Columbia Museum of Art

"Who Shot Rock & Roll" Exhibit:

The photograph: "Walter's Bar-B-Que"

This photograph is of the band R.E.M. eating at one of their favorite places, Walter's Bar-B-Que, in Athens Georgia in 1984.  Laura Levine is a good friend of the band and she was the one who shot this photo.  The band did not have enough money to pay a photographer so they asked Laura to shoot photos of them after the release of their second album. She would take photos of them everywhere and any chance their was to take a photo, she would.  The photograph is black and white, it is also a mid-sized photograph (about two standard pieces of paper put together).  The photograph is a gelatin silver print.  The gelatin silver process that was done to develop this photo.  The process was used more in the 1850's-1880's and uses black-and-white films and printing papers.  Silver salts are extracted from gelatin to make a coating that is used on a support like glass, plastic, and special printing paper.  Once the photo is developed, the excess silver salts are wiped off and then the print is washed off with clean water.  The final print looks metallic silver from the gelatin coating and must be properly taken care of to reduce the chances of deterioration. 

The photo is about the band R.E.M. enjoying a meal at one of their favorite restaurants in Atlanta, Georgia, Walter's Bar-B-Que. The band loved this restaurant so much that they wrote a song about it, "Walter's Theme". Laura Levine was traveling with the band taking photos of them and one day they decided to eat at their regular spot, Walter's BBQ, and while they were eating Laura saw a photo their and just took it without any staging.  Even though the photograph was not staged, i noticed little things like how all of the coke cups were turned the same way and that the picture was taken from behind the counter.  My favorite part about the photo is that all of the band members are eating except for one who is smiling at the camera.  The photograph reveals that not all of the members of the band were meat eaters.  The lead singer of the band, Michael Stipe,  (the only member smiling at the camera) is a vegetarian eating at a BBQ restaurant.  You do not typically see vegetarians eating at a meat restaurant, which makes part of this photo so funny.  The excerpt of the photograph did say that the lead singer does like the restaurant's cole slaw.  

All of the band members have long hair which is the style that most popular back in the day.  You do not normally see hair that long on guys their age now-a-days. Their clothing looks very casual but one of the members is wearing a jacket/blazer to a bar-b-que restaurant.  Another interesting accessory to their outfits is their glasses.  Their glass are so much bigger than the modern day glasses now.  It seems like the glasses are almost a fashion statement.  I wear glasses and I know I would never wear the glasses that they are wearing in this picture.