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Since early 2007, I’ve been working with the noted photo historian Gail Buckland to create Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History. It’s hard to believe, now 2 years later, the show’s about to open on October 30th.

Pouring over hundreds of photographs,  the exhibition slowly took shape . . . the section themes emerged . . . and I started to work with different design concepts.  Should the design span the past 50 years of rock, from blue suede shoes to psychedelic to punk to grunge to today? Or should it feel like an austere Chelsea gallery . . . like a “serious” photography exhibition? Should it feel more round and analog . . . or more geometric and digital? Like drums and guitars, with wailing vocals? Like Led Zeppelin is in the room?

The final design, which you’ll see at the end of the month, is the result of thinking through many ideas of what an exhibition about music could look and feel like and how the visitor should move through the space. Next week we’ll begin hanging the works in the gallery, one-by-one . . . but in final preparation, there is one special component of the show that I’ve had a guilty pleasure assembling: the album cover chronology.

Over the Summer, I’ve rummaged through most every rock-and-roll memorabilia store in the city . . . scoured listings on ebay endlessly . . . encountered many vinyl aficionados . . . and had quite a few “a-ha” moments. And yes, we’re including all formats . . . 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs . . . . but mostly vinyl . . . hopefully you’ll have a cool walk down memory lane, just like I did.

Last week we received a query via Twitter asking how we did the lighting in the Luce Visible Storage ▪ Study Center. This was a long-term design project that lasted from 2001 until the Center opened in 2005. At the beginning of the project, I visited other Luce Centers to explore what had been done, what worked, what could be improved. One aspect that needed to be addressed was how to light artworks displayed on shelving units—much of the artwork tended to fall in shadows since they were mostly lit from the ceiling. Some tried using glass shelving to alleviate the problem.

And so, I went on a search to find a kind of light that would evenly light each shelf, that generated minimal heat, didn’t produce UV, and could be dim enough to meet conservation standards for light sensitive artworks. It was challenging! The winner was E-lite, which is an electro-luminescent film that is attached to aluminum and powered by high-voltage electricity. You might more familiarly know it from your Timex Night-Glo watch . . . same technology. In the late ’90s, Timex no longer owned the exclusive rights to the light, so E-lite was looking for ways to re-purpose their flatlite.  Once I knew I was using E-lite, my next task was to design thin shelves! Here’s how it looked before the art was installed:

Thursday afternoon, around noon, I was doing an advance press interview with Modern Painter magazine about the exhibition Who Shot Rock & Roll, which opens here at the Brooklyn Museum in October. One of the questions the writer asked me was, “What challenges do you face in designing an exhibition of rock and roll photographs for an art museum?” My immediate responses were: “Since it’s the first major exhibition about rock and roll photographs in America, we are including an encyclopedic 175 works and the challenge will be how I can install so many works, and still give each one its own space.” . . . as well as, “It’s not often that I’m installing images such as Johnny Cash giving the finger, and an equally provocative image of Courtney Love, and how do you present these works, which overtly say rock and roll, but might offensive to some museum patrons?”

Michael Jackson, 1999. (printed 2000). Photograph by Albert Watson.

Well today, it’s a different world in Rock and Roll.  Michael Jackson died.  We have a huge 8′ x 6′ portrait of Michael Jackson in the show, by the world renown photographer Albert Watson. Before, my mind was on “Where should we put the 8 photographs of Elvis from 1956?” . . . and “Where can we fit the 6 panel lenticular photograph of Jimi Hendricks?” Today. . . my thought is, “In what special place can we put our great American artist Michael Jackson?”

In the last several days, I’ve had dozens of conversations about Michael and his music and dancing. It seems everyone has a story of where they were and what happened when they were listening to his songs. A similar thing happened late in 2007, when Michael Jackson came to the Brooklyn Museum for an Ebony magazine photo shoot to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Thriller. I’ve never seen such giddy, smiley people before . . . all wondering if they were going to catch a glimpse of Michael . . . and all saying how much they just LOVED THRILLER!

What’s your story?

You’ve been walking around a museum for several hours looking at hundreds of artworks, and want to take a break and sit for a minute. . . . whether to chat with a friend, rest your feet, or to spend a few minutes gazing at a particularly interesting artwork . . . but, alas, can’t find a seat. And so you walk some more, ask a guard, and you might find the odd chair or bench. At the Brooklyn Museum, we have been especially sensitive to this situation, as there are over 250,000 square feet of exhibition space to walk through. Over the years, as we’ve developed new permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as public spaces, we have included seating as an important element in the design plan.

There can be many different approaches to Museum seating. In our American Identities galleries, we created four seating islands, which consist of a carpeted area with chairs and reading tables. In our new contemporary galleries, we have incorporated commercial furniture: Kartell’s “Plastics” line of modular seating. And at other times we have created custom seating, such as the benches in our Egypt Reborn galleries, which have Egyptian revival stylings.

Our most recent response to the public’s need for seating, can be found in the Museum’s first floor Rubin Pavilion. After a lengthy process of experimentation, I arrived at a design that blended both geometrically and materially with the Polshek designed lobby, which had opened in 2004. Using solid white ash, clear stain infused with aluminum powder, and textured and waxed aluminum i-beams, the benches were expertly built and finished by the Museum’s carpentry and paint departments.

Photo by Naoko’s Stoop via Flickr. All Rights Reserved.

Like a lot of custom furniture, these benches are built to last, very durable and will be enjoyed by Museum visitors for many, many years.

On October 23, 2009, we’re launching a major exhibition, Who Shot Rock: Photographers of Rock and Roll.

Who Shot Rock will be guest curated by the distinguished photography historian Gail Buckland, who began her career in the early 1970s collaborating on a book with Cecil Beaton (The Magic Image: The Genius of Photography). I will design the exhibition and be the liaison between the Museum and Gail, and report here on the progress we make. As the exhibition is about 18 months away, I thought it would be a good time to give you a brief preview of how far along we are.

Gail has been researching the exhibition since 2006 and has met with over 100 rock and roll photographers to review their work. Often, she has been able to identify vintage prints from their personal archives during these visits. And so this exhibition will provide an opportunity for museum visitors to see these original prints as well as learn the names of the photographers who shot some of the world’s most iconic images. For example, Jimi Hendrix with his burning guitar at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, photographed by Ed Carraeff. There will 175 works in the exhibition and we are just beginning to clear image rights, so you’ll have to wait for a preview of these great works nearer to the end of the Summer.

The exhibition will cover the rock and roll era from the 1950s to the present and will be organized in 6 sections with the following working titles: Behind the Scenes; Live Performances; Crowds and Fans; Portraits; Young Artists; Conceptual Images & Album Covers. Together these will represent the varied approaches to rock and roll photography . . . which is as varied as the artists themselves. Though not a compendium of everyone in the history of rock, the exhibition will include Ike Turner, Little Richard, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, Tina Turner, and Amy Winehouse. And of equal note, the photographers William “Popsie” Randolph, Barry Feinstein, Mick Rock, Richard Avedon, David Gahr, Pennie Smith, Jean-Paul Goude, Henry Diltz, and Max Vandukul.

A final checklist is near, and we are about to send out loan forms. Gail will be writing the book through the Summer. Once the loan forms have returned by Summer’s end, the design of the exhibition will begin.