You really are stealing
a frame out of life, and saying
this is worth a thousand words…
Josh Homme, Queens Of The Stone Age
TUNE IN OR STREAM
The series premieres Friday July 16th 2021 and runs for six episodes
Prime-time slots on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS Video app.
Check local listings for details
Cinefromage & Mercury Studios proudly present ICON – Music Through The Lens, a new six-part series taking viewers on a fascinating journey through the history and cultural impact of music photography.
Featuring in-depth and often irreverent interviews with the world’s best-known music photographers, musicians, gallerists, music journalists and social commentators, ICON – Music Through The Lens is an eye-opening thrill ride through the amazing world of music photography. This series charts the fascinating lives and often crazy experiences of the men and women who have documented popular music in images, from the earliest darkrooms to the fast-evolving digital landscapes of the present day. Each hour-long episode of ICON – Music Through The Lens examines an individual facet of the genre.
Posing the question “What makes an image iconic?” the series seeks answers through the studio portraits, record sleeves, music magazines, live shows, exhibitions, social media, coffee table books and the fine art world, to end with another question: What does the future hold for music photography?
https://www.pbs.org/show/icon-music-through-lens/
SYNOPSIS
Built from passionate and often irreverent interviews with the world’s most renowned music photographers, alongside musicians, gallerists, journalists and social commentators, ICON is a six-part mercurial journey through the history and cultural impact of music photography. From the initial question of: “What makes an image iconic?”, the documentary series seeks answers by exploring studio portraits, record sleeves, magazine covers and live on-stage shots, through gallery exhibitions to coffee table books and the fine art world, finally to Instagram and social media, and ends with another question: after all this visual creativity, what does the future look like in the digital age?
ICON connects richly recounted Rock’n’roll stories and striking photographs across multiple musical genres and eras, with a rich and varied soundtrack. Presented as an informative and highly entertaining study, the six episodes fully engage with their subject and contexts. Hidden in plain sight, music photography is revealed as one of popular culture’s most visceral, enduring and popular art forms.
©Deborah Feingold
Episode One – ‘On Camera’
What makes an image iconic? Episode one introduces the central question of the series, looking at what classic images of artists such as Snoop Dog, Dylan and Madonna communicate so clearly. Through photographer’s stories exploring themes of artist interaction, technical skill, occasional luck and subsequent cultural impact, the documentary finds it necessary to go back in time to Robert Johnson as the genesis of music photography that perfectly demonstrates the power of a frozen moment in time. Highlights also include Kevin Cummins on Joy Division, Gered Mankowitz on Jimi Hendrix and Rachael Wright on Billie Eilish trying hard not to be beautiful.
Episode Two – ‘On The Road’
On stage, backstage, on the bus. From the earliest days of the music industry to the modern day; live music photographs that have capture magical, visually striking and era-defining moments. Touring stories from early trailblazers who toured with Led Zeppelin, Bowie, The Stones and The Who; mixed with tales from the punk era, CGBGs, The Clash and the SexPistols. Photographer’s long relationships with artists such as Oasis, Metallica and U2 take us up to Ed Sheeran and Katy Perry, plus special sections on the legendary Jim Marshall and the origins of the “Three Songs No Flash” rule.
Episode Three – ‘On the Record’
The photography used on record sleeves from Jazz and early Rock’n’roll is explored, to the progressive turning points of Beatles and Pink Floyd covers, through to the highly stylised concepts and imagery of Blur and Dizzee Rascal.
Themes of nostalgia, resonance and association run through stories and examples of iconic and classic album covers, featuring The Jam, Lou Reed, Thin Lizzy, Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, Joy Division and Crosby Stills and Nash.
Highlights include Lynn Goldsmith on Patti Smith’s Horses, Jonathan Mannion on Jay-Z and DMX, and Elliott Landy on Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline.
Episode Four – ‘On the Cover’
Music magazines played a pivotal role in elevating music photography to iconic status, providing a visual context for some of the world’s greatest bands and their music. From the early covers of Rolling Stone to Creem in the USA and the NME , Mojo and Q in the UK. Journalists, musicians and publicists join the music photographers who shot many of the most iconic front covers to reveal by turns the touching, scandalous or never-heard-before stories behind these images, whilst debating the importance and enduring appeal of the printed page.
Highlights include Chalkie Davies’ story of how Elton John hoped to use the NME cover to come out, The 1975 underwater, tales of Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger with a leopard and the Stone Roses with a lot of paint, to how magazines dealt with the deaths of David Bowie and Kurt Cobain.
Episode Five – ‘On the Wall’
The transition of music photography from what was considered disposable to a highly collectable and valuable art-form is examined with gallerists, publishers and art experts, and features photographers whose body of work now has global prestige and hangs on the walls of the world’s most revered institutions. Tracing the journey from the early days of low-paid assignments through to the first gallery exhibitions of music photography ultimately arriving at expensive coffee table books and individual prints now selling for six and even seven figure sums!
This episode follows the money and offers insight into what is a relatively new industry, exploring the relationship between art and commerce. Highlights include the section on Abbey Road – (the “Holy Grail of music photography”) Bruce Talamon on Miles Davis and how he got his Taschen book deal, Chris Floyd on waiting all day for the ‘real’ Paul McCartney, Jill Furmanovsky on her profile of a shy Charlie Watts, and Bob Gruen on getting a surprise call from the UK’s National Portrait Gallery.
Episode Five – ‘On the Net’
Where does music photography sit in the contemporary pop-culture landscape? The debt to the past and the seismic switch from analogue to digital is discussed in episode six alongside the rise and influence of social media. Ziggy Marley, Zara Larsson and Stefflon Don analyse their Instagram accounts, classic photographs find a new audience and polaroid makes a comeback. The series ends with a new question ; seeking to determine , through the next generation of practitioners, who is in control of the image, how will images be consumed ,and what role does music photography now have to play?
CREATORS
Icon is directed by Dick Carruthers, award winning film maker for talent such as The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Oasis, Beyoncé, Aerosmith, Paul McCartney, Julian Lennon, The Killers, Josh Groban and Black Sabbath. Teamed with series curator, Executive Producer and legendary music photographer Gered Mankowitz, and Executive Producer Andy Saunders, he guides us on an informative, highly entertaining and intimate journey through this fascinating medium, across genres and eras, weaving together stories, music, themes and thousands of stunning photographs.
Master photographer Albert Watson being interviewed in New York City by director Dick Carruthers
CONTRIBUTORS
Musicians featured include Josh Homme (Queens of The Stone Age), Ziggy Marley, Lars Ulrich, (Metallica), Brett Anderson of Suede, Alice Cooper, Craig David, Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Zara Larsson, Stefflon Don, Sharleen Spiteri, Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers), Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys), Julian Lennon and Dizzee Rascal.
ICON’S SOUNTRACK FEATURES MUSIC BY:
The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Queen, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Who, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Iggy Pop & Josh Homme, Robert Johnson, Seasick Steve, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, The Libertines, Happy Mondays, Leonard Cohen, ODB, Salt N Pepa, Slick Rick, Julian Lennon, Manic Street Preachers, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Strokes, The Band, Janis Joplin, Courtney Barnett, Plain White T’s, Zara Larsson, Mahalia & Stefflon Don.