VoxPhotographs Weblog

I know it’s the last day for BACKSTAGE PASS, Rock & Roll Photography exhibit to be viewed at the Portland Museum of Art. I had trouble getting over to see it the first time, and even more trouble the second. Some of that trouble was lack of time, being away, etc… but some of it was reluctance. Popular culture and “stars”  just bore me silly.

Bob Dylan, Royal Albert Hall, 1966 © Barry Feinstein

(This Feinstein shot is my favorite portrait in the exhibit. Elsewhere online it’s called Soundcheck, Albert Hall.)

I think the staff and Curators at the Museum won’t be forgetting this exhibit any time soon, though. Public response to it has been phenomenal. February was the most attended and most successful February the Museum has ever seen. For that I am thrilled. The reviews don’t focus much on the photography or photographers, but on the culture, the groups, the stars and why shouldn’t that be the focus? That’s what the exhibit is about. Some reviewers seem to be  making the discovery for the first time that history for the last 150 years IS photographs, IS the visual recording of events and for that I’m grateful they are finally enlightened.

But the second time I went back – late last week – I wanted to know if there was any real art in the exhibit. In amongst the crotch-grabbing excess and self-absorbed exhibitionism, there were about 15 gems and I won’t forget them anytime soon. To say this is an exhibit of candid shots and private moments is wishful thinking for the most part. Most of the photographs in the exhibit, even though they didn’t capture ON stage presence, were definitely  unabashed publicity stunts and poses for these stars.

Chuck Berry, Atlanta, 1964 © Jean-Marie Périer

Half of the finest images as far as memorable and brilliant portraiture was concerned, were in color. Very little of this exhibit is in color, so I double-checked my notes before I left; yes, 8 out of the 16 truly brilliant shots in the exhibit were color. Almost all of the 16 portraits I noted were posed, careful photographic studies of people. If you didn’t know who these stars were, it wouldn’t have mattered. The images were beyond gorgeous. This is what I went back to hunt down in that jungle of hedonism.

Take Jean-Marie Périer’s images for example. Here is a guy who knew how to shoot, how to capture character. His image of Chuck Berry, Atlanta, 1964, (above) was something that made me go very still, regardless of the swirling crowds. I went back to study it four times during last week’s visit. Two more of his memorable images in this exhibit are below.

François Hardy, Paris, Nov.1962 © Jean-Marie Périer

John Lennon, Paris, 1965 © Jean-Marie Périer

Janis Joplin, 1968 © Art Kane

Art Kane’s bold, arresting image of Janis Joplin was color, and here’s another of Kane’s remarkable images – this one of Louis Armstrong – this latter image was not included in the Portland Museum of Art Backstage Pass exhibit…but it’s so perfect I included it anyway.

Louis Armstrong, 1959 Esquire Magazine © Art Kane

Baron Wolman’s great color photograph of Joni Mitchell in 1968 – comfortable and at ease at home in Laurel Canyon – says it all:

Joni Mitchell, 1968 © Baron Wolman

Linden tells me Joni Mitchell started smoking at age 9, and became a musician to get cash to buy cigarettes! And here’s Wolman’s famous image of Johnny Cash at the Circle Star Theatre in 1967. Read about it here.

Johnny Cash Backstage at the Circle Star Theatre, Redwood City, CA, 1967 © Baron Wolman

Philip Townsend’s iconic image of the early Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham holding up a photo of the original five musicans (in suits!) is on the cover of the exhibition catalog and one of my favorites in the exhibit…the composition is great, Oldham has just the right stance to make this memorable.

Andrew Loog Oldham, 1963 © Philip Townsend

An antidote to all the “love me, look at me” stuff is the great image by Ian Tilton of Kurt Cobain – “Kurt Crying, Seattle, 1990″ (click here to read about this shot – it’s interesting):

Kurt Crying, Seattle, 1990 © Ian Tilton

A simply beautiful portrait is William Claxton’s image of Tony Bennett in 1958. This is straightforward presentation, but from a master of the lens. Google Claxton to see more of his work – he deserves your time.

Tony Bennett, Hollywood, 1958 © William Claxton

Claxton’s unforgettable image of John Coltrane at the Guggenheim:

John Coltrane at the Guggenheim, NYC, 1960 © William Claxton

I wanted to go around the exhibit and pull all the brilliant portraits and re-hang them separately from all the other stuff. I longed to do it. I pictured myself doing it. And also pictured taking a very immediate, escorted trip to the Curator’s office to be expelled from the Museum permanently.

Sinéad O’Connor, NYC, 1988 © Laura Levine

But here they all are in this blog posting, so I’ve been able to make a mini-exhibit of my own. Feinstein, Périer, Wolman, Kane, Townsend, Tilton, Claxton and Levine. Worth exploring, every one of them. And I hope you will agree, just from looking here, that an exhibit of these images would have been art. More, please.