http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/11/rock-flash-graham-nash-spearheads-unforgettable-ph/
By George Varga
June 11, 2010
From Aretha Franklin and Bob Marley to Ray Charles and Kurt Cobain,
"Taking Aim Unforgettable Rock 'n' Roll Photographs" boasts
riveting color and black-and-white images of several generations of
iconic artists in action and in repose. They were taken by such
leading music photographers as Anton Corbijn, Henry Diltz and Lynn Goldsmith.
But it is a shot of a complete unknown, then and now, that most
excites two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Graham Nash,
himself a noted photographer. He selected nearly all the pictures in
this handsome, 160-page book and played a key role in curating the
"Taking Aim" exhibit, which opens tomorrow at Balboa Park's Museum of
Photographic Arts (MOPA) and runs through Sept. 26.
Taken in 1972 by Mick Rock, the photo that enthralled Nash captures a
boy of perhaps 10 on a rundown playground in a working-class London
neighborhood. The boy's left hand holds a homemade guitar, fashioned
out of cardboard, a thin piece of wood and pieces of yarn in place of
a guitar strap and strings. His right hand points triumphantly to the sky.
Mouth open, eyes closed, the boy appears to be in a state of rock 'n'
roll euphoria, even though no one else can hear the power-chord
surging through his mind. The photo is the second image in the book,
right after a classic shot of Jimi Hendrix striking a similar pose at
the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
"That kid is us!" Nash, a native of England, said. "Everybody I know
did that, including me. I made a plywood guitar when I was his age,
painted it red and stood in front of my mirror, practicing my Elvis
moves. When I saw that image of the kid, I thought: 'Wouldn't it be
great if that's how the journey of this book started with Jimi
Hendrix and the kid and then have it end with a shot of Neil driving home?' "
The "Elvis" in this case is Presley, not Costello, the latter of whom
is pictured on "Taking Aim's" cover. "Neil" is, of course, Neil
Young, Nash's on-again/off-again musical partner since Young joined
Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969.
Shot from at least 50 feet away, the two-page photo of Young was
taken in 1988 at his Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California,
following a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young benefit concert for a nearby
school. A silhouetted Young is barely visible through the rear window
of the vintage English car he is driving. ("It's a Jensen," Nash
said. "I saw them all the time growing up, but my family never owned
a car. We were too poor.")
Pop music has made Nash wealthy, famous and -- it was announced
Friday -- the recipient of an Order of the British Empire from Queen
Elizabeth II. He was drawn to photography as a kid, even before
music, and his reputation in both worlds is formidable.
"Besides being a very talented photographer, Graham is a leading
collector of photographs and photography books who has also led the
charge for the digital photo print making styles we now accept
today," said Deborah Klochko, MOPA's executive director. She was a
consultant on "Taking Aim," which was spearheaded by Seattle's
Experience Music Project (EMP) museum and published by Chronicle Books.
"Graham's company, Nash Editions, was doing a lot of computer
printing before it became common in the photography world," Klochko
noted. "And he has an amazing eye, which is why this exhibition is so
exciting."
Nash's enthusiasm for photography was immediately evident during an
interview at downtown's U.S. Grant Hotel, where he was staying during
Crosby, Still's & Nash's recent two-day tour stop at Humphrey's
Concerts by the Bay.
As he posed for shots in and outside the Grant, Nash armed with his
own digital camera was in constant conversation with Union-Tribune
photographer Earnie Grafton about the lenses, angles and lighting
being used to capture the famous musician.
"I have a T-shirt that says: What happens in Vegas gets Photoshopped
in Vegas," said Nash, who looks at least a decade younger than his 67 years.
The photos in "Taking Aim" span five decades, from a 1956 shot of
Elvis Presley eating breakfast in a Virginia hotel to Annie
Leibovitz's meticulously crafted 2001 portraits of Emmylou Harris and
Willie Nelson.
"There were close to 20,000 images we considered and I couldn't get
to all of them," said Nash, whose own work was featured in "Eye to
Eye: The Photographs of Graham Nash," a 2006 exhibition at MOPA.
"But the process was a really simple one: 'What would I like to see
if I went to a show of rock 'n' roll photography?' (It's) through my
eyes, not only as a musician but as a photographer, because I've been
making images longer than I've been making music. The main thing I
love about this show is the energy in the majority of these
photographs just pours off the page."
Some of the photos are as iconic as their subjects, be it The Beatles
walking toward the stage at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in 1966,
or Janis Joplin, alone in her dressing room, cradling a bottle of
whiskey. Other images offer surprises, from a rare picture of Ray
Charles playing saxophone on stage to a previously unpublished 1965
concert shot of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, taken from behind by Daniel
Kramer. Baez appears to be bowing her head in homage to Dylan, who
was then eclipsing her stardom.
"It's an unbelievable shot by Daniel," Nash said. "Not only is it
beautiful, but that one photo defines the relationship between Bob
and Joan better than I've ever seen written in words."
With the exception of a studio portrait of rap star Notorious B.I.G.,
who was murdered in 1997, "Taking Aim" does not focus on hip-hop or
dance-pop. No Beyoncé, no Kanye West. Why not?
"Apart from the great Neko Case, who is in the book, I wanted each
image to be of familiar people," Nash said. "Quite frankly, I don't
know what Kanye West looks like or how long he will be here. Will he
be here in another 10 minutes, or two years, or 10? It's an
interesting criticism and I can understand it, but this was my
choice. I'm not crazy about Kanye and I've never seen a great shot of him."
--
George Varga: (619) 293-2253; george.varga@uniontrib.com
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