Book 2 All - THELONDONBROIL.com - Portfolio of photographer Dan Bracaglia

Book no.2

Rock 'n' roll and photography have always shared a symbiotic relationship, from the first time Chuck Berry stepped on a stage to those early photos of the Beatles in their matching Teddy Boy suits and shaggy hair. If I mention the name Elvis, odds are you'll remember him in a photograph, whether it's the youngster with the sexy grin and towering pompadour or the aging superstar in that iconic white jumpsuit. If Lester Bangs was the voice of punk rock, photographers like Roberta Bayley and Glen E. Friedman provided its face; and what would the alternative era have been without those unforgettable images of Kurt Cobain and Green Day leering at us from the cover of Rolling Stone?

Rock 'n' roll comes to us in songs, in concerts, in the hours spent listening to our favorite albums, in long drives with your favorite deejay on the radio; in minutes, hours, or days. But in the end, it's the moments we remember, and that is what photography does. The best photographs transcend mere static images; they're treasure chests filled with emotion, movement, and memories, with our dreams and our passions, with sex and glamour or angst and pain.

The photos you are about to see fall into two categories: They look out, or they look in. They show artists doing what they do best, spreading the gospel of rock 'n' roll and connecting with an audience at the most primal level; or they reveal intimate facets of a personality that even best friends and families might not be aware of. The camera lens, in the right hands, can be as intrusive as a surgeon's scalpel. Those primitive societies that feared the advent of photography were right; in the proper hands, the lens captures not just the image, but the soul.

Prepare to be entertained, informed, and enlightened. Because here, as in the old Rod Stewart song, every picture tells a story.

Jim Testa

Weehawken, NJ

March 26, 2013