..
It seems like everyone wants to be a rock star. Rock stardom symbolizes power, adoration, rebelliousness, individuality with impunity, and really cool clothes. But I wonder if the myth of the rock star would loom as large if not for rock photographers, who harnessed the electric appeal of these performers and their lives and ignited in so many of us the desire to be just like them.
"Who Shot Rock& Roll," published by Knopf.
Well, rock photographers are getting their due at last, thanks to a major exhibition opening tomorrow at the Brooklyn Museum. “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present” features the work of veteran photographers (such as Mick Rock, Lynn Goldsmith, Henry Diltz, Jim Marshall, Roberta Bayley, Stephanie Chernikowski, and Mark Seliger), as well as up-and-comers like Justin Borucki. Daily News music critic Jim Farber interviewed curator Gail Buckland about the show for a feature published in his paper last week. And Knopf has published a companion book.
If you’re a member of the museum, or want to sign up today, get yourself over to the members-only preview tonight—Blondie’s performing.
…
One of the photos in the exhibition is this 1988 portrait of Axl Rose by Timothy White:
…
Axl Rose, Asbury Park, New Jersey, 1988. Photograph by Timothy White.
…
What’s Axl preparing to flick, you ask? A cockroach. I called Timothy yesterday to ask him about the photo, and he explained that he’d taken the band (the band being Guns N’ Roses, of course) to a biker bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in the wee small hours of the morning. “All these people were in there, all fucked up, and it just became this melee,” Timothy said. “I remember myself standing on the pool table screaming, “People! People!” And trying to get their fucking attention. I was just this skinny kid with all these lunatics. Axl was sitting on the table, and a roach crawled by. He reached forward with his finger to flick it at me, and I took the picture.”
…
