ICON STATUS

Without photography, would Elvis and his gyrating hips have shocked America? Can you talk about Grace Jones without thinking of the Island Life cover? The photographers who collaborated with rock ‘n’ roll musicians injected the genre with glamour, grit, and sex appeal, and even today, one photograph has the power to catapult a musician to stardom. The Brooklyn Museum is now curating the first major museum exhibition devoted exclusively to rock photography: Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present, opens today, featuring 175 works from 105 photographers. The massive collection covers a range of media, from album covers to slideshows to music videos—don’t miss your chance to check out some rare and never-before-seen images, like a Rolling Stones photograph by Philip Townsend or four Beatles portraits by Richard Avedon. See history in the making.

Oct. 30-Jan. 31, 2009