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COLORADO SPRINGS - Sure, access is everything.
But sensitivity and humanity can get a photographer further than press credentials or backstage passes. And these are characteristics that Linda McCartney possessed in spades.
The enigmatic work of a photographer who is perhaps better known for her marriage to Paul than for her professional achievements is on display through April 10 at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
"Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of an Era" is a traveling exhibit that includes 51 historic, unposed portraits, each revealing a photographic artist who used carte blanche access to such iconic rock 'n' rollers as Janis Joplin, the Doors, the Who, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles to capture their souls on film.
"The most important thing about (the work) was the intimacy of her
relationship to the people she was shooting," says Nancy Hall-Duncan,
curator of art at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut, which launched the Linda
McCartney exhibit five years ago as a millennium tribute to the 1960s.
"It's that personal, intimate, emotional basis in the photographs that
really appeals on a broad level, and it appeals to all age levels,"
Hall-Duncan says. "Not only does (the exhibit) combine McCartney's excellent
photographic skills, but it pairs them with a subject that is universally
appealing."
Music fans know McCartney best for her ties to the Beatles. Social activists recognize the woman as a staunch supporter of animal rights.
But Linda Eastman McCartney also commanded respect in the world of art and photography. In 1987, she was voted U.S. photographer of the year by the organization Women in Photography. Britain's Royal Photographic Society showcased McCartney's work three times before her death from cancer in 1998. And a photo she took of John Lennon and Paul McCartney hangs permanently in London's National Portrait Gallery.
Linda Eastman first documented the hyper-political, poignant music industry of the 1960s as house photographer for New York's Fillmore East concert hall, and then as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine.
A 1966 portrait of Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones got the attention of Beatles manager Brian Epstein. He invited Linda Eastman to photograph the Beatles during the press launch of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
"I became like a band member whose instrument was the camera," she would say.
Two years later, the photographer married Paul McCartney.
"Linda McCartney documented a very joyous aspect of the '60s," says Gabriele Abbott, the exhibit's North American tour coordinator. "And there are an amazing number of musicians in this show who are still performing. Those who didn't wipe themselves out are still going strong."
The show includes several quintessential rock portraits, along with a few personal works that point to the depth of McCartney's skill.
In Janis Joplin, McCartney discovered a fun-loving, eclectic and charming entertainer who was also the most poignant female singer of her time. Look closer at McCartney's portraits of Joplin, however, and an uneasy, uncomfortable, sad character emerges.
McCartney first photographed the Doors in New York City in 1966 before the band released an album. In Jim Morrison, she befriended a man whose passion fueled his music but also ate away at his soul. Her pictures of Morrison provide a window into the personality of a performer whose talent and sexuality allured fans worldwide, but who also struggled against insatiable angst and a touch of insanity.
"Jim was a very thoughtful person and we became very deep friends. A lot of that was due to the photography connection," McCartney wrote in the book that accompanies her exhibit, "Sixties: Portrait of an Era" (Bulfinch Press, $60).
The photographer's humanity is equally visible in her black- and-whites of the young Rolling Stones. Yes, we see their cockiness, their playfulness and their unabashed cool. But, similar to McCartney's photographs of the Beatles, she also managed to capture four guys who were coy, goofy and immature during an era when young rock 'n' roll musicians were often blindsided by instant fame and fan adoration.
Most appealing about this traveling exhibit is that the entire collection is devoid of the gloss and glam of present-day music photography. Instead of contrived personas, McCartney managed to honestly portray young musicians at the crest of their careers.
Eye on the '60s
What: "Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of an Era"
When: Today through April 10
Where: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs
Admission: $5 for adults, $3 seniors, $2 for ages 6-16, children under 5 free; free admission Saturdays; for information call 719-634-5581