Major new Paul Weller photo exhibition

Birmingham’s Snap Galleries is notching up some top rock photography exhibitions. Following a top quality Doors show, they’re about to host first major exhibition of Paul Weller photographs, by Lawrence Watson.

Thanks to Guy White, Gallery Director, for details:

Modern Rock ‘n’ Roll - Paul Weller - The Solo Years: The photographs of Lawrence Watson. Saturday 7 July 2007 to 8 September 2007


Lawrence Watson’s first major Paul Weller exhibition to be held in Birmingham

Snap Galleries, a gallery specialising in rock ‘n’ roll photographs, will host a major exhibition of photographs from Lawrence Watson’s renowned Paul Weller archive starting on Saturday 7 July 2007. Snap Galleries is based in a 2,000 sq ft space in Fort Dunlop, one of England’s most recognisable buildings, just outside Birmingham.

The exhibition focuses on Paul Weller’s entire sixteen year (and counting) solo career, a period photographed in its entirety by Lawrence. He first photographed Paul Weller in the last days of The Style Council, and is still photographing him today.

In January 2007 he flew to New York to shoot the three consecutive concerts Paul held play songs from The Jam, The Style Council and his solo period.

Lawrence’s photographic credits do the talking - his work appears on most of Paul Weller’s albums and singles, and his photographs documenting the first few years of Paul Weller’s solo career were published in the 1995 book ‘Days Lose Their Names And Time Slips Away’.

Perhaps Lawrence’s most instantly recognizable image is the silhouette of Paul Weller strumming his guitar in a doorway with a dappled summer scene in the background, used on the cover of 1993’s ‘Wild Wood’. The exhibition features this and a feast of other work, none of which has been exhibited before.

As a video director, Watson also made the acclaimed ‘As Is Now’ DVD documentary, which will be screened regularly throughout the exhibition.

A Thousand Things: the exhibition coincides with the publication of ‘A Thousand Things’, the forthcoming luxury limited edition book by Genesis publications, which covers Paul Weller’s career from The Jam to the present day, and features Lawrence’s photographs alongside images by many other photographers. The book will be available to purchase at the gallery throughout the exhibition.

Snap Galleries Limited, Fort Dunlop, Fort Parkway, Birmingham B24 9FD
www.snapgalleries.com; email: info@snapgalleries.com

Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10.30am-6.00pm, Saturday 11.00-5.00pm


Further background on Lawrence Watson

Lawrence Watson was 17 when he hustled a freelance job at the NME. His first commission was a portrait of a group called Southern Death Cult, who later became The Cult, and whose singer, Ian Astbury, replaced Jim Morrison when The Doors reformed.

He was soon shooting covers on a regular basis. His first was not a musician but a comedian-turned-film star - Eddie Murphy was in town to promote Beverly Hills Cop when Lawrence persuaded him to leave his hotel suite and travel to Bow Street police station, where he posed him beside a pair of London bobbies. For NME he shot, amongst others, The Smiths, David Bowie, KLF, BB King, INXS, Madness and Neneh Cherry.

He shot Lenny Kravitz in Bar Italia, Michael Jordan in his San Antonio dressing room, Snoop Doggy Dogg in a California police cell, and Bobby Womack in what looks like Berwick Street fruit-and-veg market.

More recently Lawrence worked with the artist Peter Blake to photograph the ‘Stop the Clocks’ album cover for Oasis. Lawrence had shot the cover for their album ‘Don’t Believe the Truth’, and accompanied Noel Gallagher on his warm-up gig in Moscow for the Teenager Cancer Trust concerts.

As a video director he has worked with Cast, Echo and the Bunnymen, One Dove, Ian Brown, Travis and, of course, Paul Weller.

For further background on Paul Weller: www.paulweller.com

Background on ‘A thousand things’, the forthcoming limited edition book by Genesis Publications: www.genesis-publications.com