While it seems like everyone’s a photographer these days, thanks to cell phone cameras and digital SLRs, especially with regards to music (go to a show and just try to count how many people are taking pictures…), the photographer-subject relationship has conversely become ever more distant, ever more transactional, with the subject no more connected to the artist than a bowl of fruit is. Famed music photographer Josh Cheuse is giving a glimpse into a more intimate time for shutterbugs with his ‘Grooving Years’ exhibit at Morrison Hotel Gallery Loft (QRO venue review), which had its private opening on Thursday, September 18th.
The subjects ranged in ages, both theirs and how long ago the photos were taken, from early Beastie Boys & Madonna to Tony Bennett’s first collaboration with Lady Gaga (the second’s resulting album is coming out later this year). That differentiated it from some other photo exhibits at Morrison this year, such as the recent photos of Jamie Hince of The Kills (QRO review) to those of The Beatles on their first visit to America (QRO review). The event was also particularly packed, despite being completely private – turnout boosted, no doubt, by the talk Cheuse had given just before at the Apple Store SoHo around the corner (not to mention the free ‘Stolen Rum’ on offer, with Coke & orange slices). Cheuse, however, was very approachable, signing copies of his new book of photos, Grooving Years (of course, he’s not a rock star who’s married to Kate Moss…).
The most photographed subject of the exhibit was Joe Strummer, the legendary leader of The Clash. From fronting ‘the only band that matters’, Strummer’s legacy has only grown, particularly after his death in 2002, cited as an inspiration by seemingly every artist from Bruce Springsteen to Lily Allen (not to mention Jesse Malin, who was in attendance at the event). He’s even a model for today’s artist-cum-advocates who might take part in a march downtown about climate change (people used to march on Washington; now, they march on Wall Street…). Cheuse directed the posthumous video of Strummer’s version of “Redemption Song”, of the making of a mural to him on 7th & A – their relationship began by cold-calling him from a payphone while still a teen. Of course, Cheuse knew Mike D of the Beastie Boys even earlier, having grown up just a few blocks away, right in Manhattan.
You can still grow up a few blocks down from the next superstar, but odds are that once he or she gets a publicist or manager, that person won’t care about whatever you’d done before this representation came onto the scene – and that’ll continue through all of the later publicists & managers. And no one will accept a cold call from a teenager – or worse, a payphone. So see someone who got in on the ground floor and managed to make it all the way to the Loft – the exhibit runs through October 11th.
