Rock and Roll Stories

Goldsmith Lynn

Description

The story of rock lives in Lynn Goldsmiths photographs. After coming of age in the Midwest in the tumultuous 1960s, she crashed the music scene in New York and emerged as one of its leading image-makers. She chronicled Bruce Springsteens passage to glory, the Rolling Stones legendary stadium tours, Michael Jacksons staggering ascent, U2s arrival in New York, and the brooding force of Bob Marley. Culture heroes like Bob Dylan and Patti Smith became frequent subjects for her lens. The range of her work is staggering.In Rock and Roll Stories, she shares the best of this work. Her commentary takes the reader into the studio, the tour bus, the concert hall, and the streets where the pictures were made, offering revealing perspectives on her subjects and herself. A greatly expanded and newly designed edition of her very successful book PhotoDiary (1995), this volume captures the story of a generations loyalty to rock and roll.

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 05 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781613125762
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

PHOTOGRAPHING KEITH RICHARDS, 1981
thanks
David Cohen, Nancy Griffin, Donna Hellman, Eric Himmel, Mac Holbert, Melissa Love, Bobby Miller, Robert Molnar, Glenn O Brien, Rachel Ruderman, Sid Schneider, Todd Stone, Elizabeth Van Itallie, Corbis, Lexar, Nikon, Mamiya, Lowepro, Chimera
Motorcycle jacket photographs courtesy Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. Jimi Hendrix photograph courtesy 1967 Baron Wolman Patti Smith photographing Lynn Goldsmith courtesy 1977 Michael Putland
Editor: Eric Himmel Designer: Elizabeth Van Itallie Production Manager: Anet Sirna-Bruder
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013935977
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0958-6
Copyright 2013 Lynn Goldsmith
Published in 2013 by Abrams, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Abrams books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [e-mail] or the address below.

115 West 18th Street New York, NY 10011 www.abramsbooks.com
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE PERSON WHO TOLD ME GETTING MARRIED AND HAVING CHILDREN WAS NOT FOR EVERY GIRL. SHE SAID, TRAVEL, MEET PEOPLE, AND LIVE, LIVE, LIVE! THANKS, MOM.
PATTI SMITH PHOTOGRAPHING ME, 1977
contents
A WOP BOP A LOO BOP A LOP BAM BOOM!
STRANGE ANGELS
STYLE
2 TO 20
BETTER THAN SEX
ON THE ROAD
PHOTO NIGHTMARES
TEEN IDOLS
GOOD PEOPLE, FRIENDS, AND LOVERS
INDEX OF SEARCHABLE TERMS
a wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!
M y illustrated autobiography, PhotoDiary , was published in 1995.
It s the story of how a female baby boomer from Middle America came to photograph so many musicians. In retrospect, I realize the title was a mistake. Bookstores didn t know if it belonged in the Photography section or the Music section. It was about my life in rock and roll, but I didn t want those words used in the name of the book because at the time, I resisted the label rock and roll photographer. When people identified me that way, I d get irritated, even though I knew it was meant to be a compliment. They envied me for meeting so many rock icons. The way I saw it, I d done a myriad of other things in my life and career, and had photographed many people other than the pop and rock icons of our time. I didn t want to be pigeonholed.
The truth was, I never really saw myself as a photographer. I used the camera as an instrument in my path as an artist. It seems odd that I couldn t allow myself a specific identification, since my work always revolved around helping others formulate their identities. I had been involved in music marketing and band management, film and television direction, I d even been what I considered to be a first: an optic-music artist, whose songs were meant to be heard and seen simultaneously-a fusion where the video was not a commercial for the music, but part of it. Sure, I used the camera as a tool, but I didn t want the tool to define the artist. I was driven by a passion to make visual images, and everything I did somehow fell into that all-encompassing category. My subjects wanted or needed to be seen in a certain way, and my job was to project that face to the world. I knew how to use clothes and makeup, backgrounds and props, to manipulate perceptions. I enhanced the confidence of my subjects by making my shooting studio a crucible of positive energy.
When I published PhotoDiary , I only knew that I wanted to share my journey as an artist who came to New York with one fifteen-dollar dress in a small suitcase, and ended up living her dreams. By collecting my images together, I wanted to bring rock and roll fans closer to their idols, and help aspiring photographers understand what it takes to be successful. I hoped that I d figure out why rock musicians were my primary subject matter, and in looking at my childhood it became clear to me why that is. I d also hoped that writing the behind-the-scenes stories would help me understand what I d learned from the people in front of my lens. However, because of my resistance to that dreaded label-rock photographer-I never felt I completely fulfilled the intention of the book. Not many of us get the chance in life for do-overs, to reexplore a subject in the fullness of time with deeper insight and perspective. I am grateful for the chance to do that here with additional photos and text. I can now proudly proclaim, Yes, I am a rock and roll photographer, and this is my rock and roll story.
I was born on February 11, 1948, in Detroit, Michigan. We lived between Seven Mile and West Outer Drive in the northwest part of the city. It was an ordinary middle-class neighborhood. We played hopscotch on the sidewalk, patty-cake and jacks on the front porch, and the boys played baseball in the street. My mom was a housewife and my dad an engineer. Dad dreamed of doing swan dives off cliffs along the coasts of Mexico. He was handsome and poetic. With the birth name of Shakespeare Oliver Goldsmith, he had to be. I believed Mom wanted to be some kind of star because she always dressed like one. Her birth name was Edythe Victoria Leader. She was very proud that Edythe was spelled with a y and that Victoria marked the fact she was born on the day World War I ended.

MY GRANDPARENTS, HANNAH AND JOSEPH LEADER

ME AT AGE 4, PRACTICING MY PROFILE POSE

MY MOM WEARS A DRESS SHE DESIGNED

DAD WORKS ON HIS SWAN DIVE
My sister, Ellen, was four years older, and to me she was a beautiful princess. Delicate, with blond hair and blue eyes, she was always clean. I had dark brown hair, green eyes, and was always dirty. They called me Butterball because I d grab any available stick of butter and shove it into my mouth. Needless to say, I was chubby. Over my right eye hung a purple blood clot. Basically, I used my left eye to see the world around me. I knew there was something wrong with the way I looked because when my dad took my picture, he d tell me to turn profile.
At the age of four, I was sent to overnight summer camp with my sister. I was the youngest kid there. Every night I d cry because I missed my mom. The cabin counselor would carry me out of my bunk into a rocking chair, where she d sing me to sleep. Her voice took away my loneliness, filling the void with love songs. This might have been the first connection I made to music melting away my fears. When I returned home at the end of the summer, I remember running upstairs to look for my dad. He was nowhere to be found. I opened up his closet. It was empty. My mom gently informed me they had gotten divorced. It was arranged for Ellen and me to spend weekends with him at his new home in another part of Detroit.

ELLEN AND ME

ME AT CAMP TANUGA

WITH OUR DAD, MY FACE CAREFULLY TURNED AWAY FROM THE CAMERA TO HIDE THE HEMANGIOMA OVER MY EYE
T hat fall I entered kindergarten at the local public school, MacDowell Elementary. I d had radium treatment for the blood clot over my eye, so now I just had a big space in my eyebrow. I d lost my appetite after Dad left and had become so skinny kids called me Lynn the Pin. Like half of the kids in school, I was white and Jewish. The other half was black and Christian. No one else in my class had divorced parents. Sometimes I felt ashamed of it.
Mom got a job to support us. Ellen and I now spent more time with my grandparents, who lived about six miles away in the Highland Park area. It was the house my mother was born in. I would hear them talking about how black people were moving into the neighborhood. I never thought America was anything but black and white. When I came home from school, my nanny, Shirlee, who was black, would turn on the radio and dance with me. I was seven years old when I heard Fats Domino s All by Myself. Something connected. When I heard Little Richard s Tutti Frutti, something ignited. I d park myself in front of my mom s dressing mirror and sing into it for hours. I really loved Little Richard. Around the time I turned eight he released Long Tall Sally, and I went nuts. As soon as Little Richard hit the first note, I d run as fast as I could in circles through the house. From the hallway to the kitchen to the den to the living room and back to the hallway, round and round. When I stopped, breathless, I d slam my head against the wall to the beat of the song. You might say I was the first headbanger. Mom would scream at me to stop. I promised I would if she d buy me the record and a record player. Not having a father around made it easier to get what I wanted. The big disappointment was that the record player was put in her bedroom. This meant I had to ask permission to use it. When I look back, I think she might have put it in her bedroom because she wanted to listen to music before she went to sleep, but at the time I was sure she kept it there so she could control me.
As soon as I got home from school, I d run upstairs to Mom s room and put on my 45s. I d gotten her to buy Blueberry Hill by Fats, Speedoo by the Cadillacs, Earth Angel by the Penguins, and A Thousand Miles Away by the Heartbeats. It didn t bother me so much anymore that my sister didn t want to play with me when she had friends around, because I had my music. I d dance with the closet doorknob to Get a Job, Book of Love, and Searchin . Mom bought me a red-and-black vinyl case to keep my 45 collection together. When I opened it, Elvis s newest single, Love Me Tender, was inside. She d hum that song and I d know we understood each other in a special way.
in that moment, i knew for certain magic existed.
On the weekends with Dad, Ellen and I spent time playing with his train set and he d take pictures of us. Sometimes he d disappear into a room be