FutureClaw Speaks to Mick Rock

Mick Rock: The Legend Series

WORDS/INTERVIEW – BOBBY MOZUMDER, IMAGES COURTESY MICK ROCK

Photographer Mick Rock has a great new series at CATM Chelsea Gallery. The “Man Who Shot the 70’s” reaches into the archive of his own iconic photography and tinkers with them using several modern techniques. The result is a series of raw photo-art that explodes with energy while clearly stating his ownership of rock-and-roll photography genre. As there are no rock icons anymore, this series is a great reminder of a time when authentic stars once existed, and that great things had happened to the music and cultural world.

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For my sins in a former life, I’ve been forced to spend an inordinate amount of time with musicians in this life. Of course, I love them.

A camera is a wonderful ally. It requires minimal maintenance and provides entry to a world of endless imagery.

My ambition was not to be a great photographer (though that certainly would have been a worthy stance). It was a lust to embrace anything that startled or energized me.

I am not in the business of documenting or revealing personalities. I am in the business of freezing shadows and bottling auras.

Without the rock ‘n rollers, I would not have developed as an image man.

You want to shock people with a bit of mystery and beauty. That’s my favorite kind of shocking.

I’ve never felt like a voyeur, although I’ve certainly done plenty of looking!

There’s an art to looking back - how to celebrate the past without being entrapped by it. Photographs provide the great physical link.

My allegiance was always to the act. I wanted them to be happy. I wasn’t owned by a magazine or a record label.

I smell pictures more than I see them and I hear pictures more than I can smell them. It’s very habit forming.