ICONOGRAPHY, AUTHENTICITY AND SWEAT

Tina Turner “Who Shot Rock & Roll?”, asks a show at the Brooklyn Museum. It’s not a bad question. You’d have to be something of a specialist to have heard of most of the photographers on display in this "Photographic History, 1955 to the Present". Yes, there’s a rather nice snap by Linda McCartney of her husband’s eyes in a rear-view mirror. But unlike most museum portraits, these are mainly pictures of people we know made by people we don’t.

The show suffers little for that. It includes some iconic shots, many of which became album covers: the nude girls climbing a rockpile that got Led Zeppelin’s "Houses of the Holy" banned in Oklahoma and Spain; Paul Simonon of the Clash swinging his bass down towards the floor like a man furiously splitting logs–the image of rock rage that would front "London Calling".

But it is actually the lesser-known pictures that make "Who Shot Rock" worth the trip. Elvis Presley, so young he looks like he would have trouble growing a beard, nonchalantly lunches with a friend at a diner shortly before astronomical fame would make such a scene impossible. A long-haired Michael Stipe of REM grins for the camera from ear to ear–something he doesn’t seem to do much anymore–as he eats with bandmates at a barbecue joint. Bob Dylan, tribune of the people, looks vacant and unconcerned in his car as the faces of fans press desperately against the glass outside.

Some photos are telling; others feel forced. An image of Kurt Cobain huddled and crying outside a show tells us something about the man. His wife, Courtney Love, writing FUCK YOU in thick marker on a Polaroid of herself, tells us mainly what Courtney Love wants us to think about her. Here is Björk enjoying some quality time in bed with her hand thrust down her pants, and we think “Isn’t that just like Björk.” Then Amy Winehouse does the same thing, only this time it feels staged. We like our rockers authentic, and many certainly try to seem so. Its an enjoyable provocation to try to sort out which is which.

Besides being genuine, the best photos in the collection are surprising too. Come for the iconography--sure, you can see the original of John Lennon in his New York City t-shirt. But stay for the fun--the shot is displayed on the contact sheet of all the other pictures from that shoot, and you can also see the pacifist jokingly putting up his dukes like a boxer. Rock isn't all noise and sweat and the urgency of youth; it's also bandmates joking with each other, bored on a bus or idly sharing a smoke. As this show reveals, you can't always judge a band by its album cover, even if that's exactly what they want you to do.

"Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present" is at the Brooklyn Museum until January 31st

~ ROBERT LANE GREENE

Picture credit: Henry Diltz (American, b. 1938). Tina Turner, Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles (detail), October 1985. Chromogenic print. © Henry Diltz