked down the corridor of the bus, the hallway, to the back of the bus and saw him sitting in his bedroom fixing his braids. I just slid down there really quickly, got the shot, and backed off. If you look closely, you can see Trigger, his guitar, in the corner. And of course, his reflection. And in the back, there's this leather kind of doctor's bag that says Spirit on it. It's great when you look at a photograph and see a little story. To me, this one does that."

Questlove and Elvis Costello

"There's a 'Friends and Family' section of the book. I remember coming up seeing a photo of Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix backstage at Madison Square Garden and it always resonated with me: What are Jimi and Mick talking about? As a music fan, it always made a huge impression on me. Throughout my career, I've always chased something like that. If I saw a great moment between two musicians who weren't in the same band, I also wanted to document those meetings or collaborations. This one is from when the Roots did their record with Elvis Costello. One of my ideas was to have the two of them listening to records. I went out and rented a really cool, old phonograph. It was really Art Deco, maybe forties or fifties. And it worked. So when Elvis and Questlove came in to sit for the photos, they were totally digging the record play. Within a couple minutes each had come to me and said, 'Where did you get that record player? Can I buy it?' Elvis asked me first. And he wound up buying it."

Nick Cave

"I was shooting Green Day for a Spin cover and it was Lollapalooza, the year Nirvana was supposed to headline. I was on the road and I'm in catering one day when Nick Cave was standing there just like you see in the picture. I had my own Roloflex twin-lens camera for which I always, always had black-and-white film in that camera. For some reason, that day I threw a roll of color. So I'm in the catering area and I ask him if I could take a picture. He kind of resituated himself and asked, 'Where do you want to go?' And I said, 'If you could just stand exactly how you were standing I'll just take that photo.' I was shooting slide film, the exposures are really particular, and when I saw it come through I was relieved and blown away by the golden light."

Patti Smith

"I was shooing Patti for Entertainment Weekly. She agreed to go record shopping for us to do something fun for the story. We went to Subterranean Records on Carmine [in New York City], which is no longer around, and we got some good stuff of her shopping. I proposed a portrait and asked her to choose a record to pose with. She picked up the Coltrane record and it felt like an epic photo. She said, 'When I go to a yard sale or a used record shop and see this record for sale, I have to buy it. I love it so much it pains me to see it here not getting played. So I have six or seven at my apartment that I rotate.'"

Green Day

"I shoot backstage portraits at the Grammys every year. People come back and feel great. They're dressed well and maybe even just won a Grammy or three. Sometimes I'll ask if I can get one without the award in their hands. That's what happened here. And I think you can see all the personalities in this shot. And they're subtle, too. Green Day, a lot of times, go over-the-top and off-the-charts with their poses. I feel like Mike [Dirnt] is super-confident. Billie [Joe Armstrong] looks like he is a real rock star through and through. And Tré [Cool] has that little crazy look in his eyes he always has, although he's holding some of it back. I like that. And I love using that backdrop. It strips everything else away so it's about the artist. I started shooting on that backdrop back in the day after seeing the Irving Penn photos of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane."

Foo Fighters

"I went on tour with the band and we went all through Europe, did Iceland and a bunch of American dates. This was a festival in Scotland and with a band like the Foo Fighters you get to know them and you kind of feel out of boundaries. I've devleoped this favorite spot shooting live shows, hiding behind the drummer. The stars aligned this time when Dave [Grohl] turned around and faced Taylor [Hawkins]. I stepped out, fired off a couple of frames, and hid myself away again. You feel the atmposhopere. You feel the crowd. You feel the connection between artist and audience when a band is hitting in all cylinders. I think it's got a great energy to it."