SPIN

Not many rock photographers get unfettered access to their subjects like Annie Leibovitz or Henry Diltz did with the Rolling Stones or Neil Young in the '70s. Autumn de Wilde is the exception. Over the last decade, the photographer has trailed everyone from Beck and Elliott Smith to the White Stripes, capturing intimate, documentary-style pics of the artists hard at work.

In her stunning new book Death Cab for Cutie, de Wilde offers a comprehensive look at Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla, Nick Harmer, and Jason McGerr on tour and recording their 2005 major label debut Plans. De Wilde says she approached the band about trailing them in an attempt to recreate the documentary vibe of photographers like Leibovitz.

"Music fans can feel like they're best friends with artists like Dylan in the '60s because there are so many photos of them," says de Wilde. "It's really important to document these artists long-term — certain parts of these artists go away forever if you don't capture them in photos."

START PHOTO GALLERY >>>

Death Cab at a 2003 show in Seattle for their Transatlanticism tour — one of the first gigs where de Wilde photographed the band. "It was so cool that they let me just hang out on the stage with them while they were playing," she says.

De Wilde (right) with Gibbard on Death Cab's tour bus. "Chris [Walla] took this picture and he's a great photographer," says de Wilde. "We bonded over photography. He's an information hound — if he wants to know something, he'll ask you lots of questions about it, so we'd talk alot about Polaroid photography, which I was very much into."

Spoon frontman Britt Daniel (left) hangs with Harmer backstage at a Death Cab show.

Gibbard hydrates backstage at a 2003 show in Toronto.

In 2005 De Wilde followed the band to Long View Farm Studios in North Brookville, Massachussetts, where they recorded their major label debut Plans. "It was amazing trust on their part," says de Wilde. "I was so grateful that they would potentially let me interfere with the very complex, expensive process working on a record — and a psychological one too."

"It felt like being in an M.C. Escher drawing or something," says de Wilde of the studio where Death Cab cut Plans. "It felt like there were four different ways to get somewhere, and you'd have to go through the horse barn to get up into the studio. It was crazy, but cool, and I think that reflected in the music."

Gibbard rehearsing in the studio.

Gibbard at a 2003 Seattle gig.

"Death Cab have a circle of songwriter friends that all support each other, and they're all interested in each other's work," says de Wilde. "Some bands don't give a shit about other people's music and it was nice to see them so interested in what was happening within their scene, and outside it."

One afternoon while recording Plans, Death Cab picked up some costumes and hit a snowy field to engage in some medieval-style live action role-playing. "It was the middle of winter and we happened to pass by this megastore — so of course we went in!" says de Wilde. "We'd always go off on little adventures like that."

Walla catches up on his sleep in the studio. "When he produces a Death Cab record, he definitely checks himself into the Rabbit Hole Hotel," says de Wilde. "He has bread and water and he doesn't leave. That's how he works."

Death Cab's frontman on the group's tour bus with Stars' singer Amy Millan, who opened for the guys on tour. "I like this photo because it humanizes the band but it doesn't destroy your fantasy of what they are," says de Wilde.

Death Cab live at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom in 2005. "I'm so smitten by seeing a band sweat from the back and then seeing how they look when they turn away from the audience," says de Wilde. "It's such a lovely way to photograph a band."