There is only one good thing about Pittsburgh: you know you wanna get out of there - Lou Reed
December 18, 2005 4:16 PM   Subscribe

Lou Reed : Photographer
posted by Lanark (47 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Previously The Lou Reed Guitar Archive
posted by Lanark at 4:17 PM on December 18, 2005


What's with the gratuitous Pittsburgh bashing in the title? I know that its a quote from a song about Warhol but it has nothing to do with these pictures.
posted by octothorpe at 4:28 PM on December 18, 2005


A lot of this photography reminds me of the stuff i took on the first day I bought my digital camera. Basically I took photographs of everything and anything, with little consideration for light balance, composition, etc... I didn't get labelled a photographer in any authoritative sense as i feel is being implied here, but I guess since Lou Reed's a Celebrity, he gets to be.
posted by wumpus at 4:29 PM on December 18, 2005


I mean, i'm not bashing the guy; I love Lou Reed. I guess i'm just envious...
posted by wumpus at 4:31 PM on December 18, 2005


Lou Reed : Don't give up the day job.
posted by fire&wings at 4:41 PM on December 18, 2005


I do think theres something to the pictures, but I agree the most interesting part is the artist. Lou has in the past described his photography as 'peripheral' - yes the post title was a bit random - sorry.
posted by Lanark at 4:45 PM on December 18, 2005


These are terrible. But if I was Lou Reed, I'd sure as hell try to sell my photos too. I'd get a shitpile more money for them than if I wasn't Lou Reed.
posted by nylon at 4:47 PM on December 18, 2005


How does someone who once had so much to offer settle for lazy CHING CHING like this? Very sad.
posted by fire&wings at 4:52 PM on December 18, 2005


photography is the new rock and roll.
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:55 PM on December 18, 2005


Wumpus is right - I remember when I discovered that leaving the shutter open creates cool blurring effects...but maybe Lou is actually super-sophisticated and has taught himself to return to a 'naive' state to not mock 'outsider artists' but to deeply understand the mindset of the artist who works 'without being mindful of others'.
posted by jettloe at 4:56 PM on December 18, 2005


fire&Wings-

MetaFilter: Don't give up the day job.
posted by JMOZ at 4:57 PM on December 18, 2005




Untitled, by Lou Reed.

One time in college I broke a wine glass in my kitchen, so I set it on one of our end tables with a little printed tag that said
"Zeitgeist / rkent, 2000 / Mixed media."

Just wanted to throw that out there.
posted by rkent at 5:00 PM on December 18, 2005


Yeah, these aren't pictures of Pittsburgh. It's not hard to bash on the city (much harder to appreciate it) but at least it has its photogenic moments.
posted by allen.spaulding at 5:01 PM on December 18, 2005


Just because you're famous doesn't mean that everything you do is good.
posted by interrobang at 5:07 PM on December 18, 2005


...or even worthy of attention, for that matter.
posted by interrobang at 5:08 PM on December 18, 2005


From Lou Reed.org
Legendary musician Lou Reed will show his photographs for the first time, in two simultaneous exhibitions at The Gallery at Hermès and Steven Kasher Gallery. Lou Reed’s exhibitions, titled “New York,” feature over 50 photographs of the city that has been the fulcrum of Reed’s creative world for decades. Reed has created a symphony of light and color. These deeply personal pictures, many shot from Reed’s own apartment windows, include the play of light as the sun sets over the Hudson River and a selection of idiosyncratic self-portraits.
posted by Lanark at 5:09 PM on December 18, 2005


Seriously, do any of these photos say "Lou Reed" to you? They're extremely generic digital photographs. If I'm going to bother with people working outside their usual medium, I'd like to see some of the artist in the work.
posted by interrobang at 5:14 PM on December 18, 2005


Legendary unemployed photographer Jim Smith will show his photographs for the first time, in two simultaneous exhibitions at The Gallery at Hermès and Steven Kasher Gallery. Jim Smith's exhibitions, titled “New York,” feature over 50 photographs of the city that has been the fulcrum of Smith’s creative world for decades. Smith has created a symphony of light and color. These deeply personal pictures, many shot from Smith's own apartment windows, include the play of light as the sun sets over the Hudson River and a selection of idiosyncratic self-portraits.

Art has to be good without the desperately provided context.
posted by fire&wings at 5:22 PM on December 18, 2005


Lou Reed: digital camera owner.
posted by tomharpel at 5:25 PM on December 18, 2005 [1 favorite]


tomharpel wins.
posted by spicynuts at 5:35 PM on December 18, 2005


Oh and by the way, I guess "Digital Pigment Print" is now art gallery lingo for "I printed it out at home right off my computer".
posted by spicynuts at 5:36 PM on December 18, 2005


2 out 10. Must try harder.
posted by marvin at 5:42 PM on December 18, 2005


Lou's views
posted by hortense at 5:59 PM on December 18, 2005


Damn. These are as bad as his voice!
posted by eperker at 6:02 PM on December 18, 2005


Pittsburgh ... has its photogenic moments.

Moments indeed, I spent 20 years there and never saw that clear of a day. Not that its all smoky or anything, but that's not the what the North Hills normally look like.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:16 PM on December 18, 2005


So, I'm on our annual group camping and tubing trip, a bunch of late-30-somethings hanging out and getting drunk. As we drifted down the river, I got to know Mike, who proceeded to tell the story of meeting (I thought he said) Loni Anderson. I was really surprised that she had become a well-regarded performance artist. I was really surprised that she’d been married to Lou Reed for quite a while. “Wow!” I thought, “that’s quite a change from Burt Reynolds. Loni Anderson has gone through quite the renaissance.”

What’s that? Laurie Anderson?

Oh.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:52 PM on December 18, 2005


Wait. This isn't the website of an artist. It doesn't have flash-only navigation!
posted by jepler at 7:13 PM on December 18, 2005


Lou Reed's a jackass. He's grotesquely churlish in interviews with people who have a sincere interest in him, in a totally bullshit "I am the artist and you are my unworthy exploiter!" kind of way. I mean some guy with roughly .00001 of his reknown, wealth, and fandom goes in there just wanting to talk to him, and his whole attitude is a giant sneer -- which doesn't stop him from lapping up opportunities for publicity like a kitten at the milk carton, no way. I just want to say hey Lou Reed, if it hurts so much to have people want to interview you, why don't you just say no instead of abusing whoever the poor bastard is who is (generally worshipfully, humbly) trying to get your Great Thoughts on paper?

And now this -- good gravy. Take a few pictures of your cats, why don't you Lou Reed, and maybe that guy sitting on his stoop who has so much life experience etched into his kindly worn face, and then one of you in the mirror looking sad. And make sure they are all blurry because blurry = awesome uncertainty in the face of all the world's awesome wonder. Jackass!
posted by melissa may at 7:32 PM on December 18, 2005


Don't give up!!!
posted by kiha1972 at 7:37 PM on December 18, 2005


Lou Reed: Not really interesting ever since he gave up heroin.
posted by illovich at 8:04 PM on December 18, 2005


The 'Peripheral' of the Web.
posted by scheptech at 9:35 PM on December 18, 2005


Sucks.
posted by ParisParamus at 9:54 PM on December 18, 2005


These photos are right up there with Metal Machine Music.
posted by bravada at 10:39 PM on December 18, 2005


fire&wings: O, RLY?

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Some art doesn't grab me until/unless I've heard the "back story," and as an unschooled observer that doesn't bother me. I can in good faith apply the same logic to music (with which I'm a lot more familiar), but I'm willing to appreciate the process music of the late twentieth century (nothing without its context) much more than the prog rock (also imbued with a story, I guess) of the same period. This contradiction doesn't bother me, so I guess I'm cool with taste failing the test of internal consistency.
[/blog-filter]
posted by electric_counterpoint at 11:22 PM on December 18, 2005


These photos are right up there with Metal Machine Music.

Hey now, no need to drag the man's music into this. I've always thought that Lou Reed was pretty much an asshole (melmay's link really affrims that) and his photography isn't anything special, but Metal Machine Music is awesome, as is a lot of the stuff he has done.
posted by panoptican at 11:58 PM on December 18, 2005


I like this one. The rest are nice, like if I saw them on flickr I'd take a second look. Or if I was fooling around with my camera I'd keep a few. But they aren't "Sweet Jane" nice.

I don't know what's worse: a) Lou Reed shitting out a bunch of snapshots and cynically putting them in a gallery show for quick cash/ego stroking, or b) Lou Reed deciding to branch out into a new medium, and then _really_ trying, spending months and months and going through thousands of images to develop significant body of work, and coming up with this.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:02 AM on December 19, 2005


Oops! I mean I like this one.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:04 AM on December 19, 2005


Don't be hating on Metal Machine Music. That's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
posted by stinkycheese at 1:13 AM on December 19, 2005


Oh and by the way, I guess "Digital Pigment Print" is now art gallery lingo for "I printed it out at home right off my computer". - posted by spicynutsYep, likely inkjet prints. Hopefully they at least used a good 7 color setup instead of Lou at home with his new HP photo printer.

Reminds me about how much I hate Giclees.
posted by The Cardinal at 2:15 AM on December 19, 2005


reminds me of helena christensen's cell phone cam pics exhibition
posted by mr.marx at 2:43 AM on December 19, 2005


Christensen's are marginally better, mr. marx -- I remember some vaguely interesting India b/w images by her, many years ago, in NYLON magazine I guess. I remember seeing some of Reed's images a couple years ago in a magazine, they were better the ones in the main link.
not that that's saying much
posted by matteo at 5:07 AM on December 19, 2005


I was hoping for portraits of underground New Yorkers -- people that Lou would have access to, and I wouldn't. That might make it significant that it's Lou Reed instead of, say, Shelley Powers.

These look a lot like stuff that i shoot. But then, I'm not Lou Reed. I'm not even Lou Diamond Phillips. (Or Harry Reid.)
posted by lodurr at 7:50 AM on December 19, 2005


How did you guess? Lou recently switched from shooting film (Leica/Contax) to a digital Olympus E1
{Try to avoid the obvious snark about getting tripod to go with it.}
posted by Lanark at 10:54 AM on December 19, 2005


I like the UFO in that one shot. He should shoot more of those.
posted by rottytooth at 2:03 PM on December 19, 2005


Here's the pictures from his first book
posted by Lanark at 2:38 PM on December 19, 2005


From the writeup of "Emotions in Actions" book from Lanark's link above:

"Lou is collecting every lens available for his new Olympus E1- the first digital camera built to be digital from the ground up. He has waited two years for this having been a major fan of the E10. Only this could satisfy the fan of the Carl Zeiss lens and Contax film cameras. Most of the photos in Emotions in Action were taken using Contax or Leica cameras."

So is Lou sponsored by Olympus or something now?
posted by splatta at 2:42 PM on December 19, 2005


Dude, whatever, Metal Machine Music is awesome.
posted by Jeff_Larson at 2:52 PM on December 19, 2005


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