The visual part of rock ’n’ roll
Rock ’n’ roll was never just about music. It was also about the way Jimi Hendrix held a guitar and the look in his eyes when he set it ablaze. Its essence could be found in the swirl of a mosh pit, in the epic pompadour of James Brown, in the provocative finery of Madonna and KISS.
For this, fans have depended on the permanent record captured by generations of rock photography, from the gorgeous black-and-white reportage by Alfred Wertheimer of a young Elvis Presley on the road to the vivid portraits of Kurt Cobain and Katy Perry by Mark Seliger for the cover of Rolling Stone.
That legacy is celebrated in “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present,” opening June 23 and running through Oct. 7 at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City. The show will feature 166 prints gathered from the last half-century of rock, soul and hip-hop, illustrating an essential partnership between the musical and the visual.
“Like any revolution, it had to be recorded to be believed,” says curator Gail Buckland, who created “Who Shot Rock” for the Brooklyn Museum and wrote the accompanying book. “Many photographers speak about being on the forefront, reporting back about what was happened in the world — it was revolutionary, and it was brilliant, and it was unifying.”
At the Annenberg, the walls and digital screens will be crowded with scenes from those front lines: Barry Feinstein’s images of a young Bob Dylan strolling the cobblestones of Liverpool, Danny Clinch’s Polaroid of a barechested Tupac Shakur, Storm Thorgerson’s surreal album covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Mars Volta.
“With a musician there’s definitely a level of collaboration,” says Seliger. “There are very few out there that would let you change who they are, nor would you want to.”
In the late 1960s, Lynn Goldsmith began shooting musicians and has captured classic images of Van Halen, Bob Marley and the Beastie Boys while expanding into other genres. “I used to bristle when people called me a rock ’n’ roll photographer: ‘Excuse me, I shoot for National Geographic, I’ve done covers for Sports Illustrated, I’ve done movie posters,’” she recalls. “It wasn’t until I was 50 that I embraced it, because it seemed to be so youthful!”