Synopses & Reviews
For 40 years, Bob Gruenand#8217;s name has been synonymous with rock and roll. From taking early photos on tour with Ike and Tina Turner, to capturing the early CBGB/Maxand#8217;s Kansas City scene to covering current stadium rockers such as Green Day, Gruen has always been at the right place at the right timeand#8212;and heand#8217;s always gotten the shot. In this lavish monograph, Gruen has curated his favorite photographs from his career, with intimate captions and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Featuring such illustrious acts as the Clash, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, Ramones, and more, and including an introduction by the legendary Debbie Harry of Blondie, this collection is a must-have for all fans of rock and roll.
Praise for Rock Seen:
and#8220;Rock Seen offers a disarmingly natural look at icons like Blondie and Cher before the era of the posed rock-star portrait kicked in.and#8221;
and#8212;Entertainment Weekly
and#8220;Rock Seen . . . hits the high points on and off the stage in rockand#8217;s past four decades.and#8221;
and#160;and#8212;USA Today
and#8220;Go backstage with 40 yearsand#8217; worth of rock-and-roll images from the legendary lens of Bob Gruen, who was once John Lennonand#8217;s personal photographer. From over-the-top action shots of Elton Johnand#8217;s acrobatics to private pics of Lennon and Yoko in bed with baby Sean to boozy plane rides with the Sex Pistols, the glossy pages act as your VIP pass to the rock-star lifestyle youand#8217;ve dreamed of.and#8221;
and#8212;Marie Claire
and#8220;The official monograph of rock and rolland#8217;s most famous photographer, Rock Seen is a must-have for all rock fans.and#8221;
and#8212;RollingStone.comand#160;
and#8220;Gruen had a front-row seat to the rise of many rock legends [from] Elton John to Green Day.and#8221;
and#8212;New York Post
and#8220;If you want to give the gift of great music photos, you honestly cannot do better than these thrilling images from Bob Gruenand#8217;s forty-year-long career as one of rockand#8217;s iconic photographersand#8221;and#160;
and#8212;Creative Loafing
and#8220;It all came flooding back when I opened Bob Gruenand#8217;s beautiful new book, Rock Seen, a sparkling collage of live concert shots and portraits from the last forty years.and#8221;and#160;
and#8212;Irish Echo
Synopsis
More than two hundred spectacular photographs, sensual, luminous, frenzied, true, from 1955 to the present, that catch and define the energy, intoxication, rebellion, and magic of rock and roll; the first book to explore the photographs and the photographers who captured rocks message of freedom and personal reinvention—and to examine the effect of their pictures on the musicians, the fans, and the culture itself.
The only music photographers whose names are well known are those who themselves have become celebrities. But many of the images that have shaped our consciousness and desire were made by photographers whose names are unfamiliar. Here are Elvis in 1956—not yet mythic but beautiful, tender, vulnerable, sexy, photographed by Alfred Wertheimer . . . Bob Dylan and his girlfriend on a snowy Greenwich Village street, by Don Hunstein . . . John Lennon in a sleeveless New York City T-shirt, by Bob Gruen . . . Jimi Hendrix, by Gered Mankowitz, a photograph that became a poster and was hung on the walls of millions of bedrooms and college dorms . . .
For the first time, the work of these talented men and women is brought into the pantheon; we see the musicians they photographed and how the images gave rock and roll its visual identity.
To bring together these images, Gail Buckland, acclaimed photographic editor, curator, and scholar, looked through the archives of one hundred photographers, selecting pictures not on the basis of the usual suspects, but on the power of the images themselves, often picking an image a photographer didnt even remember he or she had taken.
Buckland writes about the photographers, their influences, their relationships with their subjects, how they took the images, how they saw what they saw and captured what they captured: the spirit and essence of rock.
A revelation of an art form whose iconic images changed the world as we knew it.
Synopsis
More than 200 spectacular photographs catch and define the energy, intoxication, rebellion, and magic of rock and roll. This work explores the photographs and the photographers who captured rock's message of freedom and personal reinvention.
About the Author
Gail Buckland has written and collaborated on eleven books of photographic history, including Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography, The Magic Image (with Cecil Beaton), and The American Century (by Harold Evans). She is former curator of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, professor of the history of photography at the Cooper Union, and guest curator at many American museums. She lives in Warwick, New York, and New York City.