Graham Nash Curates Rock And Roll Photographs

Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock ‘n’ Roll Photographs Selected by Graham Nash is an exhibit of iconic images. The exhibition, organized by Experience Music Project, showcases some of the most memorable photography in the history of popular music, chosen by Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills & Nash) who now lives on Kauai. As guest curator, Graham Nash, brings a rich musical history and keen eye to an exhibition of rock ‘n’ roll images taken by the world’s greatest music photographers, including Anton Corbijn, Annie Leibovitz, Jim Marshall, Neal Preston, Mick Rock, Francesco Scavullo, as well as Graham himself.

This astounding collection of some of the most famous rock ‘n’ roll photos ever taken includes a naked John Lennon in bed hugging Yoko, taken by Annie Leibovitz on Dec. 8, 1980, just hours before Lennon was shot and killed. It includes Janis Joplin slumped on a backstage couch, clutching a bottle of Southern Comfort. It includes Johnny Cash getting ready to sing for prisoners at San Quentin in 1969, and when asked “Hey, John, you got a word for the warden?” giving a defiant finger gesture.

The exhibit also shows a young Elvis reaching out to girls in the audience in 1956 when singing at a Mississippi state fair. And Pete Townshend of The Who making his trademark leap in the air at 1982 show. And a smirking Jerry Lee Lewis in London in 1958. Nash himself has four photos in the exhibit. His favorite is a close-up, silhouette he took of Johnny Cash, offstage, in Nashville in June of 1969. You cannot see any details, just the outlines. But it is Cash, unmistakably. “This really, to me, is the man in black,” writes Nash.

In the photo above at the exhibit (by Alan Berner), Graham reflects on and is reflected in his 1969 photograph of Johnny Cash in Nashville taken when Nash accompanied Joni Mitchell to her appearance on Cash’s TV show. Taking Aim is on exhibit at Experience Music Project, 325 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle from Feb. 6 through May 23. Graham says he jumped at the chance to show through the exhibit’s photos “what is so difficult to put into words: how the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll is mainly an attitude, an attitude of ‘get out of my way. I have something to say here.’ “