Also Tonight: Graham Nash + Taking Aim at EMP, and the Intangible Candor of Music Photography

Graham Nash

This self-portrait is part of EMP's "Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock 'n' Roll Photographs", curated by Graham Nash, who is being interviewed at EMP tonight at 7 p.m.

There was an exhibit at EMP ... must have been seven or eight years ago, that featured a lot of early Beatles, Elvis, and Dylan photos. When I was talking to EMP curator Jasen Emmons about Taking Aim, he and I reminisced about that show a bit, and I started to remember specific things that the photographers said about the photos in the audio guide.

One photog talked about his picture of Elvis sitting on a couch with his shirt off, with no care that he had a boil on his back. Somehow, hearing this photog talking about Elvis being so uninhibited that he didn't mind being shot with a noticeable blemish like that gave me a new impression of the King (though I'm certainly no expert). How is it that a picture of a person sitting on the couch could say so much!?

There was another photo of Dylan, taken from backstage. It's of Dylan turning his head just enough to look back and let the spotlight hit the side of his face just right. The photog commented that he thought Dylan may have given him that picture. Dylan giving him a picture? We think of Dylan as being so personal, so reclusive. And here is thinking about a photographer while he's on stage? Whether he's right or not, I think it speaks volumes about the kind of person Dylan is, compared to the mystique he's been able to perpetuate.

There's something about a good music photograph--and I'd argue a live one, rather than in the studio--that can tell more about an artist than an article can. It's impossible to put your finger on, but you certainly know it when you see it done well.