Salute to a rockin’ guitar

‘Gibson Through the Lens’, an international photography exhibition, featuring rare images of the who’s who of rock music and their guitars, is on view at Taj Connemara in the city

November 20, 2014 08:31 pm | Updated 08:31 pm IST

Angus Young picture at the Gibson Through the Lens show

Angus Young picture at the Gibson Through the Lens show

Jimi Hendrix welcomes you at Vivanta by Taj.  Eyes closed, head bowed, his iconic, hand-painted Gibson Flying V guitar in hand, lost to the magic of music flowing from it. It was a photograph never published before, buried deep in the archives of photographer Baron Wolman, the first editor of photography for the Rolling Stones magazine. And it saw the light of day only when music photography archivist Dave Brolan discovered it, and made it his leading photograph while curating ‘Gibson Through the Lens’, an exhibition that chronicles the world’s greatest rock stars with their Gibson guitars. Thus Hendrix, Dave Grohl, Jack White, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley and a host of other legends now live within the lounge walls of Taj Connemara, where the show, with over 60 images by 30 photographers, makes its home.

The germ of this exhibition’s idea was born in 2007, when Brolan was in Gibson’s London office and noticed the best of music memorabilia, from legendary musicians’ guitars to accessories, newspaper clippings and awards, strewn all over the office, but few photographs. What began as an effort to populate the office with images of Gibsons in action, has today turned into an exhibition that has travelled the world, touching London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Japan, North America and now, India. Over telephone from the U.K., Brolan says that in the year it took to curate this exhibition, all he was looking for was absolutely great photography, regardless of the artiste or guitar model. His efforts took him to key photographers worldwide, who pulled out Gibson guitar images from their body of work, resulting in hundreds of photographs, from which Brolan sifted out the final 60 of the very best.

“It was an interesting exercise for the photographers too, because it made them look at their pictures in a new light.”

The final collection features the work of greats, such as 10 images by Neal Preston, who was Led Zeppelin's official photographer through the 70s, another 10 pieces by late photographer Jim Marshall, who was the first music photographer to win a Grammy, Bob Whitaker, who followed The Beatles for years, Mick Rock, best known for his shots of Queen, and other photographers still in the business, such as Ross Halfin. While the earliest photograph is a 1957 shot of Johnny Cash, the latest reaches well into the new millennium, thus spanning 50 years of rock photography. What the exhibition encapsulates is a period when bands had photographers who followed them for days, from concert to backstage, through rehearsal rooms, hotel rooms and at home, capturing them in intimate ways and moments that their listeners could never access. “Today, you get a few seconds on stage, and that’s it. Such iconic images can never be made in this age,” says Brolan.

Today, with musicians in control of their own photography, with Instagram and Facebook feeds fulfilling coverage of action as it happens, Brolan says the role of music photography itself has changed. “How many of those selfies would you put up on a wall, as iconic photographs?” he asks, going on to add, “Musicians may chronicle their own lives, but you lose that third-person perspective of the artiste, which these photographers caught.” Even so, the relevance of music photography, and its exhibition in printed form, still thrives, says Brolan, as evidenced in the reactions audiences world over have had to this exhibition. In that particular combination of the artist, the photographer and printer, Brolan finds a lure that no online gallery of quick phone clicks carelessly skimmed through can satisfy. Back in the day, devoid of Internet or YouTube, music lovers never knew what their idols looked like unless they made it to a concert.

These photographs, printed in papers, magazines and posters, bridged the gap between listeners and musicians, with fans even imitating the guitaring styles and poses in these images.

“The resonance these rockstars have among musicians even today is found in these images. It’s quite breathtaking to see!”

The exhibition is on at Vivanta by Taj Connemara till November 22.

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