A major new photography exhibit is built around the idea that the eyes are just as important as the ears for appreciating and understanding rock ‘n' roll. The Brooklyn Museum's sprawling show “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present” opened Friday as a study in the contrasts that run through the rock music subculture. Nearly 200 photographs, videos, album covers and slide shows, from multi-panel images of Jimi Hendrix to Amy Arbus' simple gelatin print of Madonna walking down a Manhattan street in 1983, give the unsung visual aspect of more than 50 years of rock music history its due. Chronicling such events as Elvis Presley's first album cover and Amy Winehouse's wedding day in 2007, the exhibit runs through January at the museum, New York City's second-largest. The early days section includes the rarely seen first group photo of the Rolling Stones, shot outside London's Australia Pub in 1963 just days after they had signed with a manager. Told to look “mean and nasty,” by today's standards the lads appear sweet and harmless. One highlight of the portraits area is a set of Richard Avedon's individual shots of The Beatles from 1967. A 1960 photo depicts “The Fab Four” in Hamburg, although they were then five, and there was no Ringo. More than 100 photographers are represented including Diane Arbus, Annie Leibovitz and Linda McCartney, documenting the art and lives of musicians such as Blondie, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Grace Jones, Kurt Cobain, Tina Turner, Marianne Faithfull, Patti Smith and Chuck Berry.
