This summer, the Birmingham Museum of Art presents Who Shot Rock & Roll, the first major museum exhibition on rock & roll to put photographers in the foreground, acknowledging their creative and collaborative role in the history of rock music.
From its earliest days, rock & roll was captured in photographs that personalized, and frequently eroticized, the musicians, creating a visual identity for the music. The photographers were handmaidens to the rock & roll revolution, and their images communicate the social and cultural transformations that rock has fostered since the 1950s.
The exhibition is in six sections: rare and revealing images taken behind the scenes; snapshots of young musicians at the beginnings of their careers; exhilarating photographs of live performances that display the energy, passion, style, and sex appeal of the musicians on stage; powerful images of the crowds and fans that are often evocative of history paintings; portraits revealing the soul and creativity, rather than the surface and celebrity, of the musicians; and conceptual images and album covers highlighting the collaborative efforts between the image makers and the musicians.
Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present is organized by the Brooklyn Museum with guest curator Gail Buckland.
General admission to the exhibit is $10 a head, not much considering all the goosebumps you'll accrue as you view.
FIRST THURSDAYS ROCKUMENTARY SERIES AUGUST 4 and SEPTEMBER 1 // FREE
The Museum is partnering with the experts at Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival to bring you a series of the "baddest rock-and-roll documentaries ever produced". Not bad.
