Rock ‘n’ roll is a visual medium. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a musician might also be interested in photography. Such is the case with 1960s icon Graham Nash. Best known as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash (“Our House,” “Chicago”) and earlier, The Hollies (“Bus Stop,” “Carrie Ann”), Nash isn’t your typical shutterbug. His photos capture situations from a unique perspective, giving photos of his close friends, such as David Crosby, a surreal edge. Completely immersed in the photographic arts, he and his company, Nash Editions, are pioneers in digital art printing, winning the prestigious Visionary Award from the Digital Imaging Marketing Association in March 2007.
An exhibition of Nash’s photographs will open at The Morrison Hotel Gallery on Saturday, Aug. 25. Forty images from his 2004 book, “Eye to Eye,” due to be reissued as a soft cover edition this fall, will be on display. The exhibit focuses on his celebrity imagery, including portraits of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Neil Young and Dennis Hopper. Surprisingly, Nash doesn’t pick out the photos for his exhibitions.
“I’ve never been presumptuous enough to tell (gallery owners) what to do,” he said. “It’s interesting to see which images they choose. I learn which pictures work next to each other and which don’t.”
He declines to name a favorite image in the collection.
“That’s like asking if I have a favorite child,” he joked.
The randomness in the selection of images on the walls of The Morrison Hotel Gallery is an aesthetic present in Nash’s photography.
“I never set anything up,” he said. “All the images I take are pure images. It’s capturing surreal moments or moments where my friends look particularly good. Who knows what the images are, but I can’t stop (taking them).”
Nash got his love of the camera from his father.
“When I was 10, 12, I’d take photographs of things like my two sisters, the holiday camp that my family went to and zoo animals,” Nash recalled. “I’ve never lost that feeling of magic that I had when I first started taking photos.”
By age 13, however, other interests had taken hold of the budding musician.
“I got bitten by the rock ‘n’ roll bug, I’m afraid,” he said. “I concentrated solely on my music for the next ten or 15 years.”
He wouldn’t pick up a camera gain until 1968, but he did so with a vengeance, documenting his surroundings and friends and collecting imagery of earlier photographers. He considers his work with a camera as vital a way of communication as his songs.
“It’s just is a very natural thing to me,” he stated. “I’m expressing myself and my opinion constantly in my life. Whether it’s through music or collecting or sculpting or taking photographs, I’m just shooting off my mouth.”
Nash auctioned off his collection of others’ work in 1989, using the funds to start up Nash Editions. He knew the timing to let them go was right.
“I wanted to learn what the photographs had to teach me,” he explained. “That’s the only reason I got them. When I had learned as much as I could from them I sold the majority.”
He began exhibiting his own work the same week as the sale.
“I’d been so busy with music that I’d never (exhibited) my images. Basically it was Joni Mitchell that said, ‘These are fine images, share them,” he recalled.
It’s no coincidence that the photos on display as well as the re-issue of “Eye to Eye” are in black and white.
“It’s because I see in color, I don’t see in black and white,” Nash said. “That’s much more mysterious to me, and for some reason, it’s much more real to me.”
That said, Nash is already working on a follow-up volume, with color images.
After decades behind a camera lens, Nash still finds photography as exciting as when he was a child.
“Images have the power to move your spirit, to move your heart and move your brain,” he remarked. “That’s the advantage of a great image. It appeals on lots of levels.”
The Morrison Hotel Gallery, 1230 Prospect St., will host a reception for “Eye to Eye: Photographs by Graham Nash” on Saturday, Aug. 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. For information, call (858) 551-0835 or visit www.morrisonhotelgallery.com.