Collections Winter 2011 Volume 86 | Page 4

Above: Allan Tannenbaum John and Yoko in Bed,
November 21, 1980 pigment based print Image: 10 x 13
in. (25.4 x 33 cm) Sheet: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm) Credit
Line: Allan Tannenbaum from “John and Yoko: A New York
Love Story” © Allan Tannenbaum
Below: William “PoPsie” Randolph Jimi Hendrix and Wilson
Pickett, Prelude Club, Atlantic Records release party., May 5,
1966 100 year archival paper 20 x 20 in. (50.8 x 50.8 cm)
Credit Line: Michael Randolph, Executor to the Estate of:
William “PoPsie” Randolph

Opposite page: Barry Feinstein Fans Looking in Limousine,
London, taken 1966, printed 2009 Gelatin silver print 16 x
20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm) Credit Line:
©BarryFeinsteinphotography.com

Likewise, it was the Beatles’ haircuts that
consistently drew criticism and helped
rank them among the counterculture. The
visual aspects of music—haircuts, fashion,
and attitude—are the aspects that are
reproducible for fans everywhere—you can
look like a rock and roll musician even if
you don’t sound like one. It is this visual
expression that allows us to demonstrate
our solidarity and become a part of the
movement and culture of music. As curator
Gail Buckland writes in the exhibition
catalogue, “The music alone cannot convey
the rebellion, liberation, ecstasy, and group
dynamic that is rock. The music needs
images to communicate its message of
freedom and personal reinvention. After
the music stops, the still image remains,
a conduit for the electricity that is rock
and roll.” Rock music is experiential. We
can listen to our cds, iPods (and dare I say
albums), but attending a concert is a higher
level of experiencing that same music. Rock
music has always been, at least in part,
about performance, attitude and style.
The photographers in this exhibition
capture the side of rock and roll that the
music alone does not convey. It can be
raw, intoxicating, and erotic but also quiet,
sweet and poignant. There is nostalgia
in these images—a young Jimi Hendrix
performing with Wilson Pickett, Bill Haley
performing in Paris, Janis Joplin belting
out a song with all of her vigor as only
she can—and more recent remembrances
such as R.E.M. at Walter’s Bar-B-Que
in Athens, GA, and Andreas Gursky’s
enormous photograph of Madonna’s 2001
concert in Los Angeles which beautifully
illustrates the power of a single performer
on stage to manipulate a mass of crowd
energy. There are iconic images—Johnny
Cash performing at San Quinten prison,
Danny Clinch’s gritty photograph of Tupac
Shakur, Ian Tilton’s moving image of Kurt
Cobain crying after walking off the stage
in Seattle—as well as rare photographs
that offer a glimpse of the artist’s private

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