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| © Andy Summers |
Stewart Copeland and Sting "dining out" on tour.
Click photo for more images of the books. |
Is there an essential connection between rock and roll and photography?
Candid portraits are often a function of access and chemistry. Such is the case with Road Work: Rock & Roll Turned Inside Out (Hal Leonard, $30), by Tom Wright. A close friend of the Who, Wright photographed much of that groups glamour and excess; he also toured with the Rolling Stones, Faces, Led Zeppelin, and the Eagles, 35mm SLR in tow, recording madcap moments and trenchant observations.
A more focused sense of intimacy underlies Patti Smith: American Artist (Insight Editions, $40), by Frank Stefanko, who befriended Smith long before she became punk's poet laureate. His book reveals Smith's complexity, with glimpses of a charismatic but enigmatic star in the making.
For an insider's view of rock stardom, Andy Summers mines his photo trove from his peak years as guitarist for the Police in I'll Be Watching You: Inside the Police 1980-83 (Taschen, $400). This limited-edition tome has fly-on-the-wall views of touring mayhem and tedium, showing the sparks and grind of being in such a creative, yet volatile, band.
An alternative view of the same group is in The Police, 1978 to 1983 (Little Brown, $30), by photographer Lynn Goldsmith, who befriended the trio and shot portraits and live scenes as the band conquered America.
From another side of the lens, Lou Reed's New York (Steidl, $50), brings vivid skies and dancing light patterns into cityscapes, capturing fleeting beauty with a rhythmic flow and suggesting that sound, light, and vision are all part of a continuum.
Read our Q&A with Reed on the next page.
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