UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Todd Herman
Chief Curator and Curator of European Art
That rock and roll music (or pop, hip
hop, country, alternative, indie, etc.) has
a handmaiden in photography is not
a surprise to anyone living in the 21st
century. In today’s world of paparazzi, a
24/7 news cycle, YouTube, the web, and
100+ television channels that bring into
our living rooms the accomplishments
(but mostly foibles) of our celebrities, it
can be dif?cult to remember a time when
there existed a curtain—however sheer—
that separated us from them. This was
particularly true in the world of popular
music. Before MTV sprang onto the scene
in 1981, it was not unusual for the fan
of a rock group to have little or no idea
what the musicians actually looked like
or how they performed on stage. Our
image of these artists was largely based on
an album cover photo or poster—staged
and manipulated images to appeal to fans
and create an “image” for the band. Our
inclusion in the sphere of rock and roll
was therefore equally reliant on the music
and photographic images.
The exhibition Who Shot Rock and
Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to
the Present (organized by the Brooklyn
Museum of Art) traces the integral role
that photography played in shaping
and transmitting the musical and social
movement that was and is rock and
roll music. After all, it was the visual
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