50 YEARS OF ROCK AND ROLL PHOTOGRAPHY at Analogue Gallery (673 Queen West), to November 1. 416-901-8001. Rating: NNN
Photography still has a big role to play in the music biz. Look at the recent New York Times Magazine controversy: words may have portrayed M.I.A. as a spoiled, slogan-spouting fashionista, but accompanying photos of a fearless wild woman swinging high over Manhattan belied that characterization.
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Lucia Graca’s six-month-old Analogue Gallery showcases music photography. Currently on the walls, mostly black-and-white prints from the 60s to the present by noted photographers like Barrie Wentzell, Ray Stevenson and Allan Ballard depict rockers in candid shots and in performance. Many come from the photo agency Rockarchive.
The Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Bowie, Clapton and others appear in their glory days. Philip Townsend’s amusing 1963 photo shows the impossibly clean-cut and fresh-faced Stones in matching barbershop-quartetish jackets.
Album cover images include an outtake from Don Hunstein’s shoot for Dylan’s Freewheelin’ and Howard Barlow’s Ramones in performance that graced Live At The New York Palladium. Oasis and Pete Doherty are among the more recent subjects.
Though these photos’ appeal is more about their famous subjects than their aesthetic originality, some qualify as interesting images in their own right. Gallery owner Graca’s fish-eye views of full and empty venues in London and Toronto conjure memories of concerts past.
Rockarchive founder Jill Furmanovsky’s sepia portrait of Tom Waits on a small-town street recalls mid-century Dust Bowl photography.
The gallery replaces images as they sell with others from its collection, and is building its stock of contemporary Canadian musicians. Analogue plans to hang jazz artists during the Toronto Jazz Festival and Bob Marley for Caribana.
Prices are reasonable for limited-edition prints. Stop by on your way to NXNE and you may decide to build an art collection.
art@nowtoronto.com
