The Picture
It’s quite an honor for me to be able to start this new item on my GSI web site.
I was contacted by Bob Shermans’ son the other day with the suggestion to show on the web site the Gibb photo material his father once took.
I of course was overjoyed to get the opportunity to share with you, a number of Gibb photos made by Bob Sherman who was their personal photographer for many years.
Thank you Sherman Family and Gibb Family.
Who was Bob Sherman?
by Roby Sherman his son.
My father was born in Queens Village, New York, USA in 1939. I was the only child from his last marriage One of my father’s earliest assignments was to work for the major airlines in New York and take pictures of celebrities that were flying on their planes (Sort of a “look, so and so flies our airlines” type of photos).
Presidential – He photographed presidents such Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, flew on Air Force One, and even got to play on Jimmy Carter’s softball team. He also worked at several democratic and republican national conventions and worked with the Secret Service to fix several security holes he discovered in their “secured radio frequencies”.
* Music Celebrities – When he worked for WQAM in Florida as their chief photographer, he worked with every major musical group at the time that came to town at the time. That aside, I know that he covered the Beatles first trip to New York and has several pictures related to that event. Also he for instance photographed The Beach Boys.
* Other Well-Knowns that I can specifically recall – Howard Hughes, Ron Rice (founder of Hawaiian Tropic), Muhammad Ali, Jackie Gleason, He followed some Mafia types whose names I can’t recall, he covered and provided exclusive shots of Prince Charles and Lady Di on their honeymoon, Paul Newman, he photographed the Space Shuttle Challenger crew before their final, fatal launch (it was published in Time and Newsweek, etc.)
Someday he became involved with The Bee Gees. According to my mother, my father’s agent at the time, Camera 5 in New York, sent him down to the Bee Gees’ studio and take some publicity photos of them. Apparently they hit it off very well and were impressed by his work, so they offered him a job. He loved working with them and being apart of the energy that seemed to follow them wherever they went. I remember how excited he became whenever he had an opportunity to do something creative for them, trying out new, exotic locations, scenes, etc.
He worked for the Gibbs from the mid 1970’s to mid 1980’s. I know he did the album covers at least Living Eyes, Spirits Having Flown, and Children of the World which covers that range.
I mostly remember the assignments where I got to go with him. 
I remember going to a music video shoot (something with a jukebox?), visiting their Miami-based recording studio, going to Barry and Linda’s house a few times, etc.
Most of my direct memories are from when my Mother and I got to tag along on the Spirits Having Flown tour in Chicago? and New York.
I remember Barry’s son Stevie and I donning capes (ok, they were hotel towels with safety pins) and running around , pretending to be vampires. I also remember the Gibbs renting out an entire movie theater so that we could all see the premiere of the first Star Wars movie! I recall Stevie and I getting hog-tied (via masking tape) by some of the backstage folks because we were annoying them (I have a picture of this somewhere so one will be able to see it sooner or later on this page!!)
I also remember getting to sit on top of the fog machines, watching the concerts, taking pictures with my little 110 camera, and watching my dad running around taking concert shots. I remember how I tried to explain to some young girl that kept screaming “Stevie, I love you!” to me that I wasn’t Stevie, but the security guards wouldn’t let me get close enough to talk to her. So I just kept shaking my head and mouthing back “I’m not Stevie”, but she didn’t believe me.
My father had several funny stories related to other people he photographed (playing softball for Jimmy Carter, Waving to the secret service at a political convention (a long story), following the royal couple around, etc I enjoy photography but I don’t have the gift for it my father did. I’m more of a computer-type myself.
I really enjoyed your site and decided to make contact because I felt that it would be a nice way of honoring his memory if I could share his images with the people that could most appreciate them. Also I think that some of the pictures show off the Gibbs more humorous and human sides which only a few people ever really get to see and appreciate.
Roby Sherman.
My name is Carolyn Sherman wife of photojournlist Bob Sherman, we were married for 35 yrs until his sudden death on sept 24th 2002, it makes me proud to see the use of his pictures on this web sight.
I sincerely hope that all of you will enjoy them. I’m very sure that Bob would be happy to see his pictures on this web site.